What kind of art doesn't leave a mess?

There is a delightful room that I enjoy spending time in.  But it has a price.  It's known as the Tidy Room and out of respect for those who made it enjoyable, we don't do messy activities when we visit.

But it would be a lovely place to sit and do some art.  

What kind of art doesn't leave a mess?

Drawing with pencil risks eraser crumbs.
Paint is right out as I'm too clumsy to risk this.
pen risks dropping the pen (which I do frequently) or spilling ink if the pen leaks.


What's a tidy solution for the Tidy room?  

Digital?Lol!
More seriously, needle point, knitting,or crochet.
Maybe chainmail.

Origami

Do you consider poetry art?

An artist that I have been collaborating with makes all of her work biodegradable by intent. Unbleached paper, organic inks (she uses biochar extensively), and wood or bamboo for frames and mounting. After an exhibit she'll usually take everything and put it into her compost pile. I suspect her studio just gets a daily sweep and empty.

Drawing with colored pencils seems neat to me.  

I never use erasers.

Music, if like poetry, it counts.

Seems like an excellent chance to explore drawing without the chance of erasing- draw over, draw differently, like Anne says, draw with different tools.

I do a lot of knitting/crochet in transit- visiting in the hospital, plane rides, etc. No mess unless you're trimming in ends or working with some sort of really weird fiber (it's happened, but easily avoided by selecting materials).

I think embroidery might be a good balance of size, artistic expression, and cleanliness.

Oh, pencil crayons.   I haven't done much with those before.

From a guy with a potter's wheel in the basement, don't do that... art is messy, it's a tactile experience involving blending media in ways not normally found.... about the only clean art I can think of is digital art, which I occasionally use to it sketch out rough layouts, not finished works. I have a stylist pen that is touch sensitive for various brush strokes, but pales in comparison to using "real" brushes. My suggestion is a sketch pad (my pads usually have a pen with string taped to pen so I don't loose it) and ball point pen  to doodle with while your mind wanders. If you get something you want to expand on then move to a suitable spot and fling some paint!!

Thanks for this thread R and the helpful list of ideas everyone. I have to add whittling to the inventory. “Whittling?” one might ask, “what about all those messy wood chips? The key to whittling in a clean room (aside from skill and chip control) is the over-sized soft cottony apron that hangs over one’s neck and catches the beautifully clean slices of wood on the cloth covered lap. I must thank Willie Sundqvist, wood carver extraordinaire, for revealing this in his lovely book, Swedish Carving Techniques. The book’s back cover shows a picture of him carving in the family living room wearing one of his many long aprons to cover his lap and collect the shavings. Sundqvist writes on page 4 of his introduction:

At one time, the kitchen was the room that was kept warmest, and it was there that people spent the most time, making and repairing things. The women carded wool, spun yarn, wove and knitted. Men made [wooden] utensils and other implements for the household and farm….
Those who work with fiber and fabric are allowed to practice their craft in the home and to enjoy the company of others at the same time. Why shouldn’t the woodworker who carves be able [to] pursue his [her] interest likewise? … I also feel that carvers should be able to take their work with them when they visit their friends or sit in public places. I even carve when I am traveling on the train.
The living-room couch and the train coach do demand that you have a cloth apron to catch the shavings in. You need to practice carving in such a manner that at least most of the shavings really do land in the apron.

https://archive.org/details/swedish-carving-techniques-wille-sundqvist

Cleanliness is the art of godliness ...?

I am a messy artist myself but I love your question.
Record your musings into your phone or other device while there ... then take a breath and paint or sketch elsewhere ... maybe?
Peace, Jo

I use fineliners (or 'sharpies') to draw and doodle while sitting on the couch. Never 'made a mess'.
Here's one of my doodles:

Mar Viega wrote:Record your musings into your phone or other device while there ...

Remember "Etch-a-scetch"? Is there a modern version that actually allows you to draw with a stylus on a screen?More like an "electronic tablet" with software that allows one to draw on the screen?

I'm *no* good at drawing with a mouse, although I understand some people are quite good at it. I think experts use a more specialized mouse than what I have.

