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Mixed media paper is something I get asked about ALL THE TIME by my students! As mixed media artists, we need super strong paper that isn't gonna buckle no matter how many wet, messy mixed media art supplies we throw at it. If you're a mixed media beginner or a seasoned artist looking for answers that won't break the bank, today's video is for you!
Mixed media art supplies can get overwhelming FAST because there are so many to choose from. I've created a FREE 9-page Supplies Guide to explain which mixed media art supplies I love most AND how they perform so you know what to expect right from the start.
Simply click the button below, and I'll send it right over. 
Once you understand your supplies a bit better, mixed media art will become SO much more FUN! If you need help with layering check out my signature Hamburger System. When you're in the mood to work with fewer supplies, check out the Hot Dog System!
Before we continue, super quick announcement: All product links are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links but by law there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I thank you for your support.
When it comes to mixed media projects you want to complete on paper, my advice is to simply use watercolor paper EVERY time.
Are you surprised by my answer?! People usually are. I know there are a zillion papers sold by amazing brands labeled "Mixed Media Paper," but trust me. I've tried them all, and nothing holds water soluble products, watercolors, fountain pen inks, acrylic paints, mod podge, and even collage- like watercolor paper! Take a look... 
See the vintage postcard collage materials above? I glued these all down with matte medium in my Strathmore Watercolor Journal, and did a full on, 7 layer mixed media project on top of it - "Hamburger Style" (see below). This page was FULL of matte medium, gesso, mod podge and acrylic paint!
If you're new to me and my work, I do mixed media art projects on anything and everything. Typically if I'm not working on canvas, I'll do projects in my Strathmore Watercolor Art Journal (above), or on loose sheets of watercolor paper.
To keep things simple, I'm teaching you about 3 main kinds of watercolor paper today:
While rough cut watercolor paper can be super fun, keep in mind, your watercolors aren't going to work exactly the same as they would on cold or hot press paper. It's just different. Here's one of my rough cut watercolor art journals: 
What about cost? You'll notice when you visit your favorite craft store that there's super cheap watercolor paper and crazy expensive watercolor paper.
What's the difference?!
When it comes to the cost of watercolor paper, the biggest factor connected with expensive watercolor paper is the percentage of cotton used to create the paper. The higher the percentage, the higher the price.
Arches is one of the most expensive watercolor papers because it's made up of 100% pure cotton. You can find the cotton percentage of paper on the cover (yellow arrow above). This type of paper typically comes in "blocks," so the paper stays nice and firm, and does not buckle.
If you find a watercolor paper without the cotton percentage noted, you're likely in the right place, and your cost will be significantly cheaper. I love using Canson watercolor paper for doing practice work. It's much more reasonable than Arches.
The second cost factor to watch for when you're buying watercolor paper for mixed media projects is the paper's weight.
At a minimum, I recommend using 140lb. paper, especially if you're doing mixed media work on top and not just watercoloring. Don't use the 90lb. paper because it's just not gonna hold up. The watercolor paper I typically use now is by Fabriano. It's 25% cotton (and 75% cheaper than the Arches brand!), plus it comes in either hot press (smooth) or cold press (textured). This is a very high quality paper. You can work on this and it will be museum quality, is great if you want to sell or gift your work. 
HOT TIP: You DON'T have to put gesso on top of watercolor paper to prime it for acrylic paints - just start painting!
Gesso is well-known in the world of mixed media art as a primer for acrylics, but when you're working on watercolor paper for mixed media projects, it's not needed, so save your money and skip the gesso!
I hope you found this info helpful! Be sure to click over to the video, so you know what to look for next time you head to the craft store on the hunt for mixed media paper for your own masterpieces!
Thanks for hanging out with me today! ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON ❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON ❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM
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Create DREAMY Skin Tones with Caran d'Ache Luminance Colored Pencils for Your Mixed Media Portraits!16/5/2022
Today I'm trying Caran d'Ache Luminance colored pencils for the first time to create a mixed media portrait ("Hot Dog Style"). I'm not normally a colored pencil artist because I prefer art supplies I can work quickly with, but YOU HAVE to SEE the DREAMY skin tone effects these colored pencils create - especially when burnished with a Derwent Drawing Pencil in Chinese White. SO glad I tried this idea on page four of my FREE HOT DOG SYSTEM packet from my talented artist friend, Sharon Holmberg!
Click the button below to download this FREE 32-page stack of ideas just filled with "Hot Dog System" tried and true mixed media art supply combinations created by myself and 20 of my artsy friends!
Today I'm trying some new colored pencils recommended to me from artist, Sharon Holmberg. Her favorite mixed media art supply combo is shared on page four of the FREE 32-Page Hot Dog Packet. Sharon loves to combine Caran d'Ache Luminance colored pencils with watercolor and a bit of collage for the mixed media faces she creates in her Strathmore Mixed Media Visual Journal.
Instead of drawing a girl's face from scratch today, I decided to save a little time, and cut out one of the female faces from the coloring pages packet in my Skin Tone Secrets book.
Before I start shading this face in, I need to swatch out my colored pencils so I know exactly what colors I'm working with. 
