Something I was interested to try during lockdown was making paper. I thought that this would be perfect to paint on as we can’t go out and buy new surfaces to work on. I used old exam papers and handouts to make recycled paper at home. I made them with supplies I had at home without a blender, deckle, and mould. Therefore the pulp turned out to be big and coarse, however I am very satisfied with the outcome although I was not able to make a large piece of paper due to the lack of supplies. I like how I can still see the remains of some of the text from the paper.
First I ripped sheets of scrap paper into small pieces. Then I put the pieces in a container with warm water and shook it until it made a pulp. I dyed the pulp with food colouring then laid the pulp down on a square container lid then soaked up the water with a sponge. I then let it out to dry overnight. All of the paper varies in size and thickness. It’s was definitely satisfying to paint on paper that I made myself.
A wash was definitely not suitable for this handmade paper. Therefore I just used acrylic paint and messily painted the colours on then went over it with black paint. I still tried to paint with the wash, drip outline method, while using normal acrylic paint.
I think it looks great without a painted background too, as I can showcase the small remains of the text that shows through on the paper and the colours I used to dye the pulp.
I tried to use a wash to paint on the handmade paper. However, like the magazine material, the paper just soaked up the paint. Therefore the paint wasn’t able to glide, splatter, and drip like I would’ve liked it to.
