Artist Share Their Favorite Odd Tools

A lot of artists use odd tools you’d never expect while creating. That’s one of the fun things about creating art is there are no rules. The more creative you get the more you’ll learn and grow as an artist! experimenting, trying new things, and practicing is vital to growing your artistic abilities. That means finding odd tools to use while painting will also introduce you to different effects, textures, or just help figure out a more simple way of doing something. So I thought how interesting would it be to hear from some really inspiring artist on the odd tools they use and how they use them. So here it is!

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Pheobe Gander is known for her stunning alcohol ink and resin pieces. Here’s what she shared:

•I definitely use some ‘odd tools’ that I wouldn’t have thought would end up as part of my ‘artist tool repertoire’!! My trusty heat gun is definitely a fave and something now I couldn’t live without (I actually have two!) I use one with a controllable temperature setting – this comes in handy for my alcohol ink work as when I’m working on synthetic paper if the heat is too high the paper will warp. Then I use it on a high setting if I’m working with resin. This is important to get rid of air bubbles in the resin and also helps to create interesting reactions with the resin pigments. I also use a blow torch, again to get rid of air bubbles.

•You can use any type of blow torch – there are specific art ones now but a chefs torch or one from a hardware store is just as good! Obviously it goes without saying that you need to be extremely careful and cautious when using a heat gun and blow torch!

•Another must have but unusual thing I use is a respirator, very important when you’re working with materials that produce fumes such as alcohol and resin. I work in my garage and always have the door and windows open too when possible. I wear disposable gloves as resin is VERY messy! And for me a skin irritant. I try to use the same pair for as long as possible because I don’t like using ‘disposable’ items but unfortunately that is a drawback from working with resin.

•I use a indoor greenhouse with a plastic cover to keep my resin pieces dust free whilst they are curing. It’s important to make sure the shelves are level and covered so no drips fall onto pieces on a lower level. Lastly, I use a cheap plastic cake decorating stand for working on round resin pieces, because it spins around and means I can get to all the sides easily!

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Ali Saren is known for her beautifully unique style. Heres what she shared:

•Sometimes a tool isn’t as traditional as you might think…it might be something you have right in your kitchen, medicine closet, or something you find at a hardware store.  Here are a few of my favorites over the years that I have used with different mediums:

•Dental floss:  Don’t be afraid to try new things:  used, encased in encaustic paint to create lines…but I end up leaving it ON THE PAINTING as an embellishment if you can believe it!

•Bubble wrap: Paint it, press it, drag it,…squares or circles, this can create a really fun effect with acrylic paint and inks.

•Petroleum jelly:  This isn’t a tool I use often, but it can be great for mixed media artists and it might be available right in your medicine closet.  Apply petroleum jelly in a pattern on one layer of a painting. It acts like a resist when paint is applied around and on top…it doesn’t really dry and just wipes off!

•Bleach Pen:  Use a bleach pen on top of acrylic or ink to create lines, dots, and patterns to add interest and texture to your piece!

•Plastic wrap:  create texture with acrylic paint, alcohol ink and more.  Lay down some paint and cover with saran wrap! Let it dry and it leaves a texture that you can embellish or layer with other colors.

•Hair comb:  Creates great textures in acrylic mediums and pasts, and move ink around in an unpredictable way.

•laser temperature gun:  This is a great tool for when I am warming up resin and want to make sure Parts A and B are at or near the same temp – makes for better mixing, and less air bubbles!  Which means, a better, stress-free application to my art pieces!

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Laura is known for her vibrant beautiful alcohol ink art. Heres what she shared:

• dropper for the inks and blending solution/isopropyl alcohol.

• tiny spatula. This is actually from a kitchen supplies store. I use it kind of like a super flexible palette knife, it’s good for smooshing, textures and whatnot. 

• clay shaper. Bought this a decade ago not realising it was for clay and used to use it a lot to create textures in acrylic mediums. Nowadays I use it more to create movement in mixed media pieces, the silicone end CONT doesn’t end up clumpy and ruined like my brushes do!

• deer foot brush. I don’t often do intentional dot work or use brushes much in my ink art, because I prefer to use a mist sprayer (plus, I’ve ruined a few brushes with mixed media )…but when I have, this has been the brush I use most and it has survived well!

• plastic airplane teaspoon. I have a weird habit of collecting these little teaspoons on flights (and the plastic cups they serve tea/water, they’re good for ink washes) CONT.

• I really like finding uses for single-use plastics, and think these make great little stirrers.

• straw for blowing inks around, I’m forever forgetting which end has just rolled in ink before sticking it in my mouth!

