Want to know all about pulp painting?
May Babcock, Living Fossils 3, abaca and gingko biloba paper pulp, 23 x 32.5 inches, 2021. This is a pulp painting that I made!!!
You know how you reeaallly want to know all about pulp painting / paper painting? That is, a painting made entirely of paper pulp?
Maybe you have a few papermaking books, but they don’t cover any details on how to do it. Nevermind YouTube videos, gross.
You especially want to know how in the world do you MAKE pulp that you can use for pulp painting? Everyone talks about something called “overbeaten” pulp that is squeezable, but you still can’t figure it out. 😭
Relax, I’m here to help.
Let me break it down for you, at the very least.
What is pulp painting, in one sentence
Pulp painting is where you pour, squeeze, or layer colored paper pulps to create a painting or image.
How to do pulp painting fast & easy
For the impatient beginner with limited equipment, here’s how to do pulp painting fast, cheap, and easy:
Make paper pulp by finding different colored paper scraps, put the scrap paper in a kitchen blender with water, and blend to make different paper pulp colors.*
Find a window screen and a squeeze bottle (like for ketchup) with the nozzle cut off to widen it, so the pulp can come out. Squeeze the pulp onto the screen. If it’s clogging the squeeze bottle, thin it out with water. Or, just pour pulp on with a cup instead. Layer it up thick and sturdy! If it’s too thin, it will fall apart.
Leave it on there to dry. It may take a couple days to dry. Best to place in a dry, sunny, warm spot. Once it’s 100% dry, peel it off the screen carefully.
*If you’ve never made paper pulp with a blender and scrap papers, I have a free recycled papermaking tutorial over here. In there you’ll learn the correct amounts of water and scrap paper to put in the blender, etc. etc.
This brief outline is a simple way to get started with pulp painting. Your paper painting will be chunky, textured, and on the abstract side. Embrace the chunk!
FYI there’s a whole world of pulp painting
If you can believe it, there’s an entire hand papermaking field where artists have done pulp painting for decades, and have developed a wide range of techniques, much more than what I shared here.
Those specialized methods, pulps, and materials will require more investment in materials and your attention span compared to what I outlined above. For example:
Many use “overbeaten” pulps. You make overbeaten pulp with a loud heavy machine called a Hollander paper beater, which refines pulps to a smoother consistency. Then, you can make finer lines and have more control with pulp painting. That’s what I used for my artwork far above.
You may also hear about “pigmenting.” Many artists, including myself, pigment pulps to turn them into a full range of colors. That way, you don’t have to rely on scrap paper colors.
As for pulp painting techniques, there’s so, so, SO many, and each artist has their own unique approach. Too much to cover in one article. Exciting!
Ready to dive into pulp painting?
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That’s also where you’ll hear about my online papermaking courses where I teach pulp painting 😱.
Huzzah!