How to make your Art Project exciting: creative mixed media

Concluding Updated on Feb eight, 2017

Sometimes fifty-fifty highly able Painting students experience stuck in a rut. If your IGCSE or A Level Art Coursework project feels stagnant, repetitive, or downright deadening, you may benefit from increased experimentation with media, techniques and processes (the ideas listed below are as well perfect for using in an A Level or GCSE Art sketchbook). While it is important to remember that art-making mediums should be used in a manner that supports your ideas, in that location are times when a dash of unpredictability and thinking-outside-the-box can help.

Paint on something interesting

Time and time over again I come across students who paint or draw on white cartridge paper and zilch else. There is nada wrong with cartridge paper. Some cartridge papers – especially thick, gutsy, wetstrength ones – are cute. Sometimes, a thin, flimsy canvas (the kind that warps at the mere hint of moisture) is all you need. Merely, often, experimentation and inventiveness with media brings considerable advantage. There is a joy –a wonderful aesthetic discovery – that takes place when you pigment on something unexpected: a surface with history that brings with it colours, textures, marks and irregularities of its ain.

Juan Gris teacups: a mixed media painting upon a collage of coloured papers. The shapes of the pieces of paper are very deliberate, mimicking the angular table edges and table cloth forms.

Describe on coloured paper

The showtime thing you can do is embrace papers of other colours. Select those that integrate seamlessly with your coursework project (creams, browns, greys and blacks are probable to be more appropriate than psychedelic pink, for instance).

Night colours can be cracking for cartoon on with calorie-free mediums; mid-tone papers (those that are a 'medium' tone – not as well dark and not too light) are also first-class. Every bit in the Juan Gris example above and the Indian ink piece of work below, the colour of the paper acts every bit the mid-tone for the drawing; dark and low-cal areas are added as required (this results in a slice that appears three-dimensional very apace).

Black and white painting on textured paper. The grey of the paper acts every bit the mid-tone (example by Amiria Robinson).

IGCSE Drawings: a black and white pencil drawing on gray paper by Georgia Shattky and a white charcoal drawing on black paper past Nikau Hindin.

Embrace textured paper

There are lots of textured papers available. Some are machine made, pressed with a uniform mesh of bumps or grooves; others are handmade, with flecks of fibre, thread, tissue and other items intertwined within the newspaper lurid.  If you don't take access to textured papers, y'all can easily find or make your ain. Tear apart packaging or disassemble things y'all notice in the trash. Source whatever scraps you lot tin and draw on them, or cut, tear and mucilage them into a painting.

Handmade papers tin can exist glued into a painting and painted over. When a dry out-brush painting technique is used, the texture of the handmade newspaper is exaggerated (instance on the left by Amiria Robinson). The IGCSE sketchbook particular on the right by Nikau Hindin was created past folding and gluing several textured papers together. The papers were physically scrunched and folded and and then painted to exaggerate these folds.

Detect the beauty of drawing on tracing paper

Many people don't realise that tracing newspaper is not only useful for tracing – information technology is an exciting drawing surface in its own right (see examples below past Debby Kaspari and Mercedes Baliarda). Tracing paper can exist used to make translucent overlays or glued onto white backing newspaper (be careful when gluing, as some tracing papers warp hugely when in contact with moisture). The shiny surface creates rich, sleeky images that love to smudge and blacken your easily. Permatrace – a thick, waterproof drafting movie – is particularly exhilarating: it produces some astonishing outcomes with ink.

Drawing on tracing paper: The beautiful bird drawing on the left by artist Debby Kaspari has been refined using several layers of tracing paper, with the previous drawings visible and translucent nether the final work. The flower drawing on the right is one from series of delicate semi-translucent works past Mercedes Baliarda.

Use ripped, scrunched, folded, ripped, or stained paper or tissue

Tissue paper tin can be scrunched and glued onto a painting (shaping as required) to create a textural surface that tin can be painted over. Every bit with other textures, dry-brushing will exaggerate them and make the fine web of creases more visible.

Tissue paper has been used in this painting by Amiria Robinson to help create creases and grooves within a landscape.

Paint or draw on patterned or textured wallpapers or other decorative surfaces

Intendance needs to be taken when integrating patterned items; it can exist like shooting fish in a barrel for the blueprint to dominate and overpower a work. When appropriate imagery is selected,  however, patterned items tin provide excellent cartoon surfaces or collaged textile.

This Indian ink drawing on a finely textured wallpaper with a fine grid pattern was office of an outstanding IGCSE Art and Design Coursework folio completed by Manisha Mistry.