Even though the swatch sheets in my coloring pages packet (you can download this for free if you buy my Skin Tone Secrets book), are from a book all about using alcohol markers- the swatch pages can be used for ANY art supply, and honestly, the shading patterns presented in this book can also be used with any art supply - as you'll see in today's video.
This is my "I -hate -my -life -right -now -and -my -hands -hurt -face." LOL. If you've been following me for a while, you likely already know I kinda despise colored pencils because they honestly just take too long for me and it's very detailed work, which I'm just not that into. I think I stuck it out for like 5-6 layers of face shading, and had to move on with my life. HA! That's just me.
If you have the patience for working with colored pencils- you do you!! I know they can create some absolutely gorgeous portraits, even from the little shading I did with them today! 
The part that really makes Sharon's faces flawless (and something I tried today!) is "burnishing" - which basically means blending the skin tones shades and layers together to create a smooth, finished look. Sharon's favorite tool for this is a Derwent Drawing Pencil in Chinese White. Watch the video to see how beautiful this colored pencil blending technique and tool are in action!
I finished off my girl's face with alcohol markers in the lips, hair and eyebrows because I had to give up on the colored pencils. Even though colored pencils in general are NOT my favorite art supply, they seriously do create a dreamy look for skin tones so I'm super glad I tried it!
Next, I used a simple adhesive spray (shown above), to secure my mixed media face to a sheet of watercolor paper so I can watercolor a background around her. I used two watercolors by Daniel Smith to create my watercolor background: Ultramarine Turquoise and Sap Green.
After my watercolor background is fully dry, I cut some cute flowers out of scrapbook paper I had lying around and glued those down with matte medium ( another STAPLE in my mixed media art studio).
As you'll see in the video, I had a little mishap with my cut out flowers while my watercolor was still wet and it made a tiny drop of green watercolor land smack dab in the middle of my poor girl's nose! Not to worry- I'll show you exactly how to fix a watercolor painting mistake.
First I tried adding a little water on top of the spot to lift the color with a paper towel. That didn't work because this particular color is very staining. I decided to try white gouache because this is super opaque and I know will do exactly what I need it to do. Luckily the watercolor mistake I need to fix is located right on the nose of my portrait where a highlight would naturally go anyway- so it's all good! The gouache worked perfectly. 
Since I was already using a bit of gouache on the nose of my colored pencil portrait, I decided to use more to tie the piece together by pulling a few streaks of white through her hair, to enhance her eye shine and make her lower lip pop. So fun!!
What I LOVE about this whole Hot Dog System, is that it encouraged me to reach out to other artists in my community to ask them about their favorite supplies and processes. If I hadn't done that, this exact project and video wouldn't even be happening!
So a huge thanks to Sharon Holmberg for sharing her secret, gorgeous process for shading adorable mixed media faces using only 4 art supplies! I totally love how this project has turned out. SO stinkin' cute!!
Thanks for hanging out with me today! ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON ❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON ❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM
Don't ya just love a funky watercolor portrait with attitude?! Today I'm trying a new-to-me mixed media technique using FOUR simple supplies: Noodler's ink, watercolor and colored pencils with a layer of wax pastels on top!
If you've never tried Caran D'Ache Neocolor Is (basically wax crayons for artists), grab a set to create along with me, and I'll talk you through the project step by step. Or, sit back and relax as I create this "Hot Dog Style" project in my mixed media sketchbook in real time. 
I've been teaching my signature mixed media technique for layering, "The Hamburger System," for almost 2 years now, and it's been a game changer for SO many students!
Sometimes, mixed media beginners can feel a bit overwhelmed by all the new supplies. I recently created a condensed approach using just 4 supplies, called the "Hot Dog System." I also made a ginormous 32-page PDF (you're welcome!) to go with it, giving you examples of 4-art supply layer combos- HOT DOG STYLE- not just from me, but from TWENTY of my artsy friends to inspire you!
Click the button below to download this FREE 32-page stack of cheatsheets just filled with mixed media "Hot Dog System" inspiration!
Before we continue, super quick announcement: All product links are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links but by law there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I thank you for your support.
Today I'm doing a mixed media project in the style presented by my friend Tara, on page two of my hot dog packet. The four supplies she's using are watercolor and colored pencils, Noodler's Ink, and what is basically a fine art crayon, made by Caran D'Ache. I didn't even have those, so needed to take a quick field trip to my FAVORITE art supply store in town - Jerry's Artarama!
After a quick Jerry's stop, I gathered the rest of my supplies for today's project. Then I did a little Pinterest search through my face drawing references.
If you're new to my world, you may not know that I have a fascination with digital art. I use digital portraits and characters all the time as faces for drawing reference to inspire my own work. These images are perfect to guide you where you need to add shading, especially if you don't know how to shade faces yet. I also love to challenge myself to recreate digital faces using traditional materials. Take a look at this guy! 
I love his deep eyes and dramatic facial features. They're kinda magnificent - like they've been sculpted out of clay or something.
Since the purpose of today's project is to try a new combination of 4 art supplies, I'm not gonna bother with making my drawing perfect. I'm just blocking in what I see from my reference photo with my mechanical pencil . If you don't have one, these are my favorites! 
