3 Alternative Painting Techniques You Ought to Try
Paint can be a liberating medium to work in. There are endless ways to indulge one’s creativity with free-flowing liquids and brushes.
However, some painting techniques may just surprise you with their inherent eccentricity. In fact, these 3 painting techniques are likely to be entirely new to a great many artists accustomed to more traditional options.
If you’re struggling with the mundane and looking for more inspiring ways to play with your paints, then these alternative painting techniques could prove to be right up your alley.
Sandpainting or Drypainting
This painting technique isn’t actually painting at all.
It involves pouring materials onto a surface to create an image and is often done with sand.
When left unfixed to the surface, this painting technique allows only for temporary artwork to be created. It’ll just blow away after all!
When fixed to the surface, the different materials you choose to use then form a permanent image. A little glue goes a long way.
Ths visual “painting” technique has been around for centuries and spans many different cultures — notably, Native Americans and Buddhists in both Japan and Tibet.
Ink wash painting
This painting technique is an East Asian development of Chinese origin, practiced by learned scholars many years ago.
Black ink is used on paper to illustrate, typically, a forest or nature scene. The difference between this form of Asian painting and the well-known forms of Asian calligraphy is the use of ink in varying concentrations for subtle effects.
With light, hazy washes of ink, space and depth are alluded to succintly and effectively. A beautiful, understated style of simple elegance.
The technique itself seems to have matured during the Song dynasty and spread to neighboring countries in short time.
Encaustic painting
Encaustic painting is often referred to as hot wax painting as it is heated wax that holds pigments and is applied to a surface in this art form.
This technique allows artists to simultaneously sculpt as they paint — lending a three-dimensional aesthetic to their work in the process.
Often, the technique calls for the use of a number of heated tools and implements, but special brushes can be used to apply the heated wax before it cools.
This particular technique dates all the way back to the 1st Century BC. where it was used on the Romano-Egyptian Fayum mummy portraits.
You can count on your art being around for quite some time if you go this route.
