Creating your own background

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Start with a piece of cardboard – this one is from a cereal box, cut into quarters. Then a layer of gesso is added and allowed to dry.

Starting Materials
Gesso layer

Add the first colour. The intention here was to have the colour radiating out and fading around the circle. The gesso underneath allows the paint to be thinned out and removed, using a dabbing motion with a cloth.

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Then the second colour was added.

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As this colour combination was a little bright, gesso was then added to tone it down and tie the pattern together. Again this layer was blotted to remove some of the gesso to make it thinner in the centre.

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To complete the background, some stamping was added.

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Then your background is ready to add images, text and embellishments.

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All of these pieces were stuck on with double sided tape. Images from Go Make Something.

Happy Creating!

Filed Under: Collage Mixed Media, Mixed Media Art, Mixed Media Painting Tagged With: ,

Gothic Arch – Grunge

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Gothic_Arch_Grunge

This arch was made for the weekly challenge by the Gothic Arch group.

Background painted with walnut ink, flourish stamps from Boutique Grunge set by See D’s (stamped in Adirondak Espresso), lettering and clock face by Collections. Wings from Grungeboard. French script stamp by Stamp Oasis, with Sepis ink. A little gold paint also added.

Filed Under: Mixed Media Art Tagged With: , ,

What is Mixed Media Art?

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The term “mixed media art” is a broad definition that covers many arts and crafts, including collage, assemblage (both 2D and 3D), altered objects, including books and boxes, handmade greeting cards, artist trading cards (ATCs) and tags, art journalling and book making.

The “mixed media” used includes paints, papers and board of all descriptions, glues, buttons, fabrics, found objects, photos, metal bits, fibres, things from nature, inks, pencils, crayons, markers, pastels and polymer clays, to name a few.

Chipboard elements are easy to use in your mixed media collages and assemblage


What materials do I need to get started?
The beauty of mixed media art is the flexibility to start with things around you and expend from there. To get started you need a substrate or base. This could be a clean sheet of paper, sketchbook, a cereal box or anything else that may be sitting still.  Then, if you are heading down the collage path, you’ll need something to stick with (glue sticks are fine to begin with) and something to stick on (coloured papers, newspapers, catalogues, and anything else that grabs you).

If you are heading down the drawing / painting path, then once you have your substrate, you’ll need something to make a mark, whether its pencils, paints, crayons, markers or pastels.

Any or all of these are all you need to get started. Just use the things you have around you

What skills do I need to get started?
Another attractive feature of Mixed Media Art is that you don’t need fine art or drawing skills. That doesn’t mean you are excluded from mixed media art if you do have these skills, but it opens up a world of creativity for the rest of us who like to make things but “Can’t draw”.

The skills you need to get started are as simple as being able to use a pencil, scissors and glue. These skills will expand and develop with practice, depending on which “branch” you follow.  More complicated skills of mixing paints and developing your “artist eye” will happen as you expand your own creativity. Specific skills for particular media or art types will present themselves as you move into these areas. As with many things in life, the techniques and teachers will appear when you are ready.

Hanging Art

Hanging Art

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Filed Under: Mixed Media Art, Static Page Tagged With: , , , , ,
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