Since the watercolor is my base layer, I'm going to keep it fairly simple, so we can add depth later with our colored pencils and wax crayons.
A lot of my students ask me about my favorite paint brushes. Right now I'm seriously in love with the ones by artist, Polina Bright (shown above). They take a while to ship because they're from Australia, but they are SO worth it!
Polina made a coupon code JUST FOR MY FOLLOWERS, so you can save 10% off your order. Simply enter my name in all caps (KARENCAMPBELL) at checkout on her website. To see how her watercolor brushes compare to two of my other favorite brands, check out this video. As far as skin tone watercolor shades go, I tend to be kinda lazy about mixing colors to come up with my own color. I prefer to use shades someone else created, right outta the box or tube because it's faster! For a couple of years, the Complexion Watercolor Set by Prima has been my go to. It's got some beautiful light, medium and dark skin tones you can play with straight from the palette (or mix if that's fun for you). If you'd like to learn more about it,I did a video on this skin tone watercolor set not too long ago that will answer ALL your questions :) 
I don't often draw guys, but sometimes I just love to do something a little different. If you're interested in learning how to draw a male face for beginners, I published a book a couple of years ago called How to Draw Fun, Fab Fellas.
After I get the face shading done for today's dude, it's time to move on to his hair. Cobalt blue violet by Daniel Smith was calling my name. If you're new to watercolor, or thinking about starting a Daniel Smith watercolor collection, be sure to watch this video.
Typically I would shade the larger areas first, and finish off with colored pencil for detail because I tend to work biggest to smallest, but Tara has suggested doing the opposite, so I'm giving that a shot. Out come my prismacolors!
It cracks me up that he looks SO MAD. LOL!
Look at how the colored pencils are really bringing out the texture of my cold pressed watercolor paper. Beautiful! I love that effect. 
After the colored pencil layer, it was time for the Caran D'Ache Neocolor Ones to come out and play. These really felt like working with crayons from childhood, except that they're a high quality fine art product. I kinda loved them! The white was super opaque too, which really made me happy. I'd love to play with them on hot pressed paper too because I wonder how they would look over a smooth surface without texture.
Whenever I need a super bold, amazing background, I pull out my Noodler's fountain pen ink. It's seriously juicy and so vibrant. This color is called Bad Green Gator. I think it's a perfect backdrop for his crazy hair, don't you?
And as all my students know, the way that I love to finish, 99% of my projects is with my pentel pocket brush. It's perfect for outlining and detail work. It's also amazing for drawing eyelashes on my female mixed media portraits!
I hope you enjoyed today's project and learned something new! Not familiar with my "Hamburger System"? It's a simple order of operations for collage, acrylic paint, mod podge and ALL my favorite mixed media art supplies. I'm sure you'll love it! Check out my Hamburger System playlist for FREE on YouTube to see the entire process step by step, in action. Here's the FREE cheatsheet to go along with it! ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL MY ONLINE ART CLASSES & Art Clubs ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books ❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON ❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP
This mixed media portrait tutorial was filmed BEFORE I'd even identified the steps in my signature mixed media layering process, let alone named it "The Hamburger System!"
When I watch this full-length tutorial now, I can see many of the Hamburger steps I was using, even then. This fun his and hers art journal spread was painted into an altered book art journal I upcycled from my local thrift shop. To this day that art journal is STILL one of my favorites.
If you're new to mixed media, or struggling with how to layer your art supplies so you create a MASTERPIECE instead of a mess - you need to download my FREE Cheatsheet outlining my signature mixed media layering process, called the Hamburger System.
Simply click the button below, and I'll send it straight to your inbox! 
In many of my mixed media canvas and art journal pages, I often love to start with a collage layer, as I explain in my FREE YouTube series breaking down each layer of the Hamburger System. After this - the cheatsheet I HOPE you just downloaded, will make complete sense!!
With today's mixed media project, I felt the need to start with face drawings, instead of collage. I think I was just too excited to dig into this face drawing reference image (below), that I'd found on Pinterest.
I wish I could credit the artist here, but I couldn't find one for this image.
I felt the need to use a dramatic color scheme, so I selected teal, red, yellow and black.
Since I'm working in my altered book, I need to prep my pages with a thin coat of gesso. This will knock back the opacity of the book's original illustrations and make it so I can paint or draw over them more easily. Once the gesso is dry, I started this face drawing as I do ALL of them - by sketching in my face drawing guidelines. Even if I'm doing stylized, whimsical drawing (not realism), it's still important to sketch in guidelines so the facial features look more proportional. 
Do you love drawing and shading faces too? Or maybe you're just learning how to draw faces? CLICK HERE to download my FREE whimsical face drawing guidelines. They're super easy to follow, and will help you draw a simple and proportional forward facing face.
If you're a total beginner with face drawing, you might want to check out this playlist over on my YouTube Drawing channel to practice your face drawing guidelines with me step by step before trying out today's project. The face drawing tutorials in this series are are short, sweet, and perfect for beginners. Here's one of the faces you'll learn how to draw...
Real quick, before we continue - super quick announcement: All product links are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links but by law there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I thank you for your support.
