two hours of masking tape and the horizon is STILL crooked

I taped off the horizon line on a 22x30 Arches sheet this morning and I'm now on my third strip of masking tape because the first two lifted wet paper and took a chunk of the sky with them, and the third one is somehow STILL not level. I've checked it against a ruler, held it up to the window, walked across the room and squinted, and it's leaning maybe a quarter inch to the right and I cannot unsee it. This is the whole painting. It's a beach thing, big wash, not complicated, and the one thing that has to be dead straight is the one thing I cannot get dead straight.

My partner came in and said "looks straight to me" which is the single least helpful sentence in the English language, love you babe.

Meanwhile the wash underneath is actually nice?? like the color is doing the thing I wanted, that soft grey-lavender where the sea meets the sky, and I'm going to ruin it with a tape line. I know I'm going to ruin it. I've already accepted it. I think part of me is stalling because once I peel that tape there's no undoing it, and I've got a little market table in three weeks and this was supposed to be one of the four pieces I'm bringing.

Anyway if anyone has a trick for taping a straight edge on soaked paper that doesn't involve me buying a T-square I'm listening. Or I could just paint a boat over it, that's also an option I'm considering

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6 comments

Margaret Hsu·3w

A quarter inch over thirty inches is a small enough error to hide in the composition later, and a large enough one to drive you mad now. I know the feeling. The masking tape lifting paper is the more serious problem, though. Arches is well sized, but if the tape is old or the sheet is damp from the wash underneath, it will take the surface with it every time. I would pull the tape while the paper is bone dry and lift it back on itself slowly, almost flat to the sheet, rather than peeling it up at an angle. If it keeps happening, a strip of drafting tape along the sky edge, or simply ruling the horizon and lifting the wash with a thirsty brush before it dries, will be kinder to the paper than a third round of tape. The horizon wants to be straight, but the paper wants to stay whole, and the paper wins that argument.

Dimitra Vasilakis·3w

The flat lift is right, that is the whole trick. I'll add one thing from a lot of years of pulling tape off sized paper: warm the tape with your hand first, a few seconds, then go slow. Cold tape grabs more. And if the sheet is even slightly damp from the wash, walk away and have a coffee. It will always take a bite when the fibres are soft.

Dani OkaforOP·3w

warm tape, that's such a good one and I've never heard it. watching the tape come off is the whole thing and I've been peeling it cold straight off the roll like a maniac, no wonder it's biting. the coffee part is the hard part though haha, I have zero patience for waiting on a damp sheet, that's exactly how I wrecked the second strip. putting my hand on it for a few seconds I can do. walking away for ten minutes I cannot.

how long are we talking for the tape to actually let go, like a full minute of slow or just don't yank it? also is there a brand you trust more than others or is it all the same once it's warmed up?

genuinely thank you, this thread has me rethinking my whole removal technique 😭

Dani OkaforOP·3w

ok the "lift it back on itself almost flat to the sheet" thing just reframed my whole morning, I've been peeling at like a 45 degree angle out of pure impatience and that is 100% why I've lost two chunks of sky. thank you. and yeah I think the tape is old, it's been sitting in a drawer in my studio since I moved in and it barely wants to come off the roll, which should have told me something. going to grab drafting tape this week and also just stop taping a wet wash, that was me trying to rush the dry time and being punished for it. the quarter inch though. the quarter inch is going to live in my head forever. my partner said "it's a beach, horizons curve" and I almost threw a brush at them 🙂

Mateo Serrano·3w

the tape pulling up wet paper is the real crime here, forget the quarter inch. once the sky has a scar in it the horizon being straight doesn't matter much.

i'm clay not paper so take this as you like, but i stopped trusting my eye on the straight line ages ago. i put the ruler down, mark both ends, then tape against the ruler and don't look up until it's stuck. the squint across the room is a liar, it makes you re-tape a thing that was already fine and every re-tape costs you paper.

also a quarter inch over 22 inches is basically a gentle lean, the sea does that. if the composition is a beach thing then a slightly off horizon reads more like the day than a mistake. finish it, live with it a week, then decide if it's actually wrong.

Dani OkaforOP·3w

ok "i'm clay not paper so take this as you like" made me laugh out loud, thank you for the disclaimer, clay perspective fully welcome. and honestly you're right about the scar, that's the part I keep skipping over because the crooked line is the thing I can SEE. I lost two chunks of sky already and I keep telling myself I can lift them back with a wet brush later which is a lie I have told myself before.

but the ruler thing. that's the part I'm going to actually take. because yeah the squint across the room is a LIAR, I did it like four times and by the last one I was convinced it was leaning a half inch when it was probably fine at the start. so I made it worse by fiddling. that's the whole pattern, isn't it. tape it, distrust it, re-tape, lose paper.

"the sea does that" is going to live in my head rent free btw. genuinely might just leave it and let the horizon lean a little, it's a beach wash, nobody's measuring my sea.