1d • General discussion
Making Art Outta Thin Air (and Trash Cans)
Hey, fellow starving artists!
Let's be honest. The "starving" part of our title isn't a romantic aesthetic—it's usually just a lack of money for canvas, decent paint, and, you know, food. But here's the secret sauce: a true artist's biggest resource isn't their bank account; it's their sheer audacity and ability to see value where others see trash.
Forget expensive art supply stores. We're going rogue. We're getting scrappy. We're going to create pieces so compelling, people will gladly pay you for your ingenuity.
Here are three battle-tested strategies to create sellable art for approximately $0.00.
1. The Dumpster Dive Deluxe (A.K.A. Found Object Art)
Forget the Louvre; your new supply store is the sidewalk and the big green bins behind local businesses. This isn't just about saving money; it’s about creating narrative. Every rusted screw, shattered piece of tile, or discarded length of wire has a story.
• The Mission: Embrace the aesthetic of scarcity. Scour construction sites (safely, of course!), alleyways, and bulk-trash days. Look for texture, shape, and contrast. Think beyond the object's original function.
• The Art: Assemble your bounty into incredible found-object sculptures or mixed-media collages. You're essentially being a historian of urban debris. People love art with a history, especially one they can easily relate to.
• The Secret Sauce: A little cheap superglue or construction adhesive is your friend here. If you can't afford that, sometimes a very heavy-duty thread or thin wire works just as well for assemblage!
2. The Thrift Store Flip (The Art of the Takeover)
You know that terrible landscape painting with the sad, dusty boat that’s been sitting at the thrift store for three years? Or that faded floral canvas your neighbor put out with a "FREE" sign? That's not just a canvas; that's your primed surface, already stretched and waiting.
• The Mission: Acquire old, unwanted art for free. Check neighborhood marketplaces (like Facebook groups or Nextdoor) where people often give away items that are just too bulky to toss. Swing by the curb on trash day.
• The Supplies: The next time you see a neighbor doing a renovation, politely ask if they have any leftover house paint they were planning to throw out. People often have gallons of perfectly good white, black, or random accent colors.
• The Art: Gesso is for the elite; house paint is for the rest of us! Use that donated house paint to completely cover the old painting, giving you a massive, free canvas. You can then use the other colors for bold, expressive, and large-scale abstract or street art-style work. The ghost of the old painting underneath sometimes even peeks through, giving your new piece a cool texture and history.
3. The Woodblock Hustle (Prints for the People)
Want to produce a series of pieces quickly and cheaply? Linocuts are great, but free wood is better.
• The Mission: Find a flat, discarded piece of wood—maybe a piece of plywood someone left behind, or even a section of a sturdy cardboard box that can hold up to carving (if wood isn't available). Use simple tools (even a sharp X-Acto knife or a box cutter, carefully!) to carve your design in relief—meaning you carve away the parts you don't want to print.
• The Ink: Again, that leftover household paint is clutch. Slather a thin, even coat onto your carved wood block.
• The Paper: You can buy rolls of cheap craft paper, but for the true no-budget, high-impact look, use free newspapers. The thinness of the paper and the existing text gives your prints a fantastic, raw, and transient quality that collectors love. It feels instantly contemporary and subversive.
Go forth and create, my friends. Your wallet might be empty, but your imagination is your superpower. Now go make something beautiful out of nothing!
What's the weirdest (or best!) free material you've ever used in a piece? Let me know in the comments! 👇
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Making Art Outta Thin Air (and Trash Cans)
skool.com/artist-survival-guide
Lessons on how to survive being a working artist. It’s not easy setting out to be a working artist I’m here to share knowledge and experience.
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