In this art tutorial, I embark on an exploration of mixed media art journaling, focusing on the versatile capabilities of the Dina Wakley Media Journal.
A blog about art making and art education explorations in a humble art room for adults and kids of all ages.
In our busy lives, we believe that Eva’s message of creating a quiet place within yourself to allow your creative intuition to flow
Today I am going to show 6 ways that I made easy background papers using supplies that you might already have around your craft room!
There are great rewards to be had if you break out of your creative comfort zone, like gaining more confidence and having a more fulfilling and satisfying art practice.
Learn this fun and easy method for aging paper! By Thicketworks for Graphics Fairy
Learn a fun and easy technique to transfer a photo to paper and make art journal pages, scrapbook layouts, mixed media projects and more
If your kids have collected bunches of fall leaves that are starting to dry and lose their color, this unique fall leaf collage is a great way to "save" them without keeping a pile that
Super easy way to make collage paper backgrounds which are great for art journals, junk journals or mixed media art pieces!
How to Transfer Images onto Paper by Rebecca Parsons. Such a great Mixed Media technique, perfect to use in Art Journals or Junk Journals!
A blog about art making and art education explorations in a humble art room for adults and kids of all ages.
If you are looking to personalize your art journal projects, creating mixed media tissue paper is a fun way to get unique colors and textures. Creating mixed media tissue paper is easy and only requires a few materials. In this tutorial I will share with you three different techniques for getting a variety of different
Free Jellyfish art tutorial for kids and adults! This stunning jelly can be recreated with a few watercolors and a bit of clear glue. This mixed media art project creates lots of interesting textures and designs that are sure to delight your students.
Super easy way to make collage paper backgrounds which are great for art journals, junk journals or mixed media art pieces!
Make your own DIY Rust Pastes with Heather Tracy for The Graphics Fairy!
Over on Instagram we are giving away a special package for you and a friend from us! All you have to do is print the attached heart, use an art or craft process to decorate it, take a photo and ta...
Please Note: All images seen below are of my students artwork only. These photos/lessons are not posted in any particular order regarding the flow of my curriculum. Abstract Self-Portrait Paintin…
Use Arrows above to toggle through examples! SUMMARY: We began this lesson by creating a series of oil pastel-patterned papers. Working with distinct warm or cool color schemes, the students c…
I've been wanting to do this project for ages, ever since I saw it on the blog [email protected]. You can find Natalie's original post here. After many illustration and painting projects under our belt, I wanted to do a paper art project with my kids, and knew this one would be perfect for all ages. And boy, was it fun! Be aware that this project is rather time-consuming, as it requires many steps and is done on a large format. It took us three 90-minute classes, but it worked out well, since we lumped the three main steps into one class each. Day 1: Students chose to do either a cat or a dog (large or small breed). I prepared tracers of cat eyes, dog eyes, cat nose, and a small and large dog nose. I used simple cardstock for this. I don't usually use tracers, but felt they were fitting for this projects since the focus was really on pastel blending, painting for dimension and definition, and collaging, and the tracers really saved us a lot of time and effort in an already lengthy, multi-step project. Students traced their eyes and nose on good watercolor or acrylic paper. Eyes were colored using 3-4 analogous oil pastel colors. Starting at the outer edge of eye ball with the darkest color, students colored a ring of color always coloring in the direction of the pupil. The next lightest color was applied in the same way, but slightly touching the first ring of color in order to have the two colors blend. The third and fourth colors was applied in this same way. This process created slightly blended colors where one color ring transforms into the next, and it really looks like the streaks of iris color. You're best off watching Natalie's eye coloring tutorial here. Once irises were colored, black acrylic paint was used to color in pupils and the outer edge of eyes. Reflection spots were added in white acrylic paint. The dog nose was painted using black acrylic paint with white, to create grays. Cat noses were painted with red with white, to create pink. Highlight spots were added here too. Watch Natalie's nose painting tutorial here. This was all we managed for day 1. Day 2: To hugely save on time and cut down on mess and waste, I had prepared and pre-torn strips of paper is various colors, patterns and textures. I used as many different kinds of paper as possible for maximum interest - atlas paper, book paper, painted paper, printed/stamped paper, deco paper, wrapping paper, graph paper, dotted paper, colored construction paper.... and I had my (biological) kids help me create paper using different mediums (watercolor resist, printing with stamps, painting with stencils, scribbling and drawing, printing with bubble wrap and other found objects, etc). I then tore these up into long strips. You could do this step on a separate day with your students (the kids would love it) but I was pressed for time. So, day 2, students were given a large 50x35cm black paper