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Today, I'm teaching you my FAV techniques for adding acrylic paint to the collage layer of my mixed media art projects. To get started with this layer, I look to my collage papers for direction on how to choose a color palette, and select 3 colors. At this stage of the game, I don’t have a big end result in mind and am typically still just having fun- playing with color, pulling out my stencils, stamps, and smearing paint with everything from a brayer to my finger. (You can read about these same techniques and learn about my favorite products in my Mixed Media Magic book!).  As you’ll see in the video (link below, just scroll down a wee bit)… I prefer to keep my background paints fairly transparent because I like to see my collage papers and patterns peeking through. Since I usually love to draw and paint a female face in the foreground of my mixed media work, I tend to keep my background acrylics on the outer edges of my art journal page or canvas, and add them in one color at a time (drying each color with my hair dryer before starting the next).  I often lay down a thin layer of gesso wherever I plan to draw out what will become my next mixed media girl. Once she’s penciled in, I typically add another layer of gesso to her face, followed by skin tones. Then, I incorporate THE SAME three paint colors used in the background for features like eyes, lips, and hair. Quick Tip: Keep the gesso nearby to paint over anything you don’t like! Today's vid will take you up to the "ugly stage" of my next mixed media girl (YES- we ALL have to go through this! Press play to see MINE!). And then next week I'll be showing you how to power through. Speaking of next week’s video in this series, there will be NEW CHEATSHEET about which mixed media art supplies play nicely together in Layer 3 of my “Hamburger" mixed media process. Want to watch or re-watch the "Hamburger" Mixed Media Video Series? Click this link to access the YouTube Official Playlist for these videos 👉 http://bit.ly/hamburgerseries
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When I first started playing around in the world of mixed media art, I used to wonder what the point of collage was. Sure the scrapbook papers were pretty and fun to sort through, but why bother if we're just going to paint all over it later? Now that I've been at this for a while, I finally get just how many points collage has!! Starting an art journal spread or canvas with a layer of collage is like a warm up exercise for a mixed media artist! Collage can actually help you clear your head, get your creative juices flowing, help you overcome creative block and even help you figure out how to choose a color palette for your painting layer. See the texture in her cheek? That's the magic of collage!  Join me in my studio for a behind the scenes peek at my favorite collage materials from upcycled thrift store gems like vintage books and sheet music to fancy collage paper by Tim Holtz! I also demo adhesive supplies like matte medium (my FAV!), glossy medium, and gel medium (so you don't have to buy them ALL!), explain WHY you don't want to do your collage layer with mod podge, and show you my favorite mixed media collage techniques. If you've been following along in the "Hamburger Series," this is Video #3. Tuesday's at 2 pm EST is when I hang out LIVE on my YouTube channel! This past Tuesday I did a half hour lesson on how to fix the following problems with eye drawings like: * Preventing uneven Eyes! * Preventing and fixing eyes that look too huge. * Eyes that are too close together. * Eyes that aren't the correct shape. * Tips for making one eye match the other. * Why and how not to skip the important tear duct. * How to correctly size the iris and pupil. * How to make eyelashes using proper placement and directionality. * And lastly, I give you my secret cheat that both rescues bulbous eyes while making amazing makeup affects! I hope you learn something new today! Mixed media art can feel super confusing for beginners! Am I right?! Not only do you need to learn about which art supplies "play nicely" with one another... there's the whole issue of WHAT SURFACE do you create your masterpiece on to begin with?! The surface, or substrate (think paper, canvas, wood) you choose to work on serves as the foundation for your mixed media art project or art journal, and is actually a pretty important decision that can turn your creation into a success, or a hot mess! Today I'm kidnapping you to my local Jerry's Artarama to take the guesswork out of which surfaces ARE strong enough to support your mixed media layers, and which ones just aren't gonna cut it. This is video 2 in a brand new Mixed Media Series based on my "Hamburger" layering system!! I hope you learn something new and fun today! Tippie was being my helper yesterday! She and I go over all of these awesome choices in the video!  Stay tuned for next week's video where I show you what mixed media art supplies and adhesives work best for the first layer of your project! That's right, I'll be showing you my collage techniques! I truly hope this helps you! If you have any questions, you know where to find me! This video is alllll about my layering process when doing Mixed Media work. I've broken everything down into 6 simple steps. If you've ever been lost or confused as to what mediums go where and in what order, this REAL-TIME video (40 full minutes) should eliminate any confusion!!! Hang out with me while I go through my Mixed Media Process step-by-step. This is a really good video to watch also if you're new to my lessons or if you're super confused about water-soluble materials and how to make them behave, when/how to do background, ALL OF IT!! I hope this video becomes a solid resource I can refer back to time and time again, to help people figure all this out! |
Karen CampbellFounder of Awesome Art School. Mixed Media Artist. Author of the How to Draw Fun, Fab Faces series and Mixed Media Magic!  
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What Fans Are SayingKaren, you are absolutely fabulous! You make me feel like I can draw anything. I have recently retired and finally have the time to do some of the art that I have loved since I was in school. I am really at the beginning of my art journey and I hope to learn as much as I can. Thank you for all you do. |
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