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Taylor Pendleton is known for her many different beautiful styles. Heres some different tools I’ve used:

• Straw/ can of air to blow paint or ink around. The can of air is much stronger than the straw, but I find using a straw I have a bit more control.

• I like to use Tissue paper, Plaster of Paris, chunks of stryofoam, cake sprinkles, and sand all to create different textures.

• Yarn to create different effects in fluid art – like fluid art flowers. I’ve also used a sink strainer and a ziplock baggie to create some different effects

• WD-40 and silicone to create cells in fluid art.

• I love finding new odd tools to add to my collection and experiment with. Heres my favorite places to look- kitchen tool stores, hardware stores, and the dollar store!

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Mary Redmann is known for her stunning resin art. Heres what she shared:

• My main body of work is created with resin as the main medium, and throughout the years I’ve found a few things that make the work considerably easier

• A credit card – This could be an expired credit card, a used gift card, or something similar. When the resin is about 1.5 hours into curing, I use the card to scrape off the resin drips at the bottom of the canvas/wood panel before they have solidified. Make sure you hold it flush with the bottom to get off as much resin as possible. This saves a lot of time compared to sanding and taping.

• Chopsticks – I use these to both drip the resin onto the canvas, as well as to manipulate shapes in the design.

• A PVC tent – As fluid artists know, it can be devastating to leave your work to dry, only to find pesky little flies in your new masterpiece upon returning. I cut up PVC pipes, and put them together with PVC connectors to form a 3D square or rectangular shape, which is then covered with plastic sheeting to protect the art from flies and dust during the curing period. A standard size I keep on hand in 54 x 54”, which conveniently covers a 48 x 48” piece.

• A straw – A good way to move a particular color around on the canvas, creating cool shapes.

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Eva Maria is known for her pretty fluid art. Heres what she shared:

• “Everly artist has their own technique, creating art can come from the most uncommon use of tools. These here are some of mine.” Items one would find in a kitchen and home are part of my studio tools:

• Kitchen digital scale – to measure the viscosity of my paints and mediums 

• Spatulas and ruler – used to create texture 

• Blow dryer and straws – used to move my paint around and create flow

• Blow torch.- to remove any bubble and create beautiful cells

• Measuring cup – to mix my resin

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Carly Hollis is known for her vibrant and beautiful alcohol ink art. Heres what she shared:

• So along with regular paint brushes and tools, I also use a few things found around the home.

•  Window squeegee for moving ink and fluid acrylics around on larger paintings.

•  Various spatulas and cake scrapers to move paint around and layer onto the canvas.

• Makeup brushes for blending acrylics on canvas. I find they are super soft and cheaper than paint brushes.

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Elena Corradino is known for her many beautiful styles. Heres what she shared:

•I think the tooth brush is my fave odd tool. I put a little 3 in 1 silicone oil on it and use it to gently spray my paintings instead of mixing silicone in. Creates a really beautiful effect! 

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Amy September is known for creating stunning resin art. Heres what she shared:

• So you know how you keep the canvas elevated from the table, I used to use plastic cups, but they get clumsy and tip over and stuff.  So I bought like 8 bricks and I wrapped them in plastic.. like a present!  And now I just use my plastic wrapped bricks.  And since the resin peels off of them, I can use them over and over and take some away if it is a smaller piece or add more of it is a big piece.  I like my plastic wrapped bricks hahah. Much more stable then the plastic cups and they are always level.

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Sarah Caudle is known for the dreamy beachscapes she creates. Heres what she shared:

• My studio is full of amazing art supplies and tools, but oddly I prefer simply working with my hands. There’s something about fluidly guiding the paint and resin and bringing the panel to life that feels so satisfying. Plus, it’s so much fun to not worry about getting a little messy with your hands!

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Kelly Johnson is known for creating awesome fluid art. Heres what she shared:

• I like to use cardboard! I’ll cut strips of cardboard and use that to move my paint around, especially when doing an acrylic pour with a swipe!!

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Irina Bernshteyn is known for her beautiful creations. Heres what she shared:

• Well, first and foremost- I do not create to sell, I create because this is who I am, its my way to relax and unwind(3 kids is no joke). I never make art only in one direction-I like to explore and mix, until I get tired of it. Then I move on to the next product. If my art sells, great! It means something I envisioned was to someone else’s liking and that person wanted to have my art in their home to enjoy.

• I lately used an Orange Peel wall texture spray to create a custom piece for a client.

• Sculpting and carving tools come handy when I experiment with wall patching compound on a wooden panel.

• No tool is odd when comes to art- some artists paint with spoon when creating dimensional art.

• I love to paint with my bare hands. It messes up with my skin and fingerprints, but I like to feel the paint  I like touching it, especially if its a different viscosity.

