“Moose” The Dog- Watercolor tip: Masking

This is Moose, my friends dog.  One day my friend asked if I could paint her a picture of her dog like a painting she had seen at The Pioneer Woman’s blog.   I haven’t painted for a long time, but I love watercolors.  The painting she liked was a watercolor so I thought I could take a stab at it.  I haven’t painted for two years.  I remember the last time I tried; I strapped my 3 month old (at the time) in the baby bjorn to my chest and attempted to paint.  A few drool drops later and I had to stop.  I was in heaven yesterday painting this, it felt so good to be painting again.  I am glad my friend gave me the challenge to put paint on paper again.

But, enough about that.  Here are a few tips to help you with your watercolors.

Use the white of the paper-not white paint.  It looks so much better.  To help with this some times, I use something called “art masking fluid”.  It is kind of like rubber cement, you can peel it off the paper after you are done painting.  It seals the paper so that paint doesn’t get in places you need to stay white.

Here my other tip-  Look at artists paintings that you like to get ideas and try different techniques.  Don’t be scared!  Just keep painting.  And paint the same thing twice if you have too, I do all the time.

You can see here how I used it.  I sketched out the dog just a little, the put the masking fluid on where the fur is white and in the eyes.

Charlie who once drooled on my painting is now becoming quite the little artist too.  Maybe the drool was the start of it 😉

Get Crafty with Your Bad Self!