I’m sure most artists have stuff they’re working on that isn’t intended to be “real” art. (Or maybe I’m just weird! That’s entirely possible…) New techniques, new mediums, testing out new art supplies. The projects that are done just for fun, or to take a break.

I think that experimenting, exploring, and playing with are important parts of the creative process. It helps to try out new things without any pressure for the resulting artwork to be “good.” That new technique you tried didn’t work so well? That’s okay. You learn and grow from it and the next piece will be better. And it doesn’t matter that it sucked—you’ll still get the bills paid, the dinner cooked, the laundry done… Your “real” artwork is still awesome.

But sometimes your art play leads to something more. Maybe that trial piece turned out really well, maybe it’s a technique that you’ve discovered you Love and it starts to take your art in a new direction. There’s so much you can learn if you take the time to play!

In that vein, I decided to share a few of the small “play” pieces I’ve been working on lately. First, I have a pair of tiny oil pastel paintings on canvas-textured board. They’re 3”x3” so much smaller than I’m used to working. I do like oil pastel, even though I don’t often work with it. I hate the canvas-textured boards for oil pastel though. The texture is too rough and coarse for such a tiny piece—it’s really difficult to get smooth layers of color and fine details. I’ll have to try the boards with a different medium. 

I’m thinking of trying to work on some smaller pieces, maybe Artist Trading Card size? Just for the challenge. I tend to make primarily moderately-sized pieces. It’s fun to work really large, but that takes up a Lot of space! Of course, I do actually have a house with a yard and garage now, instead of a tiny apartment, so perhaps I should work on some larger pieces. We’ll see. For now, I’ll work small and see what happens with that.

I also recently tried out Yupo Paper. It’s 100% polypropylene; I’ve never tried painting on plastic “paper” before. It’s definitely a learning experience. The biggest difference I noticed using watercolor are that the water doesn’t soak into the paper. At all. The paper also doesn’t buckle and curl and the paint can be removed from the paper even after it has dried. This can be good or bad, depending on what you were trying to do! I think Yupo is a product that is worth playing with further, if only to see just how far I can push it. I’m sure it would be an interesting substrate for many other mediums than just watercolor.

What about you? What have you been “playing” with lately? Share in the comments below!

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