Lightning Strikes – Masking Fluid and Spectrum Noir Ink Refills

Isn’t masking fluid fun?

Sometimes yes and sometimes no.

This painting of lightning was a great way to study masking fluid techniques, introduce Spectrum Noir Refills and use lifting to get the light right.

I created several videos of the process with beginning inkers in mind.

Here are the videos in a playlist.

Or you can pick which ones to watch here:

Step 1: Tracing From A Reference Photo – This is a chance to see using carbon paper to trace from a reference photo.

Step 2: Protect Your Brush When Masking – It helps to see how much soap and water you should put on your brush to protect it when using masking fluid.

Step 3: Applying Masking Fluid

• With a skewer
• With a brush
• How to know where you’ve masked.

Step 4: Welcome to Spectrum Noir Refills

Spectrum Noir Refills are another brand of alcohol inks.  The refills are very intense with little alcohol and have a eye dropper for application.  I find them more cost effective than Adirondacks as their list price is $5.95 for 1 ounce vs. $3.49 for 1/2 ounce of Adirondacks.  If you have never used them before this will be helpful to watch how they move as I paint in the background.  Here’s a link to their colors at Dick Blick.

Step 5: Removing Masking Fluid with Tweezers

Because the lightning lines were so small I used tweezers to pull it up.  I found that the metal of the tweezers worked really well and I didn’t have to always pinch to get it off.

If you look at the finished painting there were more steps to take.  This is what I did.

The masking fluid lines were too stark so I used a brush to add a bit of color into the lines and to soften the edges.

The light in the clouds needed to be enhanced so I used the Chameleon Blender pen to lift and lighten.

I hope this information will be helpful to you.