• One of the weirdest tools I use is my old makeup brushes and lipsticks. I blend with the Kabooki brush (the biggest brush for the blush) and I’ve used lipstick to create a custom shade on a resin coaster.

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Caroline Bond is known for her beautiful clocks as well as art. Heres what she shared:

• I love to use whatever I can get my hands on! Sticks, feathers, leaves, combs, old credit cards with different notches cut into them, bubble wrap… anything that creates an interesting texture or pattern. I used to be very rigid in my art-making but have discovered that by loosening up, experimenting and letting go of any preconceived ideas, art becomes a lot more rewarding.

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Anke is known for creating unique and beautiful pieces of art. Heres what she shared:

• My odd tool is a freezing bag filled with left over napkins. I fill it up with napkins to the exact hight of my canvas with the pins to lift it off the surface. Before pouring resin on the canvas I place this bag in the middle underneath the canvas. This keeps the canvas from sagging in in the middle when you put resin on without leaving any marks in your paintings.

Julie Marie is known for her stunning alcohol ink art. Heres what she shared:

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• One of the most essential, yet unappreciated tools I use is % 100 isopropyl alcohol. Without it I would not be able to paint with alcohol ink. The isopropyl alcohol is what makes the ink move and create texture. When I started my art journey, I very quickly became aware of just how important the right kind of alcohol was. I thought that the normal antiseptic 65% isopropyl alcohol you can buy in any chemist would be sufficient, but realized that it did not give the desired effect. I soon discovered that getting isopropyl alcohol with a higher percentage than 65% was not easy. Apparently chemists in Australia are not allowed to sell anything with an alcohol percent above 65%. I know, because I tried a lot of chemists. Finally I found one, who had alcohol stashed away in the back room. It was not without suspicion the chemist asked me what exactly I was going to do with the alcohol. With a 4-month-old baby in the pram, extremely sleep deprived and possibly a bit smelly (showers are for people without babies) I must have looked pretty desperate. However, he believed me when I ensured him that I was not going to drink my sorrows away, but paint with it. He disappeared in to the back room and came back with a small brown bottle without any labels. He then proceeded to the checkout desk while explaining that he was actually not able to sell it to me, so he would have to write it up as something else. And so, I bought illegal alcohol from a chemist! When I ran out of alcohol soon after, I did not dare to go back and test my luck. Instead I discovered that you can buy 95% isopropyl alcohol from Bunnings – a hardware store in Australia. I guess the point of the story is: Isopropyl alcohol with a percentage of 95 or higher is necessary to create alcohol ink artworks, but don’t try to buy it from a chemist, at least if you are in Australia. Instead go to Bunnings, or even better, a wholesaler like Sydney Solvents.

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Tammy Medsker is known for her beautiful creations. Heres what she shared:

• Odd tools, I feel like most of tools are odd when working with resin. I Imagine wearing surgical gloves while wielding and torch and breathing through a respirator is quite a site for someone on the outside looking in . 

• A great tip when working with resin is to double glove!  That way you can just strip one layer off and keep moving on, but my favorite thing in the art studio other than resin and pigment are alcohol wipes!  I use them to wipe my hands, tools and the occasional sticky blob that ends up finding its way to the strangest areas on my body, can anyone say “earlobe”??

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Suzi Orth Is known for her bright and beautiful art. Heres what she shared:

• These are some of my favorite “Odd tools”  I like to use in creating my Alcohol Ink Resin Pieces.

•  Compressed Air Duster is always great to blow alcohol ink vs. a straw. Especially when you’re wearing a respirator mask, it is difficult to use the straw so they work perfectly.

• I also like to use a micro tweezer which works great to pick up gold flakes or large glitter when I want to add it to my resin.

•  I also like to use silicone brush, basting brush or a rubber spatula to apply my resin to my artwork. When dried, the resin easily peels off the tools, so there’s really no washing involved!

•  Hand file is great for filing delicate pieces such as my petri dish resin coasters. The edges will come out rough so it is nice to have this file in hand.

• I use my cookie cutter to trace my alcohol ink yupo paper, then cut it out to place inside my silicone baking mold, to create these round resin coasters. When in doubt look through your kitchen tools. You’ll be amazed how many of them become useful!

Thank You To All The Amazing Artist Who Shared!

Thanks for stopping by my blog! I hope you enjoyed hearing about all the odd tools artist use. I know I’ve definitely learned some really useful tools I can’t wait to try out! What odd tools do you use while creating?  Are you gonna try out any of these odd tools? If so which ones? I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you enjoyed this post please share it and follow me on social media!

XOXO, Taylor