I hate wasting things. Some may see me as a hoarder, but I like to think of myself as resourceful 😉 My scrape off paintings are a perfect example of my resourceful, waste-not practice.
Yesterday I was tired. I worked all day, I had a dentist appointment, I had to drive my daughter around to her events, and my son was home (our Spring Break is just wrapping up). I wasn’t feeling particularly creative, but I have this 100 Day Project commitment and I didn’t want to break it in the first week.
So, I looked to one of my favorite techniques: scrape paint. It’s so simple, and if you make it a habit, you’ll see the many benefits of it. Since I hate wasting, any time I’m working on an art piece, I keep another art substrate nearby. Any unused paint left on my palette gets scraped onto it.
Here are some of my favorite examples of scrape off surfaces that became something later:
So yesterday, when I was feeling tired, I just scraped some paint around, scribbled with a graphite stick, and added some marks with an oil pastel. It didn’t take long and it made this beautiful under painting now awaiting it’s next layers.
Commitment fulfilled. Day 4 of #the100DayProject done (barely).
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I love doing something similar, scraping the pain onto an acrylic clip board and then pressing my substrate onto it for a mono print. I’ll do several of these at a time so I have backgrounds ready. I love the bright and expressive colors in your backgrounds.
That’s a great technique, too. I’ll try it out today! Thanks for your kind words and for stopping by.
Love these! The colors are so beautiful.
That is such a great idea. I always waste so much paint. And it looks beautiful and colorful. Thank you for the idea.
Aha! An idea I can adopt and embrace! Thank you!
Greeting,
I love your technique!! I’ve kept notebooks of unused paint but your idea is fab😍😍😍 I love this painting just as is❤️❤️❤️ Also, how do you have that feature on your blog where ppl get added to your mailing list just by posting a comment. Love that feature ! Also……where is the 100 day art challenge going on?
Thanks for your kind words, Diana 🙂 I meant to link to the 100 Day Project in the post. Thanks for pointing that out. It’s updated now with this link: http://lifepinspired.com/the-100-day-project/
As for the newsletter feature, I use a WordPress plug-in called MailPoet. One of the options is to add that checkbox when users comment.
Great idea! And how inviting! I love where you go with this.
What a beautiful underlayer! I like your idea about scrape painting, I hate to throw out extra paint too,
Those are so beautiful. I’m trying to get better at remembering to do that too.
This looks lovely, and such a good way to still honor your 100 day challenge! I may have to try this as I progress on my art journey <3