In a previous article, we introduced you to the wondrous world of scrape painting. In that article, we listed down what materials you'll need, defined the scrape art technique, and got you started with some basic techniques – plus a few tips and tricks for good measure.
If you missed our intro to scrape art, feel free to come back to this article after checking it out here:
How to Make Scrape Art with Acrylic Paints
Try These Scrape Art Techniques Today
Now that we've wet your palate to this marvelous art form, it's time you do some scrape paintings of your own. If you're raring to go but can't yet decide on a subject, below you'll find some neat ideas that'll get you started on your scrape art journey.
So, what're you waiting for?
1. Abstract Landscape
What you'll need:
- Canvas/Paper
- Acrylic Paints
- Scraper
As a child, one of the very first subjects we painted were landscapes. Whether it's a flowery meadow with blue mountains at the back, a sandy beach that we visited for the first time, or our house and lawn, a landscape painting is a fun project anyone can do.
When it comes to scrape art, though, painting landscapes comes with a twist since you're basically painting everything in one go.
Here's how to make an abstract landscape:
- Start by lining up your colors either on the left or right side of your canvas.
- The top color should be the color of your sky, followed by some white for your clouds, dark blue or violet for your mountains, dark gray for background trees, dark green and brown for trees nearer to the foreground, and some black or green for the soil.
- Scrape the paint towards the other side. You can scrape each color gradually or scrape them all at once using a large squeegee.
- Well done! You've just made an abstract landscape painting.
You're not limited to colors in these instructions. Feel free to experiment and see if you can make one where the sun is setting, a beach scene, or a snowy landscape.
2. Heat Haze
What you'll need:
- Canvas/Paper
- Artist's paintbrushes
- Acrylic Paints
- Scraper
When a surface gets too hot, you can often see a mirage created by the difference in temperature between the surface and the air just above it. One common mirage is called a "heat haze" which causes things to seem blurry or shimmering.
Scrape painting is a great way to capture how this phenomenon looks. Here's what to do:
- Paint in your foreground as usual but leave the rest.
- Line your paint up like you would for landscape scrape painting. This time, though, overlap your sky color with or just below where your foreground's horizon would be.
- Scrape the paint.
- Good job! You've just captured the heat haze phenomena on your canvas.
From the hot roof of a vintage muscle car to the exhaust from a jet engine, there are lots of other subjects where you can apply this technique. Look around you or search the web for more inspiration.
3. Monochrome Rainbow
What you'll need:
- Canvas/Paper
- Artist's paintbrushes
- Acrylic Paints
- Scraper
The human eye is a very intricate and powerful organ. Our eyes not only let us tell the difference between light and dark but also lets us see thousands of distinct colors. We've been seeing color since prehistoric times but we were only able to mimic a fraction of our eyes' ability in 1928 when colored TV was first demonstrated publicly.
If you've ever wondered what the world would be like if all we saw were shades of gray, then there's no better example to make than a monochromatic rainbow. Here's how you can make it:
- First, pick 8 shades of grays. They should be close enough in shade to each other to mimic the transition from red to violet in a normal rainbow.
- Using the shade of gray that corresponds to blue (that would be the 6th gray if you count from the bottom of the rainbow), paint in your canvas to represent the sky.
- Choose a point for your rainbow to start and line up your grays from there.
- Scrape each color one at a time and clean off your scraper to prevent the colors from muddying each other.
- Add some clouds and Voila! You've got yourself a monochrome rainbow.
You can use the techniques in this subject to make other rainbow variations as well. All you need is to determine which colors represent each of the colors of a normal rainbow.
4. Heavenly Bodies
What you'll need:
- Canvas/Paper
- Contact Paper
- Protractor
- Circle cutter
- Acrylic Paints
- Scraper
Scientists estimate that there are 10 trillion heavenly bodies contained within our field of vision every time we look up at the night sky. Imagine what the faraway planets would look like.
Would they be gas giants with layers of earthy oranges, browns, and whites like Jupiter? Could some planets look like swirling pools of fluorescent purple and seafoam green?
Here's how you can make a fantastic imaginary planet of your own:
- Get some contact paper (the size of your canvas) and cut out a circle at the center then stick it on your canvas.
- Choose your color palette. Don't limit yourself to greens, browns, and blues. Your color palette can be as otherworldly as you want since you're literally painting another world.
- Line your colors up near the edge of the canvas, making sure you start outside the circle you precut.
- Scrape your colors one at a time or all together.
- Once you're satisfied, pull off the contact paper starting from one corner to reveal the alien planet you just painted!
5. Rune Stone
What you'll need:
- Canvas/Paper
- Acrylic Paints
- Scraper
- Liner Brush (optional)
Humanity has made art ever since our prehistoric ancestors painted on cave walls and boulders. Art has become so entwined in our cultures through the millennia that it became the genesis from which the ability to write came. In ancient times, people didn't have paper so they'd write on anything from wood, to clay, and even stone.
One fascinating form of written language/communication is runic inscriptions, usually found on standing stones. While rune stones were made for mundane purposes such as to mark important events, explain inheritance, or glorify dead family members, modern iterations in video games or RPGs give them magical properties – often with an accompanying glowing effect.
Scrape painting makes it easy to imitate ancient, worn, and mossy boulders inscribed with long-forgotten runic languages. Here's how you can achieve this effect:
- Pick out three shades of gray: a darker shade, a lighter shade, and a middle tone.
- Since stone is more than just gray, pick out a fourth color like a light golden brown and/or stucco brown. This will give your rune stone some interesting points. Of course, you'll also need some moss green.
- Make several rows of paint globs on your canvas, starting with your lightest gray at the top and your darkest gray at the bottom.
- Randomly intersperse some of your browns and greens among the grays, making sure not to place too much of the same color too close to each other.
- Scrape your paint starting from the top towards the bottom.
- Once you're satisfied with your stone surface, and while the paint is still wet, use the corner of your scraper to etch in some runes. You can draw from your imagination or find some inspiration online. And you've done it! Step back and enjoy your very own rune stone in 2D.
- Optionally, you can give your runes some magical pizzaz. Once the paint dries, dip your liner brush in some blue or orange paint then fill in your etched runes with your chosen color. Clean your brush and dip it in white (if you chose blue) or yellow (if you chose orange) and then paint some lines just in the center of your blue or orange runes to complete the magical glowing effect.