Mixedmediatastic!

I really wasn't sure about doing this, but after the second art class this still life started to spring into life and now I luuuuurve mixed media. This is a massive combination of thin white paper glued as the underlayer to give texture, handmade paper ripped and glued into place for the blue bowl, brown wrapping paper as the wooden poles and some of the leaves, then finished off with a combination of Brusho inks, Derwent Inktense pencils, acrylic paint and Sennelier oil pastels.

I'm waiting for inspiration for the next one now :)

UPDATE:

After Scarlett's comment, I thought it would be a good idea to add in a step-by-step for this piece. It's all about creating different areas of texture to work on later in whichever medium you think suits best! Great fun.

1. I started with an oil pastel board, which is nice and stiff. You can work on anything, but paper does seem to go a bit floppy so I wouldn't recommend it.
   
2. I sketched out the composition with a soft pencil, then decided to add the paper effect to the foreground and background. This is muckily achieved by spreading PVA glue on the area to be covered, then scrunching up tissue paper and then placing it on the area.


3. I also scrunched up some brown tissue and glued it messily into the base of the plantpot as dead leaves. I also added in some green tissue as a few of the leaves and red and pink tissue on the plant pot.


4. I then used brown wrapping paper to cut out the shape of one of the leaves, the stalks of the plant and the struts of the basket (behind the bowl)


5. The bowl was created using handmade nepal paper, ripped into little pieces and then glued into place using my original sketch marks as a guide.
   
6. I then checked all the various bits of paper were well glued down and then left it to dry.

It looked AWFUL - incredibly amateurish, but don't worry, it gets better when you start painting over the top of your base layer. My art teacher explained that the first layer is like a pizza base, which you then add layer and layer on top to create the finished piece.

Once it had all dried, I then started working on each area. The medium you use for each area is down to you - whatever you think works best with each texture.

• For the green leaves, I over-painted the tissue with acrylic paints.
  
• The brown dead leaves were touched up with oil pastels.





• The plant pot is red and pink oil pastel added on top of tissue, with a little defintion around the rim with an inktense pencil.
  
• The Dominos box is just oil pastels and I used an Inktense pencil to write the letters.

• The jug is also oil pastels.





• The bowl is oil pastels added on top in the same colours as the handmade paper. I used a little darker blue to give definition.
  
  

  

• I used inktense pencil and oil pastels on the basket.
  
• The background and foreground are created by adding Brusho watercolour dry pigments, watered down and dabbed over the tissue. I used orange and pink on the wall background and dark brown and black on the foreground to attempt to create the impression of wood. I also added a little oil pastel in orange and pink in areas of the wall for extra colour.

I'm going to finish it off with spray fixative on the areas of oil pastel, then frame it behind glass in a big chunky brown frame with a white mount. Bliss!

In love with oil pastels

I've never really got the point of oil pastels, until I tried to replicate the look of stone of a cottage I lived in some years back. I really don't think I could have achieved it with paint. The windows are diluted Brusho pigments - a combination of green and orange. They dried beautifully! This first attempt was completed on an oil pastel [card]board:

Then, I discovered Art Boards made of maple and Sennelier oil pastels. BLISS. The pastels don't need a primer, so I worked directly onto the wood. I even took down the intensity of some of the colour on the windows and background by sanding.

Just so much fun! There will be more in the coming days... :)