{"id":330,"date":"2013-11-01T14:52:00","date_gmt":"2013-11-01T14:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/?p=330"},"modified":"2022-01-29T14:52:54","modified_gmt":"2022-01-29T14:52:54","slug":"more-masking-fluid-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/2013\/11\/01\/more-masking-fluid-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>More Masking Fluid Tips<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"174\" height=\"373\" src=\"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/201311.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-331\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/201311.jpg 174w, https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/201311-140x300.jpg 140w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 174px) 100vw, 174px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m not a huge fan of Masking Fluid; it&#8217;s something that has to be applied quite early on in a painting, and needs a fair bit of pre-planning. For me, that can take some of the sponaneity away from the painting process. Having said that, there are times when it is absolutely invaluable, when the area that needs protecting is too complex to paint negatively, for instance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are lots of different makes of masking medium, some clear, some yellow, some blue (my favourite), and some with applicators (my least favourite). It varies quite a bit in thickness, too; some masking fluid is quite thick and gloopy (Rowney, I&#8217;m looking at you here), whilst others are very thin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a general rule, it&#8217;s a good idea to apply your masking fluid as thinly as possible. The thicker it is, the harder it is to paint really fine lines, and the harder it can be to remove; really thickly-applied masking fluid just sort of takes root, and can, rather cruelly, strip the surface off the paper when the time comes to peel it off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One way I&#8217;ve always checked whether a bottle of fluid is useable is to shake it and listen to the sound it makes. I&#8217;ve only recently discovered, however, that this isn&#8217;t a good idea at all, since the very act of shaking it up can encourage it to coagulate and become lumpy&#8230; best knock that one on the head then&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If it <strong>is<\/strong> thick and gloopy, though, can it be thinned out? Well, yes; believe it or not, despite it being, essentially, a rubber solution, it <strong>can<\/strong> actually be thinned down with water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It goes without saying that masking fluid isn&#8217;t kind to brushes. I prefer to use a rubber-ended <strong>color shaper<\/strong> to apply it with, which can easily be wiped clean after the process has been completed. If you really must use one of your better brushes, though, it can be protected first by coating it in neat washing-up liquid, or running the hairs along a bar of soap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not a huge fan of Masking Fluid; it&#8217;s something that has to be applied quite early on in a painting, and needs a fair bit of pre-planning. For me, that can take some of the sponaneity away from the painting process. Having said that, there are times when it is absolutely invaluable, when the area that needs protecting is&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-techniques","category-watercolour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":332,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330\/revisions\/332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/artstuff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}