Acrylic Paint Skin Leftovers Can Be Used In Crafting!

I’ve been meaning to share these amazing looking remnants of dried paint that I removed from my grided plastic paint palette for a good month, and since everything has its time, the day has arrived! As you may or may not be aware, paint can be expensive, and not great for your pipes or water supply when washed down the sink, so those who are concerned with the environment at the very least let their paint leftovers dry and then toss them in the garbage, hopefully. I never have left over paint because I use it to paint the next page in my sketchbook, or cover a milk carton or a box or anything that happens to be paintable, because why not? So how is is then that I have paint skins at all? Well one can’t exactly lick the palette clean, so there are always some remains, and when they get layered over a few days the results can be thick enough to peel off, whether you are using a plastic palette, a plastic plate, or a piece of waxed paper or parchment paper.

And I’ll let you in on a little secret, when you peel them off you get to see the glossy underside, which can also be amazing looking! So why am I telling you this? Because as you know, any opportunity to be creative is great, and when you realize that you can use acrylic paint skins in collage or as a part of an acrylic painting, well, a whole new realm of creativity may just unfold before your very eyes! It is true, that the paint pouring community has also come to realize that they can use left over paint to make sheets of acrylic paint skin, which is of course prefereable to waste, but that Isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about using the accidental mix of colors that happens as a result of your painting practice or recent craft with paint. And yes, these paint skins do have dimension, but that is fine and also perfectly archival assuming you adhere them to your acrylic painting with acrylic glue, such as matte medium or gel medium. And friends, you could even make a fun mosaic by cutting the paint skins with scissors, and some folks use particularly lovely little areas to make jewelry! So give it some thought, and in the mean time, have a closer look at my “modern art”, now if only I had a dollhouse I could hang these in the entry, right?

Wow, right? Amazing how it really looks like it could be a giant abstract painting at the local modern art museum. Hmmm, now there’s an idea, giant paint skin art!

The next step is using some of the paint skins I’m collecting in a collage or as part of a painting, you’ll be the first to know if it happens successfully!