Jay Angler wrote:Remember "Etch-a-scetch"? Is there a modern version that actually allows you to draw with a stylus on a screen?More like an "electronic tablet" with software that allows one to draw on the screen?

Yes, my kids have several of these, though they are rather small. But I'll bet you could find bigger ones.

As a digital illustrator and 3D modeler I'm a little biased towards digital.
There are several programs out there for free that are awesome.
Krita is a painting program that can simulate watercolor,oils, pencil, chalk, markers, ink, all kinds of stuff.
Inkscape is a vector program that great for more graphic style art.
Gimp has painting ability also, though it's more of a photomanipulation program.
Blender is a 3D modeling and animation program that's practically industry standard.
All of these are FREE.
I use them all.
I got a Huion 680S pen tablet to draw with for around $60

https://d-alien.com

They leave no mess.
You can make mistakes and take risks without creating waste because you can always hit Ctrl>Z
You use almost no resources (except electricity)
Once you have your art exactly like you want it, you can now print it on anything, any size - canvas, mugs, T-shirts, greeting cards.
No mess
no waste

This is a reusable writing water cloth. I have a board that uses material like this. You can paint with a water brush or practice calligraphy and it dries after about 5-10 minutes and disappears. Then you use it all over again. I used it a lot when I was practicing Chinese calligraphy and I give it to little kids to paint with when they are tiny and i don't feel like dealing with mess.

There are fabric versions and more paper feeling versions, ones with pretty frames or just plain material that you can fold or roll up.

For now we have settled on graphite pencil (2B or harder) and a kneaded eraser.   This avoids smudging from soft graphite and the kneaded eraser doesn't make eraser crumbs.

It's going pretty well and good to train me to be more careful not to make a mess when making art.

To add to a slightly dated discussion:

When doing art on the go, I really like watercolors + a water paintbrush. It's not 100% entirely spill-free (You could drop the painbrush while it's full of color I guess), but I was comfortable enough letting well-behaved toddlers paint with that in a coffee shop for instance.

It's a great setup for trains, restaurants, hotel rooms...

Watercolor pencils are another interesting alternative. You can draw "dry" when you're in a sensitive place, and apply water with a brush back at home.

With very young children (or adults who don't care about a lasting result), a black slate (preferably one that has some traces of chalk leftover), a paintbrush and a container with just a spoonful of water can provide hours of mess-free entertainment. The worst that can happen is a little water on the surrounding surfaces. This is similar to Jenny Wright's water cloth, but more easily available.

I got a set of 6 derwent inktense watercolour pencils and these are a lot of fun.  One needs so little pencil on the page to get an intense colour when water is added, that these hardly ever need sharpening so no extra mess there.  

I can do the drawing in the tidy room, then use a water brush to activate the colour when I get home.

One of my favourite doodling pens is an ordinary ball point pen.
If it's of a good quality, it doesn't mess at all. Some lesser quality ones blob, and the blob might catch on the side of your hand and get messy.
But give it a try, it's surprisingly satisfying!

Well, I've been saying for years that reading books is a lost art, so there's that.  

When it comes to homemade arts and crafts (the only real true art, in my opinion, not the modern nonsense in museums), I had an epiphany once while watching kids create all kinds of stuff.  

Have fun.
Get messy.  
Make memories.  
Enjoy the moment.
Smile and laugh a lot.

I understand not wanting to make a mess, I do.  I'm a very tidy and orderly guy.  And I hate glitter more than most things in this world!  But, I also needed to learn to just relax, not be in control all the time, and not worry about the small stuff nearly as much.  My solution for the mess is to put a plastic table cloth on the table or floor, and put an old bed sheet on top of that.  Then let loose and just enjoy yourself!

Nina Surya wrote:One of my favourite doodling pens is an ordinary ball point pen.
If it's of a good quality, it doesn't mess at all. Some lesser quality ones blob, and the blob might catch on the side of your hand and get messy.
But give it a try, it's surprisingly satisfying!

My favourite ballpoint pen for drawing (incl. sketching and doodling) is the BIC M10 (the pen with the special clicking system).