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Taping for straight lines?
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Posted
Of course! A ruling pen… perfect so why didn’t I think of that!
Some makes aren’t up to the job, I believe it was a Jaxell make that I bought which was useless.
I’ve got an old technical drawing set with two different sizes in it, superb quality ruling pens, slim and thin so the paint or ink flows out without blobbing.
Posted
I presume you're using oils Russell. So long as you let the underneath dry you could paint a board stroke to cover all the strings and use the edge of a piece of card or silicone tool to remove the gaps in between the strings. I did the string bag of onions in my gallery like this. The net had two strands, I painted one stroke and then divided the stroke with a colour shaper. I did some small dots once with a precision bottle, the hardest thing was getting the oil paint in the bottle, you need quite a bit of medium. I only used one of them you can have some if you want to try, I'll post to you.
Posted
Just a thought… ruling pens work well on a flat absorbent or semi-absorbent surface such as say cartridge paper etc.
I am less confident about how they will react over a dried oil paint surface… I can easily see it blobbing.
They were never the easiest tool to use, I’ve used them in my role as a graphic designer of course, pre-computer days.
I do still occasionally use them to create a line and wash finish on a watercolour mount, tricky but worth it to see the end result.
If you are thinking about getting one Russell, let me see it before you buy, some are pure rubbish and shouldn’t be on the market! I can tell at a glance if it’s up to the task!
Posted
Depends on the main picture, Sandra. Mostly a contrast colour to the painting, but sometime a continuation of the painting. I tend to paint the sides either first (if intending to be a single colour), or mid-way through the main picture. Once (bone) dry, cover with masking / frog tape, then continue with the painting.I use Frog tape also (yellow or green). I paint the sides of my stretch and box canvasses, as I hate them left white. It looks messy and unfinished to me.What colour do you paint them Helen? One of the colours in the painting? Something else?
Edited
by Helen Martell
Posted
I regularly have to apply straight lines in my railway pictures....for black I use an ordinary permanent marker pen such as a laundry marker, for colours and white gel pens bought from Amazon. Materials don't need to be complicated and these work perfectly well; my pictures are all acrylic on canvas. I put books under the canvas to keep it flat and level while drawing on it, it needs the support underneath.
I have also used Tamiya acrylic paint as sold to model builders very successfully, it's much thinner than artists acrylic and flows beautifully.
This picture illustrates it....yellow gel pan for the lining on the loco, black marker for the rails with white and blue highlights. The loco handrails are white gel pen too as is the front number.