Integrate paper cuttings

If you experiment with drawing on paper, remember that the text becomes a part of your work; this needs to be an intentional and considered decision. If the words are legible, the message contained within the writing should be relevant or, at the very to the lowest degree, not distracting.

Example by Jonathan Derby:

Jonathan Darby'due south art commonly explores humanitarian themes, depicting vulnerable children. In this work (enlarged details shown on the right), painting on newspaper is highly advisable, as it suggests the kid is lost in a landscape filled with litter: discarded. The beauty and innocence of the child are in stark dissimilarity to the gritty, sorrow that surrounds him.

Draw on book pages, pieces of rubbish or other text-based items

Many artists are achieving nifty popularity for their drawings upon found, text-based materials.

Examples past Mark Powell and Paula Swisher:

Creative person Mark Powell has produced a serial of stunning ballpoint pen drawings on envelopes and other plant materials.

Paula Swisher'southward drawings of birds on book pages have gone viral on the internet â€" loved by people worldwide. Note in this example how sure parts of the background accept been highlighted in blue to link with the bird and balance the work. Note too how the circumvolve in the background links with the curving grade of the bird which is positioned directly below it. In other words, the book folio becomes a carefully considered aspect of the limerick – it is non merely mere pattern that is used and then forgotten about.

Draw on cardboard

While MDF or hardboard is a great surface to paint on, those who have to send away work to CIE are limited by weight restrictions. Paper-thin is a suitable, lightweight replacement. Card can provide a sturdy base for a painting and, when cutting-outs are glued into a work, can create elevated surfaces that segment a composition, adding depth and shadows.

Examples by  Nikau Hindin and Olivier Catte:

Textured painting ideas: A2 Painting pupil Nikau Hindin glued MacDonald's hamburger boxes to her artworks and painted over them (example on the left). The dramatic cityscape on the right by Olivier Catte was created on corrugated cardboard. The vertical lines of the corrugation are integral to the work.

Case by EVOL:

Astonishing spray paintings on cardboard by artist EVOL. The texture of the cardboard becomes an integral component of the painting: a decaying, aging wall surface.

Paint on linen, hessian, sail or fabric

While stretched canvases are unable to be posted to CIE, pieces of fabric can be cut and glued onto paper and painted upon. The fine mesh of woven thread can be left as is or hacked at and unravelled, fine threads spiralling into the artwork. Information technology is also possible to 'stretch' canvass yourself over a sturdy piece of cardboard, with the canvas edges folded behind the back of the card and stapled.

Instance by Tony Fomison:

Tony Fomison paintings on hessian: a gritty, absorbent texture.

Get wild with modelling compound

Modelling compound – used for creating thick, sculptural elements in an artwork – often becomes a Painting educatee'south best friend. Whether used with masking tape to create straight edged areas, or slapped on and scratched erratically with a stick, modelling compound is the stuff of magic. Items can be pressed into it and carefully lifted out when dry out, revealing an indented pattern and form; it can exist sanded and cut with a craft knife when dry.

Example by Amiria Robinson (left) and Jessica Fong:

Texture created on the surface of a painting using modelling compound scratched with the end of a paint brush. When the surface is dry, a watery acrylic wash has been brushed over it; pigment settling in the grooves as it dries (example past Amiria Robinson). The AS Art painting on the right was completed by Jessica Fong, while studying at ACG Strathallan College. The pumpkin seeds have been raised upwardly using thick modelling compound.

Throw in everything else

If all of the above fails to inspire, create an assemblage of objects non normally associated with making art (example past Robert Rauschenberg). If you have to send your work overseas for moderation and/or assessment, deport in mind that your options are express by what is able to exist shipped through customs (for example, not organic thing, such equally bark or leaves) and past what is small, light and cost effective to post (i.e. not steel sheets). Even with these limitations, however, there are many possibilities.

Robert Rauschenberg artworks are sculptural, mixed media collage pieces that merge cuttings, photographs, clothing, rubbish and other found objects. This piece contains pieces of cloth, newspaper and a squashed umbrella.

When you shape or create a painting surface, in that location is something of y'all invested in the piece of work, before you even brainstorm.

Did you savor this article? Please read PART ii of this series: Painting on Grounds

Amiria has been an Fine art & Pattern teacher and a Curriculum Co-ordinator for 7 years, responsible for the class design and cess of pupil work in two high-achieving Auckland schools. She has a Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Architecture (Offset Class Honours) and a Graduate Diploma of Pedagogy. Amiria is a CIE Accredited Art & Design Coursework Assessor.

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Source: https://www.studentartguide.com/articles/painting-media-process-technique

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