Fun With Sponge

Sometimes artists just have to let themselves go and just have fun. Today is this day!

Let us grab the textured sponge roll and have a blast. What is wonderful about this textured sponge roll is that the core is not cardboard, as in olden times. This roll has a plastic core, which enables it to be washed, squeezed, and dried for more applications. Hurrah!

The following procedures will be described in technical terms
so you may want to take notes. Just kidding.

This, my fellow artists, is a time to throw caution in the wind, and just have a ball!

To begin, on the palette I plop (non-technical term) all the contents of the small bottles of acylic paint that I use for line drawing. It turned out looking like this:

Primary colors: blue, red, yellow, and spots of black

The first roll of the sponge created an interesting pattern on my four panels.
I could see this sparking an idea for painting on kitchen tiles.

The second roll created orange and more texture.

Then I went wild with the sponge roll
(And, people, I mean wild!)

in every direction possible.

EEEEK! You may be thinking. What a MESS!
But wait, let us look closer at each panel created.

The first panel: allowing your imagination to be free,
what do you see in this panel?

To me it resembles the beginnings of a flower bouquet.

Second Panel: ripples of water reflecting color

Third panel: a flower garden

Fourth Panel: a woman’s summer hat with flowers

I also rolled the textured sponge using the same palette
on a panel I had previously painted orange red.

The result reminds me of something oriental.

A close-up view of the panel makes it appear to be made of lace.

Now what if we substitute watercolor paint instead of acrylic paint
and instead of canvas, we sponge roller on watercolor paper.

– If you are a tad hesitant about doing a sponging on a sheet of good watercolor paper, try using the roller on a cheap piece of paper.
It would be worth it to get ideas for future paintings.

– If you are still hesitant to use good watercolor paper, you could timidly sponge roll only one pass on the good paper and see what develops.

– You could use the sponge roller for a background by masking off your design first and then using the roller.

– Instead of watercolor paper, you could try Yupo plastic paper. On Yupo, you simply wipe off the sections you do not wish to keep. Yupo paper is a hoot!

The possibility list goes on and on.

What FUN!

Bottom line is this: any time you see a textured roller sponge,
think of all the fun you will have using it.

Throwing caution to the wind, grab that roller,
roll it in paint, and have a blast!

Sponge on!

This sponge can be found at Texture Sponge Roller

Posted on August 3, 2011.