Masking fluid waves

I’ve only used the masking fluid once or twice before using a brush but found it tedious to use, a lot of clean up and it ruined my brushes (I already knew to use the old ones). So when I saw the duck bill pen on temu decided to try again and also got a bottle with a needle tip to compare.

Needle tip bottle with masking fluid to mask the waves and foam

Here’s the results of the duck bill on the right and needle tip on the lift.

In terms of ease of use the needle tip bottle won as it was fine enough to use and has a lid to keep it from drying out so ready to use. It could probably come with me when I paint plein air. Whereas the duck bill was similar to the brush I had to keep dipping it in and it didn’t hold much liquid. It also scratched the surface of my paper. Not sure if this is because it was a cheap version or just the nature of the tool.

This definitely made doing ocean waves easier. So will be using the needle tip bottle in future.

I found the duck bill pen was a lot easier to wash then a brush and it was able to achieve small details such as dots and felt similar to a calligraphy pen. It can also double as a calligraphy dip pen. It’s also well known for drawing lines as an alternative to a rigger. So even though it won’t be used for my masking fluid it may still be a handy tool in my painting kit.

I used the following book “Stunning water seascapes” by Kolbie Blume and picked a few to test out the different masking fluid techniques.