It looked okay......but.....

As I indicated in my previous post, I have turned my interest to learning Pen & Ink and Watercolour techniques.
So.....what about this title? Well, I will explain.....and show you. I wanted to try using a masking fluid to block out my main image so that I could easily create an interesting background. I had this bottle of masking fluid (Frisket)...it has been sitting on my shelf for a very long time.......it looked okay,  but evidently, it was not.

I first inked my subject, then brushed a layer of masking fluid across the areas I wanted to be left without paint.  The fluid went on nice and even.....acted exactly as I expected.

It was only after I painted the background that I discovered that I had a problem.

Instead of coming off easily, the Frisket was extremely difficult to remove, the more I tried, the "gooey-er" it became and if that wasn't bad enough, it was also lifting the ink.  ah ....but I had already spent a good deal of time on this, so, I was not giving up just yet.

I found the solution was to use my hair dryer, by warming that (now blackened) goo, I finally got it all off. 

BUT now my inked image had lost much of its ink and was being lost under the watercolour, so I went over it with fresh ink afterward. 

 You know the saying......Learn by your mistakes?  Okay, so, lesson learned, I later found out that apparently masking fluid only has a shelf life of about 1 year..... my bottle was nearly a decade old.

while I was at the art supply store (purchasing a new bottle of masking fluid), I decided to treat myself to some tubes of watercolour as well as a fresh new palette.

I placed colour in each of the wells of my new palette and then created a guide for myself. This guide will act as a quick reference for the not only the colour, but also the name and number for each....( I think I will include the brand and maybe date purchased as well)

In this detail photo, you can see that the concentrated dry paint in the wells look substantially different from the actual colour they produce.

I am currently trying to decide if I should start a new blog dedicated to my newest interest, or simply continue posting here.

A Different Direction

This post is not about quilting.....but rather about, not quilting.  Lately I have not had any desire to make anything with textiles, it seems that I have perhaps become a bit bored. I am not currently working on any pieces, I have no plans to enter any challenges or competitions....I simply seemed to have lost interest.

So, I have decided to learn something new. I have always been able to draw (sort of) but never explored much beyond plain pencil or a black marker.  I am intrigued by drawings where the medium is Pen & Ink with watercolour, I love the illustrative nature of it. I enrolled in this excellent online class through Craftsy, purchased a dip pen, nibs, black waterproof ink, proper paper, a pan of watercolour cakes and dove in.

I debated sharing my early work, but what the heck.....I am well aware that there are problems with each of them...BUT..... at the same time, I do believe that there is something successful happening with each piece as well......I realize that I am still rather heavy handed with the watercolour washes and really, REALLY need to work on that....practice....practice....practice

I am working from my own photos and thoroughly enjoying the process, here is a look at what I have done so far.

ink only

after the addition of watercolour

ink drawing

after the washes were added

forgot to scan the ink only version of this before adding the washes

inked

the finished drawing/painting