Paint Art Using Everyday Objects

Artist space gooose reveals how to banish creative block by using an item from his tool box as the foundation for some intergalactic art

- Eric Geusz

It’s easy to get stuck in an artistic rut. It happens to me all the time! The blank page can be intimidating, and even scary. You can get lost out there in the void, just like the emptiness of space. Sometimes all you need is something to grab on to, something familiar yet unexpected, to help get you orientated and moving in the right direction.

In this workshop, I’ll show you how to banish creative block by making something cool out of something ordinary. I’m going to take a boring object and transform it into an epic spaceship fit for a space opera. The great thing about spaceships is that they can look like anything: a stapler, a bag clip, a pencil… even one of your shoes!

For this project, I’m starting with a sturdy pipe wrench. When designing spacecraft, I ask myself questions like, “How big is it? Where is the bridge? How is it powered? Does it have engines and/or thrusters?”

Once I’ve found an object, I take pictures of it from all angles, trying to find an interesting viewpoint that also shows off its silhouette. In terms of this pipe wrench, I like the way its jaws open to looking like a docking port, inspiring me to transform it into a space station. Here’s how I do it.

1 Set up a perspective grid