Josh Harriman Studio

Tag: found object

  • Stencils and Circuits

    Studio view
    Boston Studio in 2014

    In 2013 – 2014 I was really interested in working with shapes found on circuit boards. I liked the designs of the boards and I also liked the idea of building Sci-fi worlds. I made a piece using a couple different stencils, which I printed in layers. This made it easier to create distinct colors in specific areas. I used a different color acrylic for each layer and printed it on a black piece of cardstock. First I did the blue gray layer, then added the white with a second stencil. The overall image is roughly 16″ x 20″.

    The dark background added to the futuristic idea and reminded me of 80s movies like Blade runner and Terminator. Having a couple different stencils meant that I had to think about registration, or how to line up the different stencils so that the different layers sync up.

    Alot of the work I was making at that time was done on paper, printed and painted. I was cutting it, tearing it, collaging it and layering it. While the circuit piece was done using a traditional stencil that I cutout with an Xacto knife, this larger maze-inspired work in progress was made using masking tape. I had taken a sheet of paper that had already been painted blue and taped over it to create the maze of verticals and horizontals. Then I applyed black paint. After peeling off the tape mask the original blue paint layer was still visible underneath.

    I was using mostly straight pieces of tape but here in the middle of this photo above you can see there were a couple pieces of tape that I tore to make irregular strands. Doing this adds an organic quality to the mask and also gets away from the repetitive tape edges.

    Pieces of paper can also be shaped and assembled and then attached over a paint surface to build a mask. Adding pieces of paper (like the ones below) and then taping over them or lightly gluing them to the surface creates more opportunities for unique masking of the art surface.

  • Masking and Working with Stencils (Part 3)

    In the last post I mentioned how you should keep the piece of paper that you cut out from your stencil. You can use it to block an area of paper by painting the space around it, a technique called masking. Using the same brush and paint as I did in my last post, I painted over the piece of paper I cut out to make the scissors shape.

    When I pull the mask away this is how it looks on the printed paper. The area underneath where the mask was should be almost completely free of paint. You can continue carefully painting the rest of the paper without the stencil.

    Once the red paint had dried I went back and put the original stencil over the scissor shape. I then painted that shape with the light red color. So with this process of alternating between the stencil and the masking paper I was able to apply two separate layers of paint and keep the stencil shape intact.

    Intermission (2 Recent Field Recordings)

    Using Found Objects

    If you’re interested in trying a more free form approach to masking off areas of your paper you can try working with found objects. For the next series I collected some fallen leaves and assembled them on my paper. Since these leaves are not sitting flat on the paper there will not be as clear of an edge to the shapes.

    The next step will be to apply the paint/ink. Since these objects do not sit flat on the paper I chose to use a small spray bottle instead of a brush to make the print. I filled the bottle with sumi ink, which is a water-based black ink. I sprayed the ink over the leaves, keeping the spray pointed in the same direction throughout.

    The 2 examples below are what I came up with using this technique. This process produced looser and more organic results than would be acheived with a paper mask or stencil.

  • 11/18/25

    Create a Cohesive Set of Shapes to Unlock a New Composition

    1. For this project select a set of objects from around the house. You will use these objects to create shapes that you will build a composition with. Try to select a range of shapes and sizes.
    2. After selecting the objects put the objects down on a sheet of bristol paper. Hold the object with one hand and do a light tracing of the outside of the object. As an alternative you can use the object to mask off the area that it covers, as shown in the example below.

    3. Once you have the shapes in place you can begin to shade in your composition, add texture, or color as desired. You can also add detail to the inside of the shapes.

    The goal of this assignment is to use found objects to create a set of shapes and have them relate to each other. The shapes can be modified, added to, joined, erased, and otherwise changed. But ultimately the goal of the assignment is to create a unified composition and to explore different shapes and how they relate to each other in that composition.