Here's a 'sad' Buffalo that popped out of me an hour before i saw my mom on mother's day. Which in my mom's case.... this year fell on her birthday, so i'm doing a two-fer.
Thus the 'Buff sandwich': this top piece of Buffalo bread, then in-between is some quirky 'stuff' lying around my studio i'll use in future paintings. Then the another buffalo at the end... for the bottom piece of bread.
Sorry - these sucker's were done WAY too fast to snap process pics, so i just grabbed a few quickie shots after i painted them. See? That's why he's sad, he missed out on the process pics. Poor guy. i think he'll get over it though.
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Now...... here's a few wood and rocks lying around my studio i'll use someday.. I wonder if other artists out there do this too? I can't believe I'm alone. You can spot 'sizzy' and the 'rubber jaws teeth' on the side, keeping the wood and rocks company.
I'd love to hear what the rest of you artists collect or have lying around your studios. Doesn't have to be odd or unusual... or literally used in the art piece. Might just be a shape or textured object that inspire you.
No rules! Everything's fare game. Even some gold and orange paint i used seems like it could be worked into something else as i look at it here..
It's not just brushes, pens, pencils, paint, but also just a ton of garbage, wood, metal,various debris that might get swallowed up into a painting someday.
I notice i tend to group objects i stash away for potential paintings...
... mostly by texture.
Do you other artists do this... categorize by texture?
By now you'll notice this is, obviously, my fabric drawer. mostly remnants, small cuts of cloth, some Subtle Prints and Florals, and some pretty Gaudy colors which are the opposite of 'subtle'.
Fabrics are grouped in my brain under " soft, fuzzy, furry, clothy, or plush toy-ish".
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Here's something sticks that looks like bambo i found a while back. It was part of some screen so i took it apart.
These sticks already yellowish-ocher colored, but i added a few more of the speckled darker textures to make them more interesting.
Might be cool to paste them over a watercolor image, so the watercolor shows through between the wood pieces? sorta like your looking through slats? or some fence poles? We'll see.
Here's some Palm Tree bark i found in a park. These and Eucalyptus three bark have a TON of interesting textures if . The variety or textures is something you just can't find on Google, you have to hunt around. There's also some old fishing wire in there too.
This bark can be used a a couple of ways. One is to paint onto the surface itself. Only tricky part is they will eventually decay. Might be possible to spray the bark with fixative though, course i could paint the hell out of them with some heavy duty fixative-glue, but that might lose a lot of the delicacy of the bark's texture.
Another thing i might try is to work them into some sculpture or 3D piece... like the boxes... or something else, not trying to paint of draw over them, just blend their texture into another created form?
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Here's some polished rocks, you can get these tons of places. There's a lot of what's called Indian Crazy Rock in this drawer, which almost looks like hand painted shapes doesn't it?
I may take scans of these, print them out then by hand continue the same pattern the rock has past into a larger picture.
Not to pass of my art off as looking LIKE the rock, (i frankly don't have that much skill, you'll tell the difference right away between my stuff and an organic shape like this), but more as a way to push my style into some OTHER direction.... i wouldn't normally draw outside my comfort zone.
Always looking for new ways to trick myself into thinking and painting differently.
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This drawers Tree Bark is also is full of random crap at the bottom... a plastic tube that had some yellow object inside, i liked how the dirt obscured the yellow and let's it peak through.. also some bicycle chain? Maybe a chain-saw chain? Not sure.
Also some sewing machine parts. I have a ton of these, (as Nola's mother sows). For me it's sorta the same way Sienkiewicz seemed obsessed with Stray Toasters, i have a think for Sewing Machine parts.
This is part of the brown rusty-antique-mechincal-bones side of my imagination, which is the the polar opposite of fabrics-pipe cleaners and, colorful soft plushy things side. My pal Josh Hagler summed it up as "everything from power tools to plus toys, you throws them into a car trunk, then they rattles around in there, when you open it, things that somehow usually don't belong together, somehow seems to fit."
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Okay, so much for unusual art supplies. Probably would have been better to post something being MADE instead, eh? Maybe not. Even if causes one other artist to pause the next time they look at a piece of bark or machine or fabric, then it's worth it.
Now for that bottom piece of the sandwich... pretty weird huh? even for me.
sorta looks more like a rat .... or maybe a porcupine rather than a buffalo. I tried for abstract, and instead i get a frantic looking little creature instead. with only two legs..
At least mom seemed to like it.
Okay, hit me up with some feedback... any stuff YOU have used, or thought might be cool to work into one of your own paintings or drawings?
Maybe you'll give me an idea of something i never thought of before.
Thanks!
sam
