Surrealist techniques

Here you have some of the most popular automatic techniques used by Surrealists.

Artistic terms, such as materials and tools used for painting, are in bold

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Frottage: In frottage, the artist takes a pastel or pencil or another drawing tool and makes a rubbing over an uneven surface. It was developed by Ernst in 1925; he was inspired by an ancient and scrubbed wooden floor. The patterns of the graining suggested strange images to him.

Grattage: a (usually wet) paint is scraped off the canvas. It was employed by Max Ernst and Joan Miró.

Decalcomania: is a process of spreading thick paint upon a canvas then—while it is still wet—covering it with further material such as paper or aluminium foil. This covering is then removed again before the paint dries, and the resultant paint pattern becomes the basis of the finished painting.