Masking 101 Tutorial
Written by Susan M. Trask for smARTworks
In the same way a safety mask covers the
face, and protects its wearer from contamination, so too,
a mask used for stamping covers an area of artwork, in whole, or in
part, and protects it from the next application of media (usually, ink).
Materials
needed to execute basic masking techniques are few -- ink, scissors, and masking material.
The masking material can
be something as simple and inexpensive as a Post-it note, to products
specially designed for masking purposes, and a little more
pricey -- i.e. Frisket or Eclipse.
The only tricky part about masking is remembering whatever one puts on paper,
and masks, moves
to the foreground of the composition... Put another way, what you stamp first, is what you'll see first...
just
the opposite of regular stamping. This means, it's necessary to take time and visualize the composition before putting it
on paper.
Masks fall into one of two categories... Common or Mortise...
A common mask shields an image/area
from its surrounding areas or background...
How This Is Done --