Using Masking Fluid with Watercolors

December 10, 2015December 10, 2015 ElaineCalligraphy

Owl Ink | Using Masking Fluid with Watercolors

Every few months, my friend Claire and I get together to create art! We are still pretty new to watercolors, and try to improve via tutorials on Youtube and Pinterest. Recently, she picked up a bottle of masking fluid at our local art store. I had never used it before, so I was fascinated when she showed me how it works!

In this post, I’ll share my first art piece made with masking fluid. I’ve concluded that it’s pretty magical, and I will definitely buy a bottle for myself.

Masking fluid, sometimes called “liquid frisquet” or “drawing gum”, is a thick, opaque liquid that dries into a gummy, removable film (the closest thing I can compare it to is watered-down glue or mod podge). It is water-repellent, acting as a mask to preserve white space on your paper or canvas.

Because it’s quick-drying and very sticky when dry, I’ve heard that you should only use it with a paintbrush that you don’t care too much about.

We decided to do hand-lettered quotes on top of a colorful, floral background. I chose this quote by Monet: “I must have flowers, always and always”. After lightly sketching out the quotes in pencil, we went over them with masking fluid. I learned that dipping frequently is the key to getting consistent coverage.

Once the masking fluid is dry, it becomes a bluish-gray color and is very water-repellent. You can see here that the watercolor ink just beads on top of it!

Here, I am adding more flowers to the piece.

It’s important to make sure each of the lettered words is surrounded by color, so that the white text will be visible. I had to go over the piece multiple times to make sure the colors were dark enough to contrast the white letters.

Now, here comes the fun part! After the watercolor florals were completely dry, we began peeling off the masking fluid. This is strangely satisfying, and I’d liken it to scratching a lottery ticket or peeling plastic film off new electronic gadgets. It helps to use an eraser to lift up the corner, and then just use your finger to rub the rest away.

The gum rubs off like eraser shavings, and you can simply brush them off your paper. It leaves behind crisp white areas, untouched by your watercolors.

Owl Ink | Using Masking Fluid with Watercolors

Here is the finished piece! I am very happy with how it turned out, and will probably frame it up in my room :)

Materials Used:

Pebeo Liquid Drawing Gum (available at University Art in San Jose, or various online stores)
Loew Cornell 36 Color Watercolor Palette
Strathmore Cold Press Watercolor Paper – 140 lb
Assorted paintbrushes

I Must Have Flowers, Always and Always | Owl Ink

DIY Watercolor Lettering Business Cards

November 16, 2015 ElaineCalligraphy

The other day, I decided I wanted to make myself some business cards! Not so much out of necessity, as most of my calligraphy projects are done for friends and family who already have my contact information, but because I simply wanted a few to pass out to acquaintances and new friends.

Since I wouldn’t be giving them out left and right, I didn’t really have a need to get 100+ professionally printed ones. I decided to make my own!

(Apologies for the poor lighting. Daylight savings has really thrown a wrench in my after-work blogging routine…)

I started out by painting a light wash of my favorite site colors — sage green, gray, and light beige — on cold press watercolor paper.

The trick here is to not think too much about how it looks. The more abstract and messy, the better the final effect will be! Just be sure not to over-saturate the paper with water, because then it will buckle and your cards may not lie flat.

Using my handy paper cutter, plus an old business card as a guide, I measured and cut the paper into 12 cards.

As you can see, each card is different! Because I don’t need very many of them, I can afford to make each one unique. :)

I used my favorite lowercase alphabet stamp set to stamp “calligraphy” on the front of the card. To make this easier, I used washi tape to turn the individual letter stamps into a word stamp.

I love the vintage look of hand-stamped words. Luckily for me, “calligraphy” was just the right length for the cards!

Next, I needed to add “Owl Ink” lettering. I did this by dipping a small paintbrush into black fountain pen ink.

The black ink looks very rich and dark once dry, which I absolutely love. In some cards, you could even see a slight purple-blue sheen where the ink had pooled!

Afterwards, I just wrote my name and contact information on the back with an 0.8 mm Pigma Micron pen.

I’m really happy with the way they turned out! If you like the organic, imperfect look of handmade things, then this is a great way to produce a small batch of eye-catching business cards without going through a professional printer. If I ever meet you in person, I would be thrilled to give you one!

Owl Ink Place Cards: Ashley and Justin

October 24, 2015October 24, 2015 ElaineCalligraphy

Ashley is a friend of my college roommate! She emailed me asking if I could do about 150 place cards for her upcoming wedding. After she sent over a few styles that she liked, we settled on an airy modern calligraphy script on kraft paper. I love how the white on kraft looks rustic, but clean.

