For many  years I have been working with cut paper, which I shred and rearrange on panels and then draw and paint on top of.  The upside of this is that it provides a unique working surface and ties in directly to the subject matter I've been exploring (man-made and natural systems) by making the surface itself a type of system.  The downside is it's almost impossible to understand what you're looking at if you only see the work on a screen. 

This page offers a few alternate views so online viewers can see exactly what that looks like.