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Writer's picturePaint the Town Brisbane

Unusual Art forms

Article written by Valeria Lasso.


People use art to express themselves; to share their ideas and views on certain aspects, or simply to show off that they are very talented and can actually create nice things. A great part about creating art is that there aren’t many rules when it comes to it. You can basically do anything you want in order to express your artistic ideas.

There’s so much more to art than painting, drawing, and sculpting. The limit to making art is literally just your imagination.


To prove it, I thought I’d tell you about some unusual art forms that artists use to create art.


The other day as I was scrolling through my Instagram feed, I came across a 52-year-old man that makes dirty car art. This art form is very interesting because most of the time we wouldn’t assimilate dirty cars with art. Usually, when random people draw on dirty cars, the most they accomplish is probably a smiley face or a ‘WASH ME’. However, this man uses paintbrushes and other tools to create really cool effects on the dirt.



Photo from Twistedsifter.com

Shadow art is another interesting art form that has been around for quite a while, but I don’t believe it receives the recognition it deserves. Knowing how to move objects against a light in order to create a completely different image is a skill not many can claim to have. This is also a really fun and creative way to create art, and the best part is that it can be simple and fun but can also take a darker, shadier approach (ha ha).


Talking about shadows, fumage is also a really cool art form that I don’t see being talked about often enough, yet so many people use this art form in their art. In case you don’t know what fumage is, it’s basically a way of painting with smoke. The artists use smoke from the flame of a candle, match, or whatever source of fire they dare use to develop different patterns and effects on a surface. The smoke creates an airy and flowy appearance. It’s great to add movement to a picture.



Photo from Deviantart.com

Now, graffiti is definitely not an unusual art form. However, reverse graffiti is less common, and yet it’s a very beautiful way to create art. This art form can also be referred to as “clean tagging” and it’s very similar to the dirty car art. It consists of creating an artistic piece by removing dirt rather than adding paint. Cleaning and creating art at the same time seems like a win-win situation to me.


Artist Cecilia Webber came up with the really interesting concept of making flowers out of people. She takes photos of people standing in different positions and arranges them, fixing the colour in order to make it look like a flower. It’s an amazing and creative concept that is bound to become more popular amongst artists, and it will probably outgrow flowers and expand onto other kinds of figures and objects.



Photo from Ecology.com

There’s a material found in pretty much every kitchen that some artists have taken to a whole other level. Tin foil. Artists have used the tin foil to create different shapes and sculptures. Some artists use their own bodies or moulds to assimilate a human’s body part. This isn’t just a really fun thing to do, it also looks very beautiful and shiny.


While we’re talking about sculptures, let’s talk about some artists that make cool sculptures with rather unusual objects. One artist (Jennifer Maestre) started doing sculptures with nails, but because it was hard to arrange them, she decided to use colour pencils and crayons. The artists that do this, take the colour pencils and arrange them is all sorts of crazy and creative ways. The shape of the pencils allows for the sculptures to be arranged in hundreds of different ways. Basically, the only limit to these sculptures is your imagination. It’s an absolutely beautiful art form, but I’m sure it’s the last thing you want to trip on.


Let’s keep the sculpture streak going by talking about ‘Green Sculptures’. These are sculptures made out of bushes that are trimmed down into different shapes. They can go from simple animal shapes all the way to the Eiffel Tower and no, there are no plastic leaves involved in this art form. It’s all natural. It’s also extremely hard to make. It takes a lot of patience, and unlike drawing, you can’t undo or erase your mistakes. If you over-trim something, you have to wait for the bush to grow back, or use another bush. This art form is very popular in Asia where people honour the way humans coexist with nature, and it’s also starting to become popular in Europe.


The last unusual art form that we’re going to be looking at is ‘Hands Art’. You must have seen this art form at least once while scrolling through Pinterest or Instagram. Basically, the artists use their hand and paint animals on them, but they do such a good job that at first, when you see the picture, you can’t even tell that it’s someone’s hand.



Photo from Yoke.cc

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