A drawing machine by Eske Rex:
Beyond the Brush: Inventive Use of Media for Painting Students (Part 3)
This article outlines unusual painting and drawing techniques that are useful for creating exciting sketchbook pages, grounds, textural layers and adding tone and colour to an artwork. While mastery of traditional painting techniques can be all that is needed in a high school art project, sometimes combining traditional methods with wild and inventive approaches is advantageous!
Splashing liquid paint or dye onto a surface is one of the most unpredictable and exciting means of applying colour. Take turns at the classroom sink, dipping whole sheets of paper into watered down acrylic, splashing and flicking water across your work: holding paper, canvas or other painting surfaces in the air and letting the paint run down. Once an appealing wash of colour has been achieved, placed the artwork flat to dry, so the paint or ink pools and dries in naturally occuring swirls.
Paint using drips
Gravity can be a superb painting tool. Working with thicker, yet still runny paint (the consistency of house paint is ideal) long splashes and drips of paint can be controlled through tipping and altering the direction of a canvas, or through flicking paint wildly at a work in the style of Jackson Pollock (photographed by Hans Namuth) below.
There was complete silence … Pollock looked at the painting. Then, unexpectedly, he picked up can and paint brush and started to move around the canvas. It was as if he suddenly realised the painting was not finished. His movements, slow at first, gradually became faster and more dance like as he flung black, white, and rust colored paint onto the canvas – Hans Namuth.
Using only gravity and a rotating canvas (and sometimes string as a guide) Canadian artist Amy Shackleton c reates vibrant, complex scenes that are formed entirely from drips of paint squeezed from a bottle :
Paint with your body
Students should never be afraid of mess. Embracing the physical act of painting (removing the boundary between the maker and the artwork) allows you to ‘become one’ with an artwork. Get rid of your school uniform and dress yourself in old painting clothes. Spread a big plastic sheet in the corner of your art room (or go outside) and apply paint using your hands your feet or any part of your body that you dare! (Note: wash yourself thoroughly afterwards so as not to enrage head teachers or senior management)!
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How To
2/09/2022
When you’re first starting out with watercolor, or even if you’re a more experienced artist stuck and in need of inspiration, playing around with simple painting ideas can be loads of fun! That’s my main message—play! In this tutorial I show give you three things to try: an easy wet-on-wet abstract, an easy flower bouquet, and a sunset landscape. Each of these use different watercolor techniques and brush strokes, too, so it’s great practice! And if you want to go more in depth with watercolor techniques, check out my Complete Beginner’s Guide to Watercolor!
Simple Watercolor Painting Ideas for Beginners
00:00 – Intro
00:17 – 1st painting: easy abstract
04:45 – 2nd painting; simple daisy flower bouquet
11:51 – 3rd painting: sunset and palm tree landscape
21:27 – Let me encourage you…
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