Tag Archives: mixed media painting

Experimenting with a New Painting Technique

Posted on by under sketch book

I found a new technique to try for painting. I have used plastic draped over paint many times before to get a variety of ridges left in the paint. But I never thought to try this technique before. First you cut your plastic into shapes like rocks. I used a 2 mil painters plastic. Then you paint the page with really wet paint. Then place the plastic rock shapes into the wet paint. Let it dry. And this is the result.

Green and Blue Rock Study

These pages were painted first so I was adding a second layer of color. The one above was painted blue and green and I added black paint on top.

Yellow, Orange, Red Rock Study

This page was a mix of colors but it was fairly light. I added red on top. The darker areas in the background have had further color added with colored pencil. I may add some more colored pencil. And I plan on adding some more details to the blue and green one as well. I had a lot of fun playing with color.

 

Quit While You’re Ahead

Posted on by under mixed media

If only I would listen to my own advice. But no. I decided to try adding some fabric to the mixed media iris piece.

I had some lovely silk fabric in green and blue violet. The fabric looks much bluer than the iris in the photo but it isn’t as blue as the camera shows it. I thought that by adding the fabric, it would frame the iris and crop out some of the background. I decided that I liked the upper right corner formation.

Lumpiness Pervails

So I used matte medium to glue it down. I painted over the entire piece and then left it to dry. The fabric was flat against the canvas when I left but when I checked it later, there were bubbles everywhere under the fabric. Sigh.

Applied Fabric

And I should have quit while I was ahead. But I thought I’d show you anyways. Everything doesn’t come out perfect or as planned. Of course if I had planned a little better I might not have gotten this far and gone overboard. Oh well. Live and learn.

Mixed Media Iris

Posted on by under mixed media

Last week I showed you my iris piece and asked for suggestions. I got some good ones and added more layers this week.

Iris Mixed Media

Here’s what it looked like last week. The orange/red was just too over powering. I had suggestions to add more detail to the iris to make it more of a focal point as well as to add some darker shades of green.

Mixed Media Iris

So I added another layer of green paint mainly over the red/orange. You can still see it, but it isn’t overpowering.

Close Up of Iris

I also added some white to the iris with a white gel pen. I drew in a vine with leaves with dark green gel pen. Not really sure I like it but I think it is finished. I will put it away and look at it later with fresh eyes. Perhaps it will grow on me. I actually like the cropped version of it better than the whole piece.

Videos and Iris Mixed Media

Posted on by under mixed media

Today I started working on videos for my online classes. I have very little experience with video making and editing. But you have to start somewhere right?

Video Camera

Here’s the video camera set up in my studio ready to record.

Video Backdrop

I borrowed some panels from my friend Sally (Thanks, Sally!) and set them up on the other side of my table. And then I did a few practice videos. Luckily, you won’t be subjected to them here. They were a bit laughable. And of course I seem to make all these funny gestures and facial expressions and watching yourself hem and haw is pretty excruciating. I have a program that you can cut off the beginning and end of the video and paste them together but not a fancy editing program. Hopefully, I will get the hang of it soon.

Iris Mixed Media

I worked a little bit more on my mixed media iris piece. If you look at last week’s photo, I had added some walnut ink which really changed the overall colors. I decided I didn’t like it so I wet it down and wiped it off. So now it is more of the true colors that I started with. I painted some fusible web a lighter shade of green and added it on top. I wanted to tone down the red-orange a bit more by adding in more “greenery”. Not sure where I’m going from here but it seems to need a bit more. What do you think? Would you stop here or add something else? If you would add something, what would it be? I’d love to hear your opinion.

Mixed Media Paintings

Posted on by under mixed media

I seemed to have missed a post last week. I had company, it snowed two feet and somehow I forgot all about posting. But hopefully, I will get back on to a regular schedule soon. Today we had our surface design meeting and we worked on mixed media paintings.

The photos above are the examples that Louise made for us. She used a variety of techniques and layers of paint, fabric, glue, acrylic mediums and gold leaf.

She had the table all set up for us with three canvases to work on. It was easiest to work on multiple canvases so that there was drying time for some of the processes.

Here are some of Carole’s pieces. None of us finished but we just kept adding layers and textures with a variety of tools.

Here are Bunny’s pieces in various stages of development.

These are Sally’s canvases. She also used her extra paint on paper. The only one that might be finished is the far right one in the middle row.

These are my canvases in various stages of development. I have a bit left to do on all three of them. The last photo on the left is the closest to being finished. One of the hardest things I have to work out with these is when to stop. Sometimes I go too far with that one extra layer.

I also used my extra paint on paper. I didn’t take photos of everything so I’ll have to show those later. Hope you all are having a good start to 2015. We’re doing a color challenge over at the Felting and Fiber Studio so please stop by and join in the fun. I will be posting about making a color wheel on Sunday.