An Alternative to Masking Fluid?

Running watercolour workshops on board a cruise ship often requires a fair amount of compromise. Space and time is always limited, and despite the mountains of art materials I take on board the Marco Polo, there are always, inevitably, the odd few things that I miss. I will be running a ‘Bluebell Wood’ workshop in a few days time, yet we will have to compromise on colours; I limit the palette to make things easier, and will work with combinations of colours mixed from Prussian Blue, French Ultramarine and Alizarin Crimson. To do the job properly, however, I would really need Cobalt Blue and Cobalt Violet – my two preferred colours for bluebells.

Another compromise is that I don’t take any masking fluid on tour with me. The reason for this is simple; if we should spill a bottle of masking fluid into the ship’s carpet, I’m pretty certain it wouldn’t go down too well, and I’m not sure who would have to pick up the tab for the cleaning. So, although I may talk about masking fluid during the course of the workshops, we never actually use the stuff.

A few classes ago, however, I spotted one of the passengers doing a curious thing. He was blocking in shapes with his pencil. When I asked him why he was doing that, he explained that he was using it like masking fluid. This took me aback slightly, and I have to confess that in all the years that I’ve been painting (that’ll be just over thirty, then), I’ve never come across this, although I suspect the idea has lurked at the back of my mind on occasion.. I’m wondering if I’ve just been blinkered to the notion, and maybe everyone else has known about the technique but me… but there it was… despite being slightly skeptical, I just had to try it myself.

I have to start by saying that it isn’t a perfect alternative, but it does work… of a fashion. Try it yourself, and see what you think (and let me know how you get on). Block out some shapes with a 2B pencil or softer, as you would with masking fluid, apply a dark wash over them, dry it off and remove the pencil with an eraser. I was surprised to discover that it actually works. The resulting highlights weren’t quite as clean as if I’d used masking fluid, but they were definitely there.

I’m not convinced that it could ever replace masking fluid entirely, but it could, perhaps, be a plan-B; a ‘fix’ in compromising circumstances. Unless you completely block-in the shape you wish to mask, the watercolour does have a tendency to permeate through to the paper anyway, and there are other issues… Some pigments have a tendency to ‘lock-in’ pencil marks; you may have noticed this occasionally, when you’ve come to try and erase pencil, only to discover that it won’t budge.

This isn”t a technique I’m going to be taking up on a regular basis anytime soon; I’m much happier creating my highlights through negative painting. I do feel like I’m an old dog that’s just been taught a new trick, though…