As precautions are being taken to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, many of us have found ourselves at home. Marywood has taken many steps to ensure the safety of its students, faculty, and staff during this time, and larger cities like New York City are working to do the same for their citizens. Even Broadway is closing, which means that sadly, the shows won’t go on.

Since it’s recommended that people avoid public places as much as possible, it might be hard to get your hands on art supplies during this time. I’m going to talk about how you can use basic supplies found at home in new ways!

So let’s look around, you can probable find supplies like ink pens, markers,  glue, crayons, strings or yarn, paper towels, coffee grounds, maybe even hot glue and Caulking. All of these things can be used in different ways to create something new!

You can use ink pens and markers like watercolor. As you apply your marks, take a wet brush and drag it along where you are going to mark with just a little water, then make your mark and the ink will spread into the wet spot. It’s a neat thing to experiment with if you like that kind of painting and it has a cool effect on illustrations and landscapes.

Things like string, coffee grounds and paper towels are great for adding texture. Dip any of these items into glue and arrange it on your painting surface. This could be messy but a lot of fun! You can even paint over it with a solid color and see what happens, or leave it as is. You can also use the strings and yarn to apply paint onto a canvas in a unique way. Silverware and other utensils you can find around the household can also be used!

If you have crayons, you can draw and color with them but you can also melt them! Melting crayons onto a canvas adds color and texture to a piece and you can even carve into it after it’s dried. Candles can be used for similar effects.

Now for hot glue and Caulking. Hot glue is a neat thing; I have used this a few times… sadly I’m out of this at the moment but I like to draw with it and build up a surface. But be careful not to burn yourself! Caulking can have the same effect but you don’t heat it up. That means you will have to use this mixture quickly, and it will dries over a few hours. You can also add it in with paint to get some color and texture!

Post some fun things that you have tried to use and if you can feel free to post a picture as well. I’d love to hear from you and your endeavors.  

Thanks for reading.