Keeping the White of Your Paper with Frisket and Tape March 12, 2001
For a lot of reasons we’d like to keep the white of our paper while painting. Maybe the area is a vine with leaves which is too small to paint around without leaving water marks. It could be a white lighthouse, or the tiny sliver of white which makes a cow’s horn look shiny. There are some tricks which make this masking easier and more effective. We will list here some of the ones we have learned along the way. If you have others or you have a question, email us at: rl2atercolor@aol.com.
Frisket is applied with a hundred different instruments. We use a palette knife, a stylus and a special brush. The brush is a fabric brush. We use it to spritz frisket for the tiny white spots in sand or snow. If you are interested in this technique, email us. The stylus we use for the fine lines of our signature, wire, lines on a boat, the catch light in eyes and a multitude of other purposes. The palette knife we use is small, diamond shaped and stiff. We “spoon” frisket on for large areas and turn the knife on it’s edge to make the finest line. A little practice will make this your favorite tool for applying frisket as well as for creating texture on rocks and tree bark.
Remember to never shake frisket, this makes it form bubbles which break when you are painting and allow paint to go through onto your paper. We use the “White Mask” brand because it contains no color and is economical. When we want color in it, we add raw sienna just to the portion we will use. Pouring it back in the bottle doesn’t color it much. We also use professional grade masking tape to mask with. We either use it straight, cut it into strips with a single edge blade, or draw on it and cut out shapes with a retractable Xacto knife (Gulls, etc.). When it is cut to 1/4” width masking tape can be applied in a curve.
We have just printed our “Watercolor Product Price List.” Six pages in full color. Send us your snail mail address and we’ll mail you a copy along with our 2001 workshop schedule.
If you have questions email us at rlwatercolor71@aol.com.
Enjoy painting!
Robert and Sharon
Robert Long Watercolors
12273 Emerald Coast Parkway, Unit 120 • Destin, FL 32550
Phone (850) 837-3220 • Fax (850) 837-3770
E-mail us: rlwatercolor71@aol.com
http://www.robertlongwatercolors.com