You can make your watercolor paintings really sparkle by leaving some clean, unpainted paper somewhere in your composition. In this video, I demonstrate some options for masking areas that you want to protect, so you don’t lose those precious white areas, and so you can safely work wet-on-wet near another area that is more finished. Here's a quick rundown...

Masking fluid, or liquid frisket, is okay for covering smaller areas having round, irregular shapes, but it has a short shelf life, and I usually find drafting tape works better for masking larger areas and straight edges and gentle curves. I also use drafting tape to mask the outside edges of a painting before I start, so it has a crisp, clean border when I’m finished. For masking large areas, I cut card stock slightly smaller than the area to be covered and tape the edges down with drafting tape. It’s important to carefully press the tape down where it overlaps other tape to close any air gaps that might allow leakage.

Because many of my watercolors have dark backgrounds, and because those dark areas are best painted last to prevent the dark paint bleeding into lighter work, I usually mask the entire foreground before painting a dark background with large brushes.

Some brands of tape work better than others, and sometimes the quality will change even in a brand you’ve used before, so it’s important to test each new tape roll on the same paper you will be painting on.

One of my favorite moments in the whole watercolor process is when I peel off the masking and see how the painting has changed… It looks like a magic trick every time!

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