and were told to collage strips of paper in as many different colors and patterns as possible (mindful of balance and harmony, so perhaps repeating a few colors and patterns here and there). Strips should head towards the center and go slightly beyond the edge of the paper. We used acrylic gel medium for our glue. As always with gel medium, we glued under and over, which really helps to firmly seal our strips. This process took nearly the full 90 minutes of class. Collaged strips Day 3: We glued our eyes and nose onto our collage paper. We had many visuals of dogs and cats at our desks, to helps us visualize the facial order, features, texture and fur of our animals. We noted that with animals (and people), eyes are generally placed only as wide apart as the width of our noses. We glued these down and went over them with glossy acyclic gel medium, which gives our eyes and nose that glossy shimmer. Then it was time for adding definition, dimension and texture, and to make our eyes and nose harmonize with and look like they 'belong' to our collaged background. Using only black and white paint (and creating our own grays), we defined our eyes, created a snout shape and chin, considered dimension and facial structure. Again, we looked to visuals of cats and different dog breeds for inspiration. Cheeks, chins and snouts were pushed forward in that we used more white and light grays here, while eyes were pushed back in that we added more black around the edges. Using feather brushes and other fur-rendering paint brushes (fan brush, wisp brush), we added furry lines and texture around eyes, forehead, along the edges of our snouts, and anywhere we wanted that furry look. To make the eyes less 'startled' and to give our eyes more character, we painted over the upper edge of the iris. This softened the look a bit. We even abandoned brushes and used our fingers to finger paint some definition here and there. Fun! All my ages groups, from age 6-14, really enjoyed this multi-step process.... perhaps without even realizing just how much learning was happening! A real winner of a project! Thanks again to Natalie from Elementaryartfun.blogspot.com for the awesome inspiration! Ages 8-11 Ages 8-14 Ages 6-7
Please Note: All images seen below are of my students artwork only. These photos/lessons are not posted in any particular order regarding the flow of my curriculum. Abstract Self-Portrait Paintin…
I recently took on a super fun project where I made a bunch of cool art papers, and I filmed the whole thing to share with you. It was a blast, and I'm here to tell you all about it, hoping to get you excited to try something similar.
Art for Beginners: Easily create a beautiful piece of art on canvas. Read on for tips for beginners on getting started on creating your own art canvas. #artcanvas #artforbeginners #arttutorials #arttips
Faux Encaustic Technique by Heather Tracy for The Graphics Fairy
Dina Wakley, our featured artist of the month, shares a multitude of mixed-media techniques and tips in all of her work for creating expressive art. Here are a few of our favorites.
As I'm learning to create different mixed media collage papers, one thing I'm particularly enjoying is creating coffee dye papers. I tried 3 types of dyeing - using coffee, tea and onion skins. The coffee dye papers are a bit dark brown, tea dye is brownish and onion skin dye is reddish brown. I love all the 3 colors that they create on papers. I wanted to experiment with acrylics and got some amazing results. It works with all the 3 types of dye, but I find coffee dyeing the easiest process of all - it's as if I'm making myself a cup of coffee. So I added a little bit of green and blue with the coffee and tea mix and got some brilliant results.
Our first project this year has been a very progressive, multi step, multi media project that has really evolved as we created! Our first p...
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you mix one form of art with another? We are sure that you have had this thought once or twice and wondered what
Our first project this year has been a very progressive, multi step, multi media project that has really evolved as we created! Our first p...
Collages are things of joy and fun since they tend to be not just one piece of art but a mix of several. And the best part is that while like other art, it
What is Gesso and How to Use it by Rebecca Parsons for The Graphics Fairy.
Discover a wealth of information and instruction for creating mixed-media faces in this special issue magazine!
In this tutorial, mixed-media artist Cathy Taylor shows you how to create artful nature prints using easy monoprinting techniques.
A blog about art making and art education explorations in a humble art room for adults and kids of all ages.
Happy first day of August! With these last few weeks before school starts, we wanted to share a fun project for those parents looking for an easy summer art project. It's simple, fun, and requires only a few supplies. Plus, kids can use their hands and smush paint…so fun and tactile! And once they're all […]
Faux Encaustic Technique by Heather Tracy for The Graphics Fairy
Today I am going to show 6 ways that I made easy background papers using supplies that you might already have around your craft room!
This listing is for a high resolution scan of one of my original mixed media torn paper collages of a sunset/sunrise at sea. You will receive for download a .jpg for personal use only. If you'd like to use it for any professional manner, like marketing or business products and the like, please message me and I'd be happy to work out a license :) File is 8.5"tall by 10" wide so you can print it pretty large and retain the details.