After my initial sketch for today's project is done, I pull an old flat paint brush out and add a little more gesso along the outer cheekbones and jawline to correct my proportions since I'm working with a pencil that doesn't erase.
Gesso is a bit magical like that in the world of mixed media art! It can give you a fresh start and work like an eraser to hide any little mistake you want. Be sure whenever you use gesso that you're using an old paint brush because it will totally destroy your brush. I have one that I've designated for myself to use only for gesso. I highly recommend you do the same. 
In this particular project, I added an additional thin layer of gesso over my subject's cheeks, nose, forehead and neck to knock back some of the background that was still peeking through from the book's original illustrations.
Next, I applied some acrylic craft paint in ivory as a base skin tone layer all over her face and neck. Since this piece is purely for my own enjoyment in my own personal art journal, and I'm not selling it, etc. - craft grade acrylics are fine for this application.
When I started adding red acrylic paint into the background behind my face drawings, I decided to scrape some onto my journal page for an edgier look using an old credit card! This is a really fast way to cover a lot of ground with your acrylics. 
At the time this project was created, I'd just published my How to Draw Fun Fab Fellas book, so you'll also see me working on a guy's face in this mixed media tutorial.
If you're interested in drawing male faces, one of the things you need to watch out for is to go easy on the lips. If you're not careful, these can turn feminine real quick! You also want to be sure to keep the lines in male faces very angular, except for the eyeballs- these are really the only true curves you should see in a male face drawing. 
Next, I decided to add some detail work in with my black stabilo all pencil, before I sealed both pages with clear, matte mod podge.
Usually I LOVE how water soluble the black stabilo all pencil is (even though I know it totally freaks some of my students out!!), but today, it muddied the skin tone of my female portrait because I had doodled in stabilo on top of the eyebrows. This was just too dark and dissolved everywhere once the mod podge hit it. 
If you're new to my world, you'll quickly learn how relaxed I am about "mixed media mistakes." I think everything is fixable, and encourage my students to ALWAYS keep pushing through on a project.
I ended up adding gesso, more acrylic craft paint (ceramacoat) to save her face, and blending some gelato skin tones on top to do some face shading, and tying things together with my pitt pens and posca pens- "Hamburger" style. 
If you've never used creamy gelatos to help you "paint" a variety of skin tones into your face shading, they're amazing and something you've got to try.
This chick totally gave me a run for my money, but I had a blast and am happy with the end result. Be sure you click over to the video to see her unfold in real time. Thanks for hanging out with me today! Don't forget to grab my FREE HAMBURGER SYSTEM CHEATSHEET. Once you print it out, join me on YouTube for my Hamburger System Series, and I'll explain everything you need to know about mixed media art supplies, and my simple mixed media layering process! ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL MY ONLINE ART CLASSES & Art Clubs ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books ❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON ❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP
Today's CREEPY skull watercolor project for Halloween was a special request from my students over at Awesome Art School! If you're not sure how to draw a skull, don't worry - I guide you through the skull drawing step by step. Then we'll bring it to life with one of my favorite art supplies that works JUST like watercolor - Noodler's Ink!
If you're curious how I paint with fountain pen ink, complete this project with so few art supplies, or if you're just in the mood for a spooky mixed media Halloween art project, hop over to YouTube because today's Halloween watercolor video is FOR YOU. 
Before we continue, super quick announcement: All product links are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links but by law there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I thank you for your support
I created today's tutorial project in my Strathmore Watercolor Journal. It's filled with cold press (textured), 140# paper. If you're new to art-ing with me - I LOVE using this watercolor journal for my mixed media work because the paper is so hearty. It can really take a beating from whatever layers and art supplies I want to throw at it, and has become one of my go-tos over the years.
If you're new to mixed media art, looking for mixed media examples, or clear instructions on how to layer your mixed media art supplies so you can make a masterpiece instead of a mess, look no further! I've been teaching my 7-step "Hamburger System" for almost 2 years now and it's been a game changer for SO many students. 
While the Hamburger System is my main mixed media layering process I use when creating full blown mixed media portraits (like the one above), sometimes I enjoy lightening up on the art supplies and layering.
I'm calling this condensed layering process "The Hot Dog System," and it's perfect for mixed media beginners!
There are just four simple layers in my Hot Dog System:
I've put together a ginormous 32-page PDF (you're welcome!), giving you examples of 4-art supply layer combos- HOT DOG STYLE- not just from me, but from TWENTY of my artsy friends to inspire you! Click the button below to download this FREE 32-page stack of cheatsheets just filled with Hot Dog System inspiration!
A copy of today's skull drawing reference is included in the above cheatsheet packet, so be sure to click that button and get a copy so you can create along with me!
If you're not sure how to draw a skull, don't worry- I take the skull drawing step by step in this tutorial. 
Drawing a skull is like drawing anything - we just break it down and take it shape by shape, starting from the top.
I saw a large circle at the top of the skull and basically decided to warm myself up by sketching a few light circles until I got the shape I wanted and saw in my reference image.
Once I got a bit further down the face of my skull drawing, I started cracking myself up, because my drawing looked like I'm actually drawing Darth Vader! LOL! I swear I'm NOT - he just looked this way before I started drawing the mouth.
