Painting Foam Effects Lesson

Foam can be painted several ways.

You can use white paint to sponge it on over the top of painted water, or sponge on masking fluid and paint the water over the top.

You stamp it with a piece of mat board, or see what effects you can get using cloth, bubble wrap, a wad of foil, or anything else that you can paint on.

One of the most entertaining methods for painting foam, however, is described here. This technique can be used for bubbles or interesting texture on rocks as well, and is definitely something you should try at home.

Begin by whisking up a bowl of soap bubbles. Shampoo, dishsoap, bubbles for kids...they all work, but some bubbles last longer and those work best. These bubbles were made with baby shampoo.

Use a fork to transfer a bunch of bubbles to your watercolor paper. Use as big a glob as you want your foam to be. You can either put them on white paper and drop in the blues of the water, or you can put them on dry paint and drop in white paint

Use a syringe or baby dropper to carefully drop some color to the bubbles. Be gentle; you don’t want to pop the bubbles or use so much paint that you cover the effect.

And don’t try to paint the paper through the bubbles; you’re dropping paint on the top and letting it flow down by itself.

That’s it! When the bubbles have all popped and the paint is dry, this is what you get. It looks just like foam, because that’s exactly what it is.

And this is something that you can’t paint nearly as well any other way.

Experiment with using different colors and different surfaces, then branch out and see what else you can use to create textures in your paintings without damaging the surface.

Rubbing alchohol, dirt, sand, plastic wrap, blow-drying paint, using inks...there’s so much to try! Let your imagination run wild. This is what problem solving in painting is all about.

Want To Learn More...

A seascape is a landscape drawing that features the ocean and elements along the shore of the ocean.

Seascapes have been the subject of drawings and paintings for generations but recently it seems to be a hidden gem that is forgotten by budding artists.

Drawing seascapes offer challenges and artistic possibilities that make them ideal subjects for artists of all levels.

Artists who do attempt this form of drawing usually get caught up on focusing on the wrong elements which makes it hard to get a life like portrait.

Once you know the elements that will make or break your seascape you will never look back and will have more confidence in your ability.

Click here to learn more

Warm Regards

Chris Elmore
Drawing Made Easy