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Watercolour Tipsby Dennis ClarkContainers for Watercolour Washes Most artists have colour printers nowadays. If you don't, then perhaps you know of someone who does. Many manufacturers protect their cartridges with plastic covers when shipping them. Instead of throwing them away, put them to good use. Prestik (Bostik) or glue these printer ink cartridge plastic protection covers to a board. This works especially handy when you are on holiday as you can stack these covers inside each other to save space. Watercolour Half-pan Holders Prestik (Bostik) your loose ½ pans into an old plastic tooth brush packaging as shown above. Alternatively obtain a shallow plastic container with a lid and prestik them in there. Loose ½ pans have a habit of getting damaged or lost, but now you will know where they are. Application of Masking FluidLooking through the various art magazines through the years has amazed me with all the types of advice given (some good and some very bad!!). - Don't do this! Don't do that! Use only your oldest brush and then throw it away! Why throw them away? Why use only your oldest brush? I've been using the same brush for painting and applying masking fluid for approx. 30 years! In fact, I use any of my brushes, even the expensive ones, and NEVER have I thrown one away because of the masking fluid. How do I do it?If you dip your brush as it is in masking fluid then surely you are going to have a problem. The fluid gets in between the hairs, and being rubber based, will cement all the hairs together and render the brush useless. To rectify this you can dissolve the dried masking fluid in Lacquer Thinners for a while and then carefully wiping the dissolved rubber mess away. Do this several times until the brush is restored to its original condition. Clean carefully right up the metal ferrule. This is how I operated for approx 20 years with the same brush. But why suffer all this inconvenience when there is a better way? During 1991 I attended one of Dale Elliott's watercolour holidays where he showed us his method. The trick is in a bar of Sunlight Green Soap (used for handwashing of clothes).  Wet the brush thoroughly and work up a rich lather with the brush. Work it up until the lather becomes rather thick and sticky. Be sure the lather is worked thoroughly into the hairs and right up to just past the ferrule.  It is now ready to insert into the masking fluid. You may now apply the fluid to your painting as necessary. Be careful not to paint too long with the treated brush as the soap gets gradually worked away during the painting process. Rather frequently wash the brush in water and then treat the brush again and again with the soap lather. If you happen to accidentally dip the untreated brush into the masking fluid, simply wash it straight away in the water. If you forget to re-treat the brush in time, quickly soak the brush in Lacquer Thinners. By the way: Don't forget to clean the cap of the masking fluid bottle. Remove ALL remains of the rubberized strips in the cap otherwise small gaps will occur in which air can penetrate into the bottle causing the entire fluid to solidify! If you enjoyed these hints & tips, please don't forget to sign our guestbook. If you would like to ask us any questions on these hints & tips, you can post them HERE. We will be delighted to answer them.
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