Today I’m going to show you some cool ways to add a new level of interest to your work by combining different techniques into one artwork! This is otherwise known as Mixed Media.
What is Mixed Media you ask?
- Mixed media, in visual art, refers to an artwork in the making of which more than one medium has been employed. - Wikipedia
Why would you choose to work with more than one medium? Well for starters, some things are just more easily executed if a different material is used. In other cases, you may be looking for a specific texture or surface that cannot be achieved with whatever you’re currently using. For example, printing or collaging a pattern can be more efficient than painting or drawing it by hand. Note that choosing to print or collage said pattern isn’t lazy, just a different manner of choosing to work. Also, by combining mediums you can find new methods of making!
Many contemporary traditional artists work in Mixed Media to achieve dramatic possibilities in their work.
Shahzia Sikander. "Chaman," 2000. Mixed Media, dimensions variable. Installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
James Siena. “Sequence One”, 2009-2010. Bound accordian-style book with 36 relief prints using oak blocks across 38 Masa paper pages. Page size: 14 1/2" x 18" (closed)
Michael Shapcott. “Onawa”, 2009. Graphite, Carbon, Acrylic, and a touch of Oil on Illustration Board
Collage
- A technique of an art production, primarily used in the visual arts, where the artwork is made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole.- Wikipedia
Screenprinting
- A printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil to receive a desired image. – Wikipedia
Altered Books
- An altered book is a form of mixed media artwork that changes a book from its original form into a different form, altering its appearance and/or meaning. – Wikipedia
Decollage
- Is the opposite of collage; instead of an image being built up of all or parts of existing images, it is created by cutting, tearing away or otherwise removing, pieces of an original image. – Wikipedia
Installation Art
- Describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. – Wikipedia
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Image Transfer
- Transferring a photocopied image onto another surface with the help of solvents, heat, or acrylic mediums.
Watercolor
- The medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle. – Wikipedia
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These examples from around the Mixed Media gallery are not the only ways you can mix it up! The possibilities are literally endless as long as you’re open to experimenting with materials! Here are some handy videos on the “how to” of some of the above mentioned techniques:
Have fun experimenting!
