the lowly cardboard box

There is something satisfying about peeling the surface of a cardboard box.  The wonderful reveal of the ridges and waves of brown under the surface of the box are quite intriguing.  

Find a box that has a nice side that has not been crushed or broken in any way.  Cut it down to the size of the page you want to do.  (I would first check the sides to see which way the ridges run.  For this page they run horizontal which allows me to use the ridges as a horizon line.)  I used a pencil to draw my image on the surface.  Think negative/positive but since you will be painting over it, your drawing wont show anyway.  I then took a sharp exacto blade and cut around the edges of my drawing, making sure not to cut through to the back of the page.  Cut around ALL drawing shapes that will be staying.  That way, if you peel too quickly, you wont actually peel off the other drawings in the process.  After all of the surface was removed and the ridges were exposed, I took a sponge with paint and rubbed it across the ridges.  I let that dry and then painted the actual drawing.  The last part was to draw in any details with a sharpie.  As you can see, I thought storing it in a three ring binder was a good idea.

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