Frisket!

In the Book Box is Watercolor And How by Graham Scholes.  (I got a library card recently.)  This is a good book!  For copyright reasons I won't show any of the inside pages, but I'll try to do one of the lessons > > >
First I do a sketch of a local building here in lovely Toronto Canada.  I did the sketch on real watercolour paper, which I taped down.  I do notice there are a few mistakes in the sketch – some of the windows are crooked, and I couldn't figure out how to draw the people – but maybe I can paint over those things later.

Next -- this is the best part -- I use a liquid latex 'masking film' -- sometimes called 'frisket' -- on the shape of the street lamp.  The frisket I bought works great, and it is grey in colour, so it stands out on the white paper.  The book says that you can also buy transparent frisket, which you can tint with some paint (preferably a "non-staining" paint).

Now I cover the rest of the building with masking tape and construction paper . . . by now maybe you're thinking I'm CRAZY, but hold on a minute, hold on . . .

I splatter different colours of paint on the sky to suggest that the winter air is icy cold and seems to crackle!  (I got this idea from the book.)  And then . . .

. . . I remove the masking tape and the construction paper . . . and the frisket lifts off easily when I stick masking tape to it . . . and this is the result, the sky area is now painted!  (Although this looked better in the book.)
And now I just have to figure out what colours to paint the other things in the scene . . . mmm . . .

Oh my goodness look at the time!  I should be getting to bed!  I'll stick this painting beside the fridge for now, but I'll try to get back to it sometime soon . . .

And I hope to be looking at a book every month, if I can stick with it -- join me won't you!!!