Lifting With A Sponge

 This entry was originally posted on Wednesday, November 21, 2012

In yesterday's post, I mentioned that large areas of your painting can be lifted out with a natural sea sponge while being soaked in water.

 

A couple of people asked if this will damage the paper.

I will address that question now.

 

Lifting the paint with the sea sponge will cause very minimal damage to the paper as long as you do not scrub hard.

Most paint will lift easily just by gently washing the sponge over it.

Scrubbing hard will cause more damage.

However, I have found that this is the gentlest method of removing the paint while allowing the integrity of the paper to remain intact.

 

I will admit that most of my lifted areas have been to backgrounds and less important parts of the painting.

(not the focal point and especially not a portrait)

I am not sure if it is the scrubbing or the further removal of the sizing by soaking it in the water,

 but sometimes the removed area will have a softer look to it when painted afterwards.

This can be an added bonus, especially if it is a background.

 

More Sponging

  This entry was originally posted on Friday, June 15, 2012

Another way to break up the look of the sponge is to spray the paint while it is still wet.

This will cause some areas to merge and become soft.

Sponging Trees

 This entry was originally posted on Thursday, June 14, 2012

Another way to create foliage is with a natural sea sponge.

 

This is the most common way for creating foliage but to be honest, it is not my favorite.

Perhaps it is because quite often it looks contrived.

It becomes the same pattern of leaves over and over again.

 To avoid this look of everything being the same, turn your sponge different ways and use different sides of it when applying the paint.

This will help in making different patterns of leaves and foliage.

Achieving Texture with Masking Fluid

  This entry was originally posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2012

 Since I use mask often for my poured watercolors,

I sometimes try different things to achieve what looks like texture in my pours.

My favorite is to take a Scotchbrite sponge, the rough kind, and cut it into a small piece.

Then I dip it into masking fluid and sponge it onto my paper.

This creates a wonderful texture for asphalt and foliage.