If you read my babbling on 'About Me' then you most likely already know I'm an Artist. Painting and creating new pieces of art is my absolute everything. For the most part one could throw me in the Abstract department when it comes to painting, but I also enjoy Still Life, Mixed Media and Landscape. It pretty much varies depending on what mood I am in when starting yet another canvas.
Currently I am working on a Mixed Media canvas that I started a couple of days ago. There are different ways to go about this, depending on what your goal is. Personally I believe texture is the most important factor in these paintings, which without they sometimes tend to be quite dull. Since a good amount of people have been asking me questions about this specific type of art, plus it seems to be quite the hot topic these days, I thought I'd give you a glance at the process of my up to date, in progress canvas.
Here is what I started out with:
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| canvas, plaster, spatula and stencil. Let the fun begin!! |
One empty 50x70 cm canvas, a spatula, plaster and a tin foil stencil (which all in all could be anything you choose or may not even be there). Also, stencils can be ANYTHING! I tend to use whatever I have home, seriously be creative! How I like to say it:
"Mixed Media doesn't start on the canvas it starts with picking your Tools!"
With the plaster and spatula I covered the entire canvas, more raised here and there than elsewhere, bumps, effects...I went CrAzY in the most literal sense. There really are no rules, just basics.
While the plaster was still wet I made the stencil print and started adding paint to it, continuing to use the spatula though, not a brush. In my experience the best to use for this is Acrylic paint, you really do need something thick that is able to cover and really pop! Watercolor wont do much of anything at this state and I wouldn't recommend using it until you're finishing up. Further more I strongly recommend NOT to use watercolors at all if you are using any sorts of paper or cardboard (anything that could get soggy) on your artwork. For a tool highlight on this particular work I chose egg shells believe it or not. I decided to keep and clean them last time I baked cake, for Brunch with the girls. I then proceeded with drying them (by laying them out on paper towel) and crumbling them up in smaller pieces. Tada ready to use, cost free, Mixed Media texture! Like I said I use ANYTHING.
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| Canvas covered in plaster, stencil applied, paint and egg shells added. |
Once I had reached this state I let the painting sit over night to dry. There were so many layers of plaster and paint, a couple hours didn't even get it half dry. I made sure it was sitting in a warm place and by next morning though, it was good to go.
Now that the plaster was hard and the colors wouldn't smear into one another anymore I started adding more paint. For this I used a sponge and decided to still not use a brush, because I was really liking the results of spatula painting. I added a few more eggshells here and there as well.
"Texture, texture, texture! The more the better!"
Here are some close ups of the effects I got out of using a spat:
Letting everything dry once again, which thankfully only took about 2 hours this time, I started thinking about what to do with that center piece swirl I had going on. What colors to use, shading etc. I get these moments, where all I do is sit and really concentrate, almost meditate on the picture in front of my inner eye, trying to decide what course of action I want to go about next. Sometimes it takes me days or even weeks to finish the last bit of a painting, rushing these things just leads to a lot of scrapping and white outs. So I like to take my time with my work. I know, I know what you are thinking "What if I have a deadline?! I don't have time for this". It does happen where I have a deadline to get a painting done, but usually I know these things in advance and I just start earlier than usual. A lot of times this really saves stressful evenings, a day before the deadline >_> not knowing what to paint, how to pull it off and then hopefully, somehow, looking half way decent on only 4 hours of effing sleep in front of the buyer, the very next morning...Yes, I've been there, shit happens. Aaaanyyywaayyy, Mixed Media.
Knowing exactly what I want to do with the center piece now, I started focusing on that, trying to bring this baby home finish the artwork. I applied shades of reddish brown and turquoise to the spiral with a sponge and lots of water, wanting to smear and 'stain' more than actually paint. I let it dry once more and Kitty Arlowe decided to guard the painting from my Rugrat who absolutely frikken loves to either step in my paints and track them all over the house or add handprints to my wet canvases, he drives me bananas. Oh how I love the little monster.
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| Arlowe guarding the almost finished work of art. |
Today, all that was left to do was add some highlights here and there. This is when I finally used a fine tip brush, going in with some bright paint, creating "light". Using some metallic 'rub on' paint I also added some golden shine to some of the rises, created by the plaster. After I reached my point of satisfaction, I placed my signature on the right hand, bottom corner of my now completed canvas and called it a day.
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| "The Spiral of Life" |
Get creative, have fun, I hope I was of some sort of help to all of you wanting to get into Mixed Media and aren't quite sure where to begin. Also hope you loved the painting. If you would like to see more of my work, stick around here or check me out on Deviant Art. Have a great rest of the day!
Until next time!
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