Category Archives: mixed media

Back to Trees

Posted on by under Level 3 Art and Design, mixed media, painting

If you know me, this shouldn’t surprise you. I finished most of my homework and now I am creating more pieces in my favorite category, trees. The instructions are to work any other ideas, don’t let the outline limit you and add to it freely. So that’s what I’m doing. I wanted to try another collage with the acrylic skins. I was thinking of doing a pheasant but then I looked at one of the skins and saw a tree. So a tree it became.

This is the tree after I cut it out. I used a grey and green skin that had a tree trunk shape and one branch that I saw from the paint pouring. I cut those out and then added roots and more branches. It looked OK but it definitely needed some darker values in the tree. So I decided to add more paint. I glued it down first and then added paint on top.

This is after adding some darker paint for more contrast. Now that I am looking at it on the computer, I am wondering if I need to change the background color slightly at the bottom to make the tree feel more grounded. It kind of seems like it’s floating. What do you think?

Then I decided to use one of my sketches of an aspen branch. I enlarged the design on the copier and then cut out a branch from purple paper. The skin I was going to use was green and purple so I thought a purple branch would be perfect. From a distance, it doesn’t even look purple now. Sorry for the quality of the photos, it’s getting really dark here early in the afternoon and this branch was really hard to photograph.

Here’s a slightly closer view. This one took a long time cutting out and pasting down all the leaf bits and the branch. But I really like the result. I am also learning what works for gluing down the skins and what causes them to bubble up.

And I finally finished a notebook cover I had been working on for over a month now. It has probably 8-10 layers of paint and then a transfer of the leaves from a laser copy.

I filled the notebook cover with a range of value painted paper from yellow to red violet. I’m sure that it won’t stay that way but I needed some paper in the notebook cover. The insides and back of the covers are painted too. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend.

 

Mexican Leaves Collage

Posted on by under mixed media

This is a piece that I started working on during our recent retreat. I used a color scheme that I saw many times on our visit to Mexico. I also used some ephemera (taxi receipts) from our trip. I glued down the ephemera and scraps of paper to 6″ x 6″ canvases and then added color. I also used a variety of torn gelatin plate printed papers that I created on the retreat.  Then I decided to add the leaf motifs after I got home. I made acrylic skins with pouring medium to create the black outlines. I hadn’t tried that before and would definitely make them thinner next time.

Artwork by Ruth Lane

Here are all three of them together.

The color scheme is not one I would normally use but I really enjoyed using these bright, saturated colors.

Artwork by Ruth Lane

They are on the deeper canvases and were great fun to play with in this smaller size. That way I didn’t feel too intimidated like I do when I try to use a bigger canvas. I have tons more paper to use up so I think I will try some more mixed media collages like this. Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Layering Tissue Paper and Fabric

Posted on by under mixed media

Today my surface design group met and we played with layering tissue paper, cheese cloth, sheer fabric and a fabric base. Then we added metallic foil and even some Pearl Ex Powders. I completely forgot to take any photos while we were there.

layered tissue piece web

Here’s a photo of what I put together. I had to add more blue paint when I got home because one of the tissue papers that I used which was blue, turned red when it got wet.

layered tissue close up web

Here’s a close up. This was an interesting process as the layering keeps changing how it looks. I have to decide if I want to fuse this to fabric and then do some machine stitching or just leave it as is. I might cut it up into smaller pieces and make greeting cards. I haven’t decided yet.

Paula's Piece

This one was done by my friend Paula. We brought it home and used paper croppers to see how it would look framed. The photo doesn’t really do it justice though.

Silk Paper Making

Posted on by under mixed media

Today I met with my local group and we made silk paper. I have done this before and actually it is the first thing I tried when starting out in fiber art. We used either matte medium or textile medium mixed with water to glue the silk layers together. I made some fairly thick and others very thin. I’m not sure what I will do with all of these yet. Since they have medium in them, I’m not sure they will work well with felting but I might try one and see. Here are the photos of what I made. Most of them are still wet at this point. The textured white one is dry.

I will probably add stitch to them as it is very easy to stitch on silk paper either with machine or hand. You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them. Hope you have a nice weekend!

Mixed Media Iris Re-Do

Posted on by under mixed media

The last time you saw the iris mixed media painting it looked like this:

Applied Fabric

 

I was really unhappy with it and just put it away for a while. But I decided to just cover it with gesso and start over.

Mixed Media Iris

Then I repainted it. There is still lots of texture.

Texture of the Iris

You can see more of the texture in this shot.

Iris Close Up

And here’s a little closer view of the iris. I used acrylic paints and oil pastels. I may add a few more details but it is close to being finished and I am much happier with it.