Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Animal Wednesday - Oscar

I went in to work for only two hours today before deciding I was still really too sick to be at work....again. Yesterday I did 6 hours before giving up. I hate year end - there is so much to do and much of it is my responsibility. If I'm not there we miss deadlines. The worst that can happen is 2011 expenses get captured in 2012....doesn't seem like a big deal, does it? But to the bean counters in city hall, it's a big deal.

I came home, watched a movie - Stranger Than Fiction starring Will Ferrill. I'm not usually a big fan of his - he's usually too raunchy and stupid for me, but in this movie I really like him. In fact, I think it's the ONLY Will Ferrill movie that I do like. Then our electricity went out. It's gone off and on several times. At this moment half the house has power and the other half doesn't. I've got the electric company coming to check it out.
In the meantime (since I couldn't watch TV or a movie) I decided to do some sketching and drew this corgi named Oscar for a friend at work. I need to get another close up look at him to know where his markings are - I've got a few dog books that I used for reference but I want to be sure of where his red and white coat starts and ends. I plan to use watercolor to finish him up.

Do any of you use masking fluid in your watercolors? I've bought a few different types. I thought they'd be useful for saving whites when doing snowy scenes but so far I have more trouble with them and have thrown the bottles away. My most recent purchase was Masquepen by Cruddas Innovations in the UK....it keeps clogging up in the "fine point applicator". Another I have purchased is Liquid Frisket by Grafix in USA. It's all clumpy and yellow. Do you have a recommendation? Something that's worked for you?

5 comments:

A Lady's Life said...

love the sketch
But have no knowledge about water colors.

Cris, Artist in Oregon said...

This is goign to be wonderful when done. bummer about being sick still. Lynn..Getting my feet wet.. took a lesson and was shown how to use that masking stuff. You might go to her blog and ask her. Or Laure in Florida would know. http://paintedthoughtsblog.blogspot.com/

marianne said...

Lovely sketch Patty!
I am curious about this masking fluid.......
I have no idea but would love to know more so please keep us posted :)
HAW♥

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I hope you are feeling better by now Patty. I use Winsor & Newton Colourless Art Masking Fluid. You put it where you want to save your whites and let it dry. You do your painting and then peel off the masking with a rubber square thingy. Then you can blend your whites, soften the edges etc if need be. I have tried the pen thing and it does clog up and isn't worth the irritation. I use a plastic toothpick for small applications. A brush dedicated to this use for larger ones. Good luck. Your sketch looks perfect.

Lynn Cohen said...

I do have that bottle I got at the thrift store, it worked well enough for bricks on a few houses I drew...but it's messy and does not apply smoothly using a stick /chopstick. That's what I used. Let me know if you find something that actually is easy to use. My art teacher had us mask off things using tape. That's good if you have nice straight lines like tree branches. Harder for larger space fill ins but doable.