When I sketched in the lower jaw and blocked off the area for the teeth, I was seriously reminded of the smiling Italian woman from my Whimsical Women of the World series on my drawing channel last year! She was another student request (how to draw a smiling mouth with teeth), that I created a lesson around just for my students (see below).
For me, drawing teeth is a laborious process (hence why MOST of my whimsical faces and mixed media portraits have closed mouths!).
In all seriousness though, I think the biggest mistake people make when drawing teeth is drawing them all straight, perfect and the SAME. Check out how each tooth below has an individual, unique (and wonktastic) shape. It might look crazy - but I'm just drawing in the shapes I see in my reference photo. 
As soon as the upper teeth were sketched in, I headed into that bottom row to knock them out so we could move on with the drawing and get to my favorite part - shading!
In today's tutorial, I shaded with one of my favorite mixed media art supplies - fountain pen inks. Most people use these for writing or even drawing, but I use them exactly like I do my watercolors, and PAINT with them! If you're new to painting with fountain pen inks, check out this playlist. It's got your name all over it! If you love watercolor - this is definitely something you HAVE to try. 
I layered a variety of ink shades (Hot Dog Layer #2: Noodler's Ink) carefully on top of the previous layer (once the previous layer was dry), and worked from light to dark to shade my drawing to look like the skull drawing reference image (Click here if you want to grab a download of the drawing reference and all my HOT DOG SYSTEM layering tips with inspo from 20 of my artsy friends!!).
When I was happy with my "watercoloring," I moved on to incorporate colored pencils to smooth my transitions and work in some highlights (Hot Dog Layer #3).
Once those were in a good place, I pulled the tape off my journal page and started doodling in my 4th layer with my pentel pocket brush (Hot Dog Layer #4), and...DONE! I hope you enjoyed today's project and take some time to go through the helpful PDF I've put together for you!! I think you'll love seeing the mixed media inspiration from not only me, but from TWENTY of my artsy friends who also enjoy creating mixed media art journal pages and canvases with fewer supplies!! Thanks for hanging out with me today! ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON ❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON ❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM
I've never used ecoline brush pens for a full project before, so today's the day! I was really interested to see how they compare to my beloved Tombow brush pens and Winsor Newton watercolor markers because I LOVE doing brush pen drawings and paintings in my signature mixed media style. Click over to the video to see the demo, brush pen comparison, and my thoughts as I work with Ecolines in real time to create this fun mixed media portrait in 3/4 view. Before we continue, super quick announcement: All product links are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links but by law there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I thank you for your support! 
I typically create brush pen drawings and end up adding water to them with a paint brush or water brush because I love the effects you can get. They look so much like watercolor, and are WAY cheaper to work with!
If you're someone who feels a little intimidated by working with a paint brush, you might enjoy the control of working with brush pens and working your way up to adding water. You can also use them completely dry, like a regular marker, and not add water if you want! 
As you'll see in the video- I'm comparing the Ecolines to 3 others brands: Arteza, Tombow, and Winsor Newton.
The Arteza brush pens are a bit different because they're the only one in this product mix with a brush nib that is actually like a paint brush with individual hairs at the tip. 
While this is really cool - it actually makes coloring much more difficult because they're not super juicy. The Arteza brush pens also have a hard barrel which means you can't squeeze them to get more color flowing.
As you can see in the pic above, the individual hairs will separate while you're coloring, so the coverage isn't amazing. The one bonus is - this set is way cheaper than the others, so if you don't mind working a bit harder to get the coverage you want, you can get 96 colors for around $54 (or just 50 cents/marker). 
When I pick up the Tombow brush pen in one hand and the Arteza in the other hand, I can definitely feel a difference in weight. Tombows are super juicy, so I'm guessing that weight difference is more ink in the barrel.
Tombows also have TWO nibs in each marker: the brush nib, and the bullet for helping you get into teeny, tiny spaces. Tombow has a set of 96 for around $146. You're definitely paying more per marker here, but I've actually never had one run out on me yet, so you can be confident these will last you quite a while!! 
Tombows are definitely my fave when I'm doing art journal pages because they're so easy to take on the road if I want to art while I'm on vacation, or whatever. I even used to take them to carpool and do art in my car while waiting for the boys to get out of school!!
The only downside about Tombows is they're not lightfast, so if you want to make something that's never gonna fade, and will last forever, this may not be the brush pen for you! The same is true for the other lower priced brush pens we're looking at today (Arteza and Ecoline).
HOT TIP: If you are on a budget and need to buy the lower priced brush pens, take a photo (or photocopy, scan, etc.) to preserve your art before the color begins to fade. Remember, it will fade much quicker if you hang it up in direct sunlight. 
Winsor Newton watercolor markers are my top fave in terms of quality. The pigment is gorgeous and lightfast, so it will not fade because they're considered a fine art product.
Like the Tombows, these have both the bullet and brush nibs in each marker, and they're gonna last you forever. They also "move" the most when you add water to them, so they're not just watersoluble, they really FEEL like watercolor. The downside of Winsor Newtons is they don't come in nearly as many colors, and being a fine art product, they're more expensive. The cheapest you can get them is around $4/each, but their quality is outstanding. 
