Why are you going to buy 20 cans of shaving foam?

                                    (Above and below) James Dorward's silhouette.

I like 'surrealist drawing techniques', methods of creating unintentional magic, surprises and inspiration. When you are jaded, or in this case it is drawing to the end of the academic year and everyone has been bogged down in preparing portfolios and completing course work, these techniques give a fresh breath of creativity and fun.
It has been a while since I shared a lesson with you as well, so here goes.

For this activity which is great for all ages you need:

A tray,
A can of shaving foam,
Three small containers of runny paint (different colours)
A scraper.
A stick or pointed object.
Paper

Cover the tray in a layer of shaving foam (I then smoothed this like icing a cake or smoothing meringue).
Then scatter splashes or spots of paint over the surface.
Take your stick, handle of paintbrush etc and draw swirls and patterns through the paint.
Lay the paper gently on top and pat down, you can see when it makes contact with the paint.
Peel it away from foam then scrape the foam from the paper to reveal a marbled effect.
You can use your tray of foam again and again, adding more paint and drawing patterns through it each time, until it becomes too muddy for you. We used the resulting marble effects to look and draw into, for collage, or to create silhouettes over like my student James Dorward's example above. Enjoy yourselves it's fun!