Texture of the Week: Marbles + Paint = Playing Like a Kid

Honestly, this was not the gel printing texture tool I thought I'd be sharing this week, but sometimes a girl's just gotta have fun, right?

I started the week dragging a bit from teaching on Sunday afternoon and watching the Seattle Mariners lose game 7 of the ALCS. Ugh.... Plus I woke up with a head cold, thanks to my daughter, and then started having some strange computer problems. (Weird vertical lines + frozen screen = me in a panic.)

When I'm feeling blah, I'm not good at sitting in the blah. I usually search for something to pull me out of the funk including, but not limited to: more coffee, upbeat music from my youth, and some art play. 

I'd thought about this marble idea a few weeks ago, based on the marble paintings kids do in preschool or early elementary school. Maybe it could be a fun thing to do with my daughter?

After topping off my mug and cranking up "How Will I Know?" by the one and only Whitney Houston, I decided now was the time to try this marble rolling idea.

I couldn't find a box the same size as my 8" x 10" gel plate, so I opted to use my paint covered Lego stash to create some barriers within the box to keep the marbles on the gel plate.

After getting my gel plate set up, I picked Fluorescent Red and Brilliant Blue by Liquitex as paint colors. I squirted a little red in my left glove, rolled the marble around in my hand, and gently tossed it into the box, which I moved back and forth watching the marble roll and bounce across the surface. I repeated the process several times with each color.

Once the red and blue paint streaks were dry, I moved the plate out of box and brayered on a layer of Hansa Yellow Light to pull the print. 

The final print definitely has a kids inspired by Jackson Pollock vibe. I'm not sure how much I'd use this technique in my printing, but truthfully it doesn't matter to me today.

Sometimes you just gotta have fun with your tools and remember how to play like a kid.