What I'm playing with for today's mixed media portrait tutorial are the Ecoline Brush Pens. They're NOT lightfast, but are super fun to play with, and easy on your budget at about $2/marker when you buy a set of 30 for $60.
They have a bunch of skin tone shades, which is what attracted me to them, so of course I had to check these out for you to let ya know if I think they're worth it! The Ecolines have a smaller nib than the others I tested them against today, but I definitely don't hold that against them because they're nice and juicy. Click over to the video to see how each marker compares when activated with water and come do this tutorial with me in REAL TIME! 
Today's watercolor marker tutorial is of a face in 3/4 view. A portrait in three quarter view is one of the hardest face angles to draw, so if you're new to drawing faces, or feel you need some tips to get you started - I've got a cheatsheet for that!
Simply click the button below, and I'll send you my face drawing guidelines for how to draw a 3/4 view portrait.
If you are totally new to drawing faces, and interested in learning, I recommend the following playlists for you (in order):
1. How to Draw & Shade a Forward Facing Face 2. Side Profile Drawing 3. 3/4 View Face All of the above playlists have cheatsheets to help beginners and step by step face drawing tutorials to help you. Back to today's tutorial... 
I'm not being too fussy with my face sketch today because I really want to get to the coloring portion of the project!
After my face was sketched in, I selected 3 Ecoline marker shades that went well together to create light, medium, and dark skin tones. I tried using the same technique I do when shading with Tombows. I add streaks of light, medium, dark - then activate with water to blend. 
I leave things streaky on purpose because that typically blends right out with water - at least that's my experience with Tombows. When I added water with my paint brush to the Ecoline pigment, I felt like the skin tones blended pretty well, but the blues I used for her hair were much juicier and a bit easier to activate with water. Not sure why!!
I don't have any black brush pens in my Ecoline set, so I incorporated my pentel pocket brush to start adding in detail (especially when drawing eyelashes!)
If you have questions about the pentel pocket brush, I've got two different videos on it - one about how to draw eyelashes on mixed media portraits on my mixed media YouTube channel, and one on my drawing channel. 
Make sure you click over to the video to find out my FULL opinion on whether or not I think Ecolines a great addition to your art supply stash!
Thanks for hanging out with me today!! ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON ❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON ❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM
Today's mixed media on canvas is a hilarious mashup of a grumpy cat and a flower- done in my signature "Hamburger" style. There's a little bit of everything from mixed media collage using paper napkins, to mixed media drawing & acrylic painting. I had a blast! Having FUN with your art is the MOST important part! If you're having FUN, you'll create more often. The more you create - the BETTER you'll get!
If you've never done mashup art before, be sure to click over to the video to see exactly what I'm doing. It's actually REALLY easy. You just combine two or more reference images to come up with your own creation!
For my supplies, I used a tall canvas (around 12 x 36), some floral napkins for collaging with mod podge, and ALL my mixed media supply favorites from watersoluble pencils to acrylics, gelatos and pitt pens.
If you look closely at the collage portions of this piece- I was using floral napkins. The napkin pattern had a white background, so when I collaged it to my canvas, the flowers kinda melted into the background like they were always there. It was a really cool effect! Check out this link to learn more about how to do wrinkle-free mixed media collage with paper napkins. 
As you can see above, when I was ready to start drawing my grumpy flower cat, I used a watersoluble pencil. I think this is an awesome trick because once you start painting, your pencil lines totally melt away!
Once I got my acrylic layer down, I started adding in my gelatos (shown below) to blend in some shading with my finger and give my acrylics more dimension.
If you've never used gelatos before, they're AMAZING. I recently did a video on how to use gelatos in mixed mediat art, so be sure to check that out for my best tips.
Gelatos get added in layer 3 of my Mixed Media Hamburger System. If you're not familiar with my "hamburger system," - it's what I named my layering process when I'm doing mixed media and want to play with ALL of my art supplies!
The hamburger system is SUPER helpful for beginners and anyone else who wants to learn a little more about mixed media art supplies, when to use them & which supplies work well together. Click the button below if you'd like to download my Mixed Media Hamburger cheatsheet (yup - it's totally FREE). 
If you'd like to see me explain my hamburger system to you on my Mixed Media YouTube channel, be sure to click over to this playlist.
I hope you get a kick outta today's grumpy flower cat mashup! If this is something you'd like to do with me in real time (no timelapse), this is one of MANY fun projects over in the Mixed Media Society over at Awesome Art School. We'd LOVE to have you come hang out with us!! ❤️MY ARTIST BESTIE, LUCY BRYDON & I are creating a NEW ART MEMBERSHIP together called The Celtic Collective!! Learn More & add your name to the waitlist here. Opens in TWO DAYS on July 7th! 
