Lifting paint and making corrections in Easel by Zaweba

Taking paint away is as much a part of painting as putting it on. Watercolourists lift out clouds with a tissue, draughtsmen pick out highlights with a kneaded eraser, illustrators scratch white lines with a razor. Easel by Zaweba has a whole set of lifting and removing tools for these jobs.

The set is tissue, chamois, cotton bud, kneaded and electric erasers, razor, sandpaper, burnisher, bleach and solvent brush. Here is what each is traditionally used for and how they fit together.

Soft lifting while paint is wet

Tissue, chamois and cotton bud all lift wet paint.

A tissue pressed into a wet watercolour sky lifts out soft, natural clouds. A chamois is a soft leather cloth, good for lifting larger areas or wiping back a wash evenly. A cotton bud is small and precise, ideal for small highlights such as a reflection in an eye or a light on a leaf.

All three depend on timing. Paint that has dried in Easel never moves again, so lift while the area is still wet.

Erasers for dry media

The kneaded eraser is soft and pliable, the type artists pull into a point to pick out small highlights in charcoal and graphite without rubbing the paper. Dab it rather than scrubbing.

The electric eraser spins, so it takes off more in a small area. It is useful for crisp highlights and clean lines through pencil shading.

Easel also has a plain eraser, which takes off pencil and pastel but never dried paint. That's worth remembering when you mix media on one sheet.

Scraping and abrading

A razor scratches into the surface, which in watercolour and ink gives sharp white highlights: sparkles on water, whiskers, a single bright line. Sandpaper roughens and removes, for a worn, weathered look or for broken highlights across a textured area.

A burnisher works the other way. It presses and polishes. On graphite, Easel's pencils burnish to a sheen once the grain is full, and a burnisher is the classic tool for smoothing and polishing a surface.

Chemical removers

Bleach is an old trick for ink. Brushed onto ink, it removes or lightens colour, leaving pale lines and shapes. Use it for white lines on dark ink, or to lighten an area that has gone too heavy.

The solvent brush lifts and moves paint that a solvent can dissolve. In the oil world it is used to wipe back and correct.

Using them well

Think of these tools as a way to draw in light. In watercolour especially, the white of the paper is the brightest thing you have, and lifting is a way to get it back.

Pick the gentlest tool that will do the job. Try a tissue before a razor, a kneaded eraser before an electric one. Small corrections are easier to control, and you can always go further.

If a correction goes badly, undo is there, with 80 steps by default. Easel by Zaweba makes experimenting with lifting cheap, which is exactly what you need to learn when to stop.