Student artists are so exuberant with the whole painting experience.
Everything is new and exciting with so much to learn and so many techniques and media to try.
Once he has selected a media on which to focus, a student begins the job of mastering the proper techniques and experimenting with color, mediums and supports.
For many artists, the love of their chosen paint grows and flourishes. Every day is a new beginning, a fresh challenge. But for some artists, once the honeymoon is over they begin looking for the next medium to conquer.
If you fall into this latter category, you probably have a nice assortment of paint boxes crammed with supplies of various forms of paints, pencils, pastels and assorted equipment. Don’t let your past loves lie languishing in the closet. Get them all out, sort through and categorize everything. Dispose of dried and useless items, and make room to have everything neatly at hand.
Play With Your Paints
Just the act of sorting and examining all your supplies may have already sparked your imagination. Consider what you have and how you might combine some of your favorites in an exciting new way.
Sketch out some ideas, set up a still life, rummage through your morgue for reference materials. This is experimental, so don’t be constrained to the regular rules of the game.
Choose A Surface To Fit Your Media
If you are combining pastel, chalk and colored pencil with other paints, you need to select a surface that has tooth to accept the media. This support also needs to be firm if there will be heavy build up with acrylic paint or layers of paper collage. There are strong, archival painting boards that are available in several colors and textures that are suitable for mixed media. Wood can be used alone, or coated with gesso to provide a white background or added texture. Clayboard is also a suitable support and is available in 1/8-inch board and boards surrounded with ¾-inch and 2 inch cradles for hanging without additional framing.
If you plan to use pen and ink, watercolor, pastel and colored pencil only, any good watercolor paper will work fine for this type of mixed media painting. Watercolor paper is available in three textures; hot pressed, cold pressed and rough. Use watercolor paper, as it stands up to water washes without wrinkling or buckling. Paintings on paper should be framed under glass to protect the work from damage.
Painting Your Mixed Media Creation
You can combine almost any paints, pencils, inks and stick colors in your composition. When and how you apply the media will depend on the outcome you wish to achieve. Colored pencil can be used before and after applying watercolor or acrylic thinned with water to produce a transparent wash. Ink that is not waterproof should only be applied after all water media has been painted and dried. Chalks and pastels work great as a final layer over paint, but may not withstand application of other media over it.
However, there is one word of caution regarding combining paints. Oil paint does not play well with others. If you are intending on incorporating oil paint with your other paints and pastels, save the oil paint for the final layers of painting.
Turn Your Mixed Media Piece Into A Collage
Adding found objects is a fun way to increase the wow factor of your painting. Torn pieces of all sorts of fodder such as magazines, photos, newspapers, fabrics and scraps of ill-fated watercolors and are great to add to your piece. Use clear acrylic medium as an adhesive to attach and protect the collage pieces.
If you are adding substantial weight to the piece with objects and heavy paint, make sure to use a rigid support that will not buckle.
Start out with small pieces as you experiment with which materials and media work best with your ideas. As you gain experience with the media’s interactions, increase the size and scope of your work. Not all your efforts will turn into masterpieces, but the experience you gain will give you confidence to incorporate the skills you have learned in future projects.