I've never tried palette knife painting with acrylic paints for one of my mixed media portraits until today! It was actually SUPER FUN!! I created some thick, edgy texture in the hair, and kept things a bit more delicate for the face using my mixed media art supply go-tos: faber castell gelatos, pitt pens & my black stabilo all pencil! Join me to see just how this MAGICAL mixed media fairy canvas comes to life!!  Below, I'm looking a little unsure about how the palette knife painting is gonna go for her face... LOL!  But I quickly got a LOT more into it when I started adding layers of thick red acrylic paint for hair!!  If you've been following me for a while, you probably know that most of the time I START my mixed media art projects with collage. Every once in a while I'll do my foreground subject (typically a face!!) first, and then try another collage art technique like in today's project.  This collage paper was actually sent to me by a friend who MADE it, so I was thrilled to include it in this piece.  Are you loving "the ugly phase" on this girl?! LOL!! It makes me cringe, but oh well!! Do what I always say - JUST KEEP GOING!! This means you're about half-way done with your project!!  After quite a bit of blending I added back some definition to my original lines with my black stabilo all pencil and pulled out my paintbrush to activate it with a little acrylic. I LOVE how this adds shading all by itself! Cool, right?! Then it's time to play with my Faber castell gelatos! I'm in LOVE with these for creating my mixed media portraits! I recently did a video ALL about the magical goodness of gelatos and why you need to check these out if you've never played with them before.  They're amazing for shading faces. Look at that smooth complexion I've blended in below...  I love the contrast with her thick hair - full of texture!  Take a look at these killer lashes up close!! Tons of people have trouble with drawing eyelashes! I KNOW these can be super tricky, so I've done a number of eyelash drawing tutorials on how to draw eyelashes successfully. Here's one on my drawing channel, and another on my mixed media channel. I've also created a free cheatsheet to help you out that you can download and use as a reference when you're practicing eyelash drawing. It teaches you how to draw eyelashes step by step, along with the THREE important things to think about every time you're drawing eyelashes. Click the button below and I'll send it straight to your inbox!  For this particular project, I used my stabilo to draw eyelashes on this girl. When I activated these lines, it created the look of more dramatic eye makeup. I'm always down with THAT! Check out the video to see how I added in some magical blues to her hair and eyes, and of course layered in my signature white highlights to make EVERYTHING POP at the end!! SO FUN!! Thanks for hanging out with me today! I hope you have a fab week!!
❤️Want FREE, immediate access to my Fun Fab Drawing Club and/or Mixed Media Society plus discounts on all my art books, sneak peek at YouTube videos and new book content, behind-the-scenes fun and MORE? Join me over on Patreon today and get HUGE PERKS in return for a small monthly donation. ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON (available in both Kindle and Paperback) ❤️ SIGNED COPIES of my art books on ETSY ❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON ❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK Derwent Inktense Pencils are water soluble pencils that ALSO claim to be PERMANENT once dry. I've actually never tried inktense pencils in my Hamburger system and decided to test this permanent claim out first to see if it's true. Get ready for a SHOCKER in today's mixed media art supply demo!!  Inktense water soluble pencils are filled with a "magical" ink - that's why they're called "inktense" instead of watercolor pencils. Confession: I never work with Derwent inktense pencils other than to occasionally use them like I would use a watercolor pencil! I decided today's test was the perfect opportunity to try a variety of water soluble pencils vs watercolor pencils to see which ones move the most when I attempt to reativate them all a second time!  If you've got a copy of my hamburger system cheatsheet, water soluble supplies can be used in layer three, OVER your collage and paint layers. Not sure what my Hamburger System is? It's my signature mixed media layering process! I compare layering my supplies to the way you layer toppings for the perfect burger! I've got an entire FUN YouTube series of tutorials, cheatsheets, and even wrote a mixed media art BOOK about it!! Download the FREE, one-page cheatsheet that explains it all by clicking the button below.  I'll send it straight to your inbox so you can print it and keep it at your art table for reference to help you with your own mixed media layering.  I've collected a ton of watercolor pencils and watersoluble pencils over the years because these are one of my favorite ways to draw something cute, and add a little quick shading with watercolor effects. I've lined up 10 watercolor and watersoluble pencils for today's Derwent Inktense review.  So far I'm loving how the Aquatones (also by Derwent) are activating. Sadly, this product is becoming hard to find though. There's a rumor it was discontinued, so if you go hunting for them, you might have a hard time.  As you can see in today's mixed media art supply demo, even after I activate all the products, you can still see the pencil line from each one (except for the aquatones - which really seem to melt as soon as the water hits them).  This is a super cool effect if you like the look of mixed media drawing and still want pencil lines to be visible in your work. If you don't - you may prefer to reach for a watercolor marker, because that pigment will totally dissolve for you. After I activated each product, I hit the page with my hairdryer to make sure each one is fully dry.  Once I dried everything and came back to rewet, the Derwent Aquatones (woodless pencil), Watercolor and Derwent Graphitint are the MOST watersoluble. I tested the inktense pencils last! CLICK OVER to watch the video and find out if they live up to their marketing claim ... is the ink permanent, or will it move? Thanks for hanging out with me today! I hope you have a fab week!!
❤️Want FREE, immediate access to my Fun Fab Drawing Club and/or Mixed Media Society plus discounts on all my art books, sneak peek at YouTube videos and new book content, behind-the-scenes fun and MORE? Join me over on Patreon today and get HUGE PERKS in return for a small monthly donation. ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON (available in both Kindle and Paperback) ❤️ SIGNED COPIES of my art books on ETSY ❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON ❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK You are going to LOVE THIS 3 MINUTE mixed media canvas background technique!! It is by far THE FASTEST way to knock out a vibrant background for my mixed media portraits! I typically start with collage, but sometimes I'm in the mood for something a little different. Evidentally, today it was punk, and I'm LOVING how she turned out!!  To get started, select 3-4 spray paint colors you like together, a few stencils, and head outside with your canvas. Begin by adding a few shots of color here and there, in two different shades. Then drop a stencil on top and use your third color of spray paint to start working in some fun patterns.  Cool, right?! There are SO many directions you can take a mixed media canvas background like this. I worked in some black with mine because I wanted it to feel edgy since I knew where the portrait for this piece was headed. This background seriously took me ALL OF THREE MINUTES. That's it. I think that might be a record, even for me!!  Once my canvas was dry, I pulled out my GINORMOUS magnum sharpie back in the studio, and got to work on a side profile drawing prompt from an artist friend of mine, Jenny Manno. Before we continue, super quick announcement! All product links noted below are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links, but by law there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I only reccommend products I actually use and love. Thank you for your support!  Just a word of caution... if you're not used to doing profile drawings, I definitely DON'T recommend using a sharpie!! Especially one this big!! In all seriousness, if you're new to side profile drawing, it's NOT as hard as you think it is. You probably just need someone to break it down for you so it doesn't feel so overwhelming. Then you just need a little practice. I have TONS of resources to help you with profiles! Feel free to check out this playlist on my YouTube Drawing channel for beginners. You'll learn how to do side profile drawing step by step in pencil. You can also check out my book, How to Draw MORE Fun Fab Faces, over on Amazon. This is PERFECT for beginners who want to learn how to draw profiles step by step (even kids!!).  Once I finished my initial drawing, I got my gesso going inside the face and just around the outer edge of her face shape to knock the background back just a bit. Then I painted a thin layer of flesh colored craft paint on the face. If you've been watching me for a while - you know I'm NOT super patient, LOL! Layering with gesso and acrylic paints really can take forever, and I don't usually have the patience for that. Because I have the neeeeeed for speed, I developed this cool technique to add color to my mixed media portraits QUICKLY, using my gelatos by Faber Castell! See the light pink in the face below, where it looks like blush has been applied to her cheek? That's from my gelatos! I blended it with my finger and it literally took me TWO seconds.  If you want to see this gelatos technique slowed down in REAL TIME, I just did a product demo with my Faber Castell Gelatos, so you definitely need to check that out! If you haven't tried them before on your own, this is my favorite set. FYI, beware of the metallic version if you want to follow me with this technique, because sadly they don't work!  If you're watching this project unfold (and I HOPE you do!!), I actually struggled a little with the skin tone and decided I wanted a clean slate to work with, so pulled out my gesso and started again with my fun gelatos technique. In the pic above, you can see it's looking SO much better, so that ended up being a great move! Keep that in mind- if something doesn't go quite right- there are a MILLION ways to fix something, so DON'T give up. Keep pushing through!! In the world of mixed media art, gesso is your friend in more ways than one!!  When I'm switching gears from mixed media painting to mixed media DRAWING... I seal my whole canvas with one of my favorite mixed media art supplies - mod podge! I buy this stuff by the gallon!! When the mod podge has dried, my canvas is slippery and has been prepped beautifully for playing with pitt pens. I love using my pitt pens to help me when shading a face (mixed media style). I use them in a similar way to my gelatos. I layer some color and blend with my fingertip.  What's REALLY cool about working with pitt pens over mod podge, is you can ERASE things you don't like with a simple baby wipe! Amazing, right?! The art supply layering system I'm using in today's project is something I lovingly refer to as my mixed media "Hamburger System." I compare layering my supplies to the way you layer toppings for the perfect burger! I've actually got an entire FUN YouTube series of tutorials, cheatsheets, and even wrote a mixed media art BOOK about it!! Download the FREE, one-page cheatsheet that explains it all by clicking the button below. I'll send it straight to your inbox so you can print it and keep it at your art table for reference to help you with your own mixed media layering.  When I'm using my hamburger system for layering and am happy with something I've done, I seal my work with another layer of mod podge to ensure it won't move, then hit it with my hair dryer so I can do a bit more doodling.  My last step is always grabbing a white sharpie or posca pen to add highlights throughout. I LOVE the drama this adds to my mixed media portraits.  I hope you enjoy watching this video!! I had a blast doing this project!!
❤️Want FREE, immediate access to my Fun Fab Drawing Club and/or Mixed Media Society plus discounts on all my art books, sneak peek at YouTube videos and new book content, behind-the-scenes fun and MORE? Join me over on Patreon today and get HUGE PERKS in return for a small monthly donation. ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON (available in both Kindle and Paperback) ❤️ SIGNED COPIES of my art books on ETSY ❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON ❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK |
Karen CampbellFounder of Awesome Art School. Mixed Media Artist. Author of 18 Instructional Art Books!    
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"Karen is flipping hilarious and she's very real...I like the way she teaches in a way that really gives you confidence, whether you're a beginner or advanced there's always something new to learn!"
- Elizabeth W. |
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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