Josh Harriman Studio

Tag: found objects

  • 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.