It’s definitely wedding season — I was also in a wedding recently (my dearest friend since seventh grade), and repurposed what was left of my bouquet for these photos :)

Here are some photos, plus tips in case you want to DIY your own place cards as well!

As this was my first time doing place cards, I quickly found that I didn’t have the right tools for it. At first, I tried using my Xacto-knife to cut sheets of 8.5 x 11 kraft paper into cards, but I only got about 4 sheets in before realizing that it would take me FOREVER. Armed with coupons, I immediately went to Michael’s and purchased this paper cutter, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that it has changed my life.

I found the best way to quickly churn out 150 cards was to go full-on Henry Ford mode on my stack of paper. This is significantly faster than making each card individually.

Make ALL of your first cuts until you have a stack of 11 x 4 cards
Make ALL of your second cuts until you have a stack of 4.25 x 5.5 cards
Score ALL of your cards.
Fold ALL of your cards

Note: Scoring is the act of using a dull edge to create an indent in the paper, which makes the fold more clean. The most common tool for this is a bone folder. I don’t have a bone folder, so I used an old credit card and that worked just fine for me.

It is really important to draft your names in pencil first. Names are of varying lengths and letter heights, so planning out the card in advance will ensure that it looks centered when it’s done! I like to use the Palomino Blackwing 602, as I found it to be one of my most easily erasable pencils.

Time for ink! I did my first run of names in basic script, making sure to follow my pencil marks. Because kraft paper is more coarse, I was not able to use a dip pen due to the paper fibers catching on my nib. This extra-fine Uni Posca white paint marker was perfect for the job.

Once the first pass was done, I added swells on individual letters to give my script the graceful line variation that is characteristic of modern calligraphy. You can find a full tutorial on this method over at Lindsay’s blog post, Cheating Calligraphy Tutorial!

I filled in the swells with my white marker, let the ink dry, and then gingerly erased the pencil lines with a soft kneaded eraser.

After doing a few names, you kind of get into a groove and before you know it, you’ve done 10 or more. I did these cards in small batches of about 20 or 30, usually in the evenings after I got home from work. I would put on one of my favorite podcasts and just write on — it was a great way to unwind from the day!

I’m sending these off to Ashley tomorrow! It’s been a fun project for me, and I hope they accent her wedding day beautifully :)

#LetteritAugust Daily Creative Challenge

September 9, 2015September 9, 2015 ElaineCalligraphy

The #letteritaugust challenge was started by Instagram artist and calligrapher Jenny Highsmith (@jennyhighsmith)! It’s a daily creative challenge, which encourages you to follow along with each day’s prompt and create your own piece.

Here is the list of prompts that Jenny thought up for this month!

I started a few days late, so I had to catch up. At first, it was difficult dragging myself out of bed early… calligraphy is not the easiest thing to do first thing in the morning, when your eyes, brain, and fingers are still half asleep!

Eventually, it became part of my routine — either early in the morning, or in the evening before going to bed. Thinking creatively on a daily basis has definitely energized me, and I’m glad I followed through and completed the challenge.

Now that it’s ended, I thought I’d round up some of my favorite personal pieces!

For more lettering inspiration, check out the #letteritaugust hashtag on Instagram! There are some really great works in there, from aspiring calligraphers and lettering artists all over the world. It was wonderful to follow along with such great company.

I’ll be pretty busy this month, but try my best to follow along with the next challenge!

Owl Ink Wedding Envelopes

June 29, 2015 ElaineCalligraphy

I’ve been sitting on these photos for a while, waiting patiently for them to show up in their recipients’ mailboxes before posting anything. They’re now out, so here is a brief photo recap of my first major calligraphy project!

Almost 200 envelopes seems quite intimidating, but I split them up into batches and tried to do at least 10-20 at any one time. First I did all single names, as I didn’t have to worry about running out of space on the top line. Then, I did married couples with a shared last name. Lastly, I did couples with separate names, as most of these had to be done in two separate lines. It was a fun challenge!

I will be attending this wedding in the fall, so it was kind of funny to send the completed envelopes out, and then find one back in my mailbox a few days later :P

Full names and/or addresses have been obscured or edited out for privacy. Thank you to Joyce for letting me use your full address for showcase purposes ♥

A huge thank you to Traci and David for the honor of being a part of your wedding!

MATERIALS USED: