Outsider Style Art: Handpainted 8"x10"

I am very excited about this as it fits my artistic style very well!

So glad to hear it, duckduckgoose! Thanks for joining. :)

this is my fav style of painting.. I love outsider art b/c things don't have to be perfect, or uniform.. they just are what they are :-)

I know! Me, too, cajunhillbilly. :) I can paint a little...'better' (?) or at least in a more regular style... but I don't like those paintings as much. I can really get into and 'feel' my outsider ones, and I enjoy doing them soooo much more.

Is this just cardboard or poster board. Or can it be watercolor paper? I love painting in water color. Cardboard will have to have a gel on it to paint right?

Yes, ladydy5 - this swap is for painting on cardboard or posterboard, not watercolor paper. I use gesso on my cardboard first to give it a good undercoat. But in a pinch I have just used white acrylic paint as an undercoat. I paint in acrylics. I live in the boonies and the nearest place to buy something like watercolor paper is a city about 50 miles away. ;) I mostly just make do with what I can get in the next town which is 11 miles away. ...Or what I have on hand.

Wanda, making do is a great idea. Thanks for the reply to my question. Still hesitant to do this but I will look into doing it.

I'm currently doing sculpture paintings with trash found while hiking. Using hot glue and cheap craft paints! Too bad cardboard is full of acid...Gesso certainly helps fix that though! I usually go to the suburbs and garbage pick the new houses being built, excellent artist materials and free paint! Retail products are for suckers.

noxvet ~ "You so crazy!". That's a compliment. I checked out your profile and your website. Now I want to make a found trash sculpture painting. On my road the main trash is an aluminum can or two, fast food paper junk (or used to be, before the teens at the beginning of the road moved away), a plastic bag or two and the occasional dog food bag or horse feed bag. I guess I'd have to walk farther if I want better trash to work with.

Haha! Better trash! Is there anything that I haven't yet heard of. Check out Virginia Fleck's plastic bag mandala's, I saw a couple and fell in love!

http://virginiafleck.com/uncategorized/311 My goodness! Those are amazing. Some seem very complex to me - unnervingly so. It makes me nervous to even think about making them. But they are so beautiful.

Even though I intended to start on my painting a week or more ago, I just started on it today. Finally. Well, I did get the 8X10 cut and gessoed right at first, and came up with an idea and sketched it out on paper, but I just started on the actual painting today. If everything goes well, I may be finished by the beginning of next week. Sooner, if I get some mojo going. Actually, I am doing two of these at the same time - a Halloween themed one for a group swap, and the non-themed one for this swap.