Home › Forums › The Think Tank › Creativity › Art supplies provided by nature.
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October 17, 2018 at 4:50 pm #463501
Lately I decided to harvest fall/autumn leaves and even dried a few flower blossoms for art supplies. I find that they are a great source of free colours. I’ve even put some of the stuff to good use besides mulch.
Does any one else love to collect free art supplies provided by nature?
http://ktigressscreativelog.blogspot.com/
http://ktigresssthescratchingpost.blogspot.com/
My reference media photo albums.
https://www.wetcanvas.com/members/98873/media/album/October 17, 2018 at 7:04 pm #713253wild raspberry blight makes a great alyzarin type ink
and clay, lots of clay to play with
la
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When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know PeaceOctober 17, 2018 at 7:37 pm #713257I’ve tried autumn leaves before but unless treated somehow, they always lost their color. Haven’t tried sealing them with acrylic spray but that might work. I collect things all the time…right now acorns are plentiful. Pine cones, branches, dried weed pods. Oh and sticks make great markers when dipped in paint..very abstract.
October 19, 2018 at 11:16 pm #713254My favorite way of preserving leaves and flowers so far is the most simplest way. I just place them between old newspapers, top with cardboard and then weight them down with stuff in a nice dry room. I have the furnace on and the added darkness does a real good job of preserving them. So far most of my yellow leaves are pretty vibrant. A few get brown but that’s alright. Brown leaves are useful too. My red based leaves stay pretty much as is as for colour.
But here are some other methods I found online that people use in preserving leaves.
https://www.redtedart.com/how-to-preserve-leaves-6-methods/%5B/URL%5DWhen dried enough I store them in a special folder marked fragile. Smaller leaves get placed in envelopes with in the folder. I keep the folder in a cool dark place weighted down of course. I just have to remember where I stored them though.
http://ktigressscreativelog.blogspot.com/
http://ktigresssthescratchingpost.blogspot.com/
My reference media photo albums.
https://www.wetcanvas.com/members/98873/media/album/October 21, 2018 at 9:42 am #713252Lots of river rocks, love painting on them .
December 1, 2018 at 9:20 am #713255Bird feathers are nice to paint with. (To use as brushes).
No longer a member of WC. Bye.
December 1, 2018 at 3:14 pm #713258February 25, 2019 at 2:00 am #713259I have some fresh thin willow and hazel branches in a vase with water and will be painting small leaves on thick paper to glue on these for Easter decorations.
March 2, 2019 at 6:06 am #713260Bird feathers are nice to paint with. (To use as brushes).
Thanks for that reminder. I plan to use cobalt violet (toxic) on my painting. To avoid cleaning the brush, I will use feathers that I can toss. Just using them to glaze, so not hard treatment. I found 4 yesterday.
March 4, 2019 at 1:33 pm #713251It is illegal to collect the feathers of all migratory birds species, so be discreet.
March 5, 2019 at 8:27 pm #713261Thanks for that reminder. I plan to use cobalt violet (toxic) on my painting. To avoid cleaning the brush, I will use feathers that I can toss. Just using them to glaze, so not hard treatment. I found 4 yesterday.
Today (Tues 5) I finally used a bird feather for the glaze. It worked well. I used a glove, too.It was hard on the feather though the glaze was pretty fluid.
no migratory birds. In fact, though I haven’t been out a lot yet, there doesn’t seem to be the numbers of pigeons we’ve had previous years. These are local bird feathers.
July 25, 2019 at 9:56 pm #713264My favourite colour is red, and upon researching, this article that talks about red – from history, symbolism, and usage in art provided me with so much valuable information
A plant they called madder, whose root could be transformed into a red dye, widely grew across Europe, Africa, and Asia. They also discovered a tiny scale insect called Kermes whose body was dried and crushed, resulting in a red tint. This is where the first versions of the color red was derived. Coolio, right? :thumbsup:
July 28, 2019 at 10:16 pm #713265Heh. I’ve collected maroon dirt, yellow dirt, pale buff dirt. “Earth pigments” in fact. Mixing with acrylic medium gives a thick and crunchy sort of paste, even after grinding ’em in a pestle. A few experiments were exciting, and I’ll get back to them, but no pics to post yet.
For a botany class once I pressed a lot of flowers. Many, perhaps most, of the organic pigments in the flowers and leaves changed a great deal over time. Some (lookin’ at YOU, beach peas) are sensitive to pH; others (western columbine) went from lovely scarlet to dull brown.
Moral: check natural pigments for color-fastness. I have a few early dye experiments that have changed a lot just from indirect light indoors. And the changes are not very good!
Dharma Trading in San Francisco, USA, offers a few natural pigments — including the madder and cochineal mentioned by reginareyesart. Linky: https://www.dharmatrading.com/dyes/natural-dyes-from-plants-and-insects.html?lnav=dyes.html
~~ Don
August 25, 2019 at 12:21 pm #713256I was walking around our new property and observed the black cherry trees were weeping clear sap. I remembered reading that before gum Arabic was available, Europeans made watercolors using cherry gum (sap) as a medium. Maybe I would try it someday just for experiments.
September 25, 2019 at 2:07 am #713262Tropical sand and and coffee beans :clap:. Beaches and caffeine make a chill mix that gets me to the “High Yellow Note” :lol:. Just kidding :p.
Honestly, I used a pair of times the grains of sand on some paintings to create a particular texture. Not to mention the washes I have done with coffee beans, and the texture that I used from some nuts to roll over a canvas :).
Nature is beautiful and free to use!
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