Collage Mixed Media Project

Ideas for Summer Projects
Summer break is almost here! I will have more time to create! If you are looking for a summer project to work on, a collage with mixed media is a fun project!

Mixed Media Collage

Today I thought I would share a mixed media project that I created for fun and as an example for a student project at school.  We often use old donated magazines in the classroom. This project is a mixed media collage, using magazines and acrylic paints.

Arkansas Home Theme
Since I create my little clay houses and clay house tiles, I decided to go with a Home theme and Arkansas theme to create a house with a fence and tree.  I used a stack of one of my favorite Arkansas magazines (At Home in Arkansas) to cut out Arkansas details, words, maps, and colors to put together to create my image.

Supplies I used:
Canvas Board
Old Magazines
Acrylic Paint and Brushes
Drawing Paper
Glue sticks
ModPodge

After cutting out words, patterns, colors and shapes out of the magazines, I began arranging the pieces that I had. I went back to the magazines when I needed additional colors and images.
I created a house shape with strips of magazine cuttings adding some details with paint.  For example, I decided to create a tree and needed some leaves but I did not have enough so I cut leaf shapes out of green paper to create the rest of the leaves. I wanted an owl in the tree so I drew and painted a little owl on drawing paper, cut it out and glued it into the tree.

The sidewalk on the bottom edge of this piece was made up of map pieces and words pieced together. Cutouts of flowers were also added to create flower beds.

ModPodge was brushed on top of the entire piece after I was finished adding pieces. This helps to seal the pieces of paper to the surface.

Altered Book Experiments and More

I just finished another pen and ink commission and have 3 more waiting to be started.  Commissions are good.  Lack of time to play and experiment makes me sad. Spring Break is in two weeks! I'm hoping that that break will give me a boost of motivation!  This dreary, rainy weather has me in a funk this weekend.  So I thought I would post a picture of my pink dog sculpture to add something whimsical.  As a project in one of my classes, we made sculptures out of plaster strips.  As a demo for the project, I created this dog.  I didn't take pictures as I created her.  She looked pretty rough at first and I didn't think she would make it to the final stage, but I think the pink color and the face added just what she needed.  Some of my students named her Rex, but we later decided on Roxy after she was painted pink! Later I will post a picture of some of their projects, if they want them posted online.

Another project that we are working on is Altered Books.  I was able to get ahold of some old books that were being discarded from the library.  I collected several stacks with the idea of doing a class project with altered art books.  I'm showing a few shots of the altered book that I have been working on.  My advanced art class is working on this altered book project as an ongoing project for the rest of the semester, as they have time. I am trying to work on one with them, when I have a little time.  They see me working on projects that they do and that helps to inspire them with what they can do with their books. They also inspire me, so it works both ways.  This is a new medium to me and it reminds me alot of mixed media collage, but in a book format.  I have seen some examples that artists used a journals along with their artwork.  So it looked pretty interesting to me and I hope to finish it, but it may take awhile, with all of the other projects that I need to be working on.  I'll post more photos as I go.

The first photo shows the book cover that I have already painted.  I plan to add some more things to the cover later.  The second photo is the inside of the back of the book that I painted.  The old library checkout card and pocket are painted also.  I didn't want to remove them. I wanted them to be part of the art.

Thanks for looking!

Beth♥

 

So many choices!

For several years I have considered myself to be a colored pencil artist.  But being the art teacher by day, I have to be familiar with many different materials to introduce to my students. Which also means that I get to experiment with many different materials! Which can be really fun!  I still work alot with my colored pencils, but over the last few years I have begun to work alot with clay and mixed media and collage.  I bought some painting mediums for my students a couple of years ago, to mix with acrylic paints to add texture.  Many of my students really loved the paint mediums, as I do.  At first we just experimented.  But I have come to love how they can add texture to the acrylic paints. The sample to the right is my first experiment/demo with the paint that I mixed with Goldens Molding Paste. I got a sample pack of the different textures that are available in the Goldens, so I don't remember if this was the Light Gel, or the Extra Heavy Gel.  It also has some tissue paper painted/layered in there to get another texture.  While it was drying, I also applied some objects that had textures on them, to get more of a variety of textures.  This one is not finished at this point though. I plan to get it out one of these afternoons and add more texture.

The sample to the left is one that I did this year where I demonstrated getting the texture down...not really knowing at first what I was going to do with it. This was an abandoned canvas that had pink painted allover. So I partially covered it with blue. 

Then, I decided to add the shape of a house, to add to my house theme collection!  I didn't have an acrylic painting of one of my little houses. After adding layers of paint, I decided it needed more embelishments, so I created some 3D pots of flowers out of clay. After glazing and firing, I glued them to the canvas. I think it needs some more work with some detail or added dimension somewhere. So it is a work in progress. You may see it again someday.

This summer, I plan to play around a lot more with the mixed media materials.  Mixed media really seems to be a popular technique with artists today.  I have been seeing more and more magazines, blogs, workshops and websites that showcase some really cool mixed media art. 

So many choices...and not enough time!  I have old books! I could alter them, I could cut out of them and use parts of pages!  I can create some printed text with my computer printer!  But I also need to making lots of little houses and some new things that I'm thinking about.  So there's never enough time! But that is a great feeling to have alot of ideas jumping around in there.

I hope to show some of my progress with a variety media and techniques this summer.  So many things to do, not enough time in a day for me to play!

I'm off to play in the studio. Have a nice day!
~Beth