Reading leads to blisters and bad smells

I suspect I'm like many artists with shelves of books by other artists who have a particular technique they share within the 125+ pages of a hardbound book you can buy from an art book club. The other day I pulled down Jean Grastorf"s Pouring Light. Her technique involves masking out areas, pouring paint, masking and pouring several more times. As I read it with my morning coffee, I decided that I might give it a whirl. The reasons I haven't in the past were 1) I dislike using mask 2) I lack patience 3) I'm too cheap to want to pour paint down the drain.
The start: This is another Italy scene--an outdoor fruit and vegetable stand.

 

The next step: more mask and pouring paint

 

More masking and pouring

 

Finally I felt that I had to peel off the mask or burst so I began. But unlike the examples in Ms. Grastorf's book where she peeled off the mask easily, mine sat there as I rubbed with my fingers until I developed blisters on both index fingers, scraped with credit cards, and wore out a huge gum eraser. I have to admit, the mask is very old. Does it die in the bottle? It certainly smelled like it, in fact, it smelled like a decaying animal. Did I make a mistake not using enough, or using it in too many layers. This is all new to me, so I can't answer those questions. Here's the result. It will take some further direct painting, but I see the appeal of the fresh and pure colors. I'll post the final painting which I'll work on tomorrow. For now I'm letting my blisters heal.