Painting with masking fluid Painting

SIÂN DUDLEY shows why we should stop treating masking fluid as a purely protective measure and start seeing it as a medium that offers the freedom to be more expressive

- SIAN DUDLEY

Siân's materials

•Paints

Lemon Yellow, Gamboge Hue, Permanent Rose and Sap Green, all Daler-Rowney Artists’ Watercolours; Cobalt Blue and French Ultramarine, both Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolours

•Brushes Rosemary and Co. Series 33 round, size 10; Da Vinci Series 35 round, size 4

•Paper 300gsm watercolour paper

•Masking fluid

•Ruling pen

•Colour shaper, size 2

1 Mask your drawing

Masking fluid is often used to simply prevent the paint from reaching a section of the paper, whereas I believe it should be firmly seen as a medium that can be expressive in its own right.

I began by drawing up the main flowers, but only marked roughly where the grasses would go. I wanted to retain the white paper for the daisies and clover later, so I painted them with masking fluid.

I placed a small drop of masking fluid on each petal with the colour shaper and then used the tip to pull it across the area to be preserved. I took care to manipulate the fluid from the top of the meniscus and not allow the colour shaper to touch the paper.

2 Lay down colour