Join me on an exploration of combining mediums!
When I was in school, our assigned art projects rarely required mixed media. My teachers would only really encourage exploring the combination of mediums in our sketchbook. Most of our assignments revolved around the use of one medium, and it wasn't until college that I felt the freedom to combine media in my own practice. Being able to explore even more combinations of mediums and their capabilities together has taught me that there are no limits to art!
MATERIALS
Wet - watercolor, acrylic
Dry - chalk pastels, oil pastels, charcoal
Collage - magazines, images, textiles
Scissors or X-Acto, various papers, various adhesives
Mixed Media Exploration
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Sketchbook Mixed Media
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In my sketchbook, I experimented with combining watercolor and collage in an interactive way for the first four images. I included wet-on-wet techniques, splattering, and cutting with an X-Acto. The last image is also a collage made from magazine images. I adhered everything with a gel medium and then doodled on top of the collage with charcoal pencils or gelly roll pens.
Own Practice Examples
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These are images of past artworks I've done with mixed media. The top two cultural pieces incorporate collage, charcoal, pan-pastels, and found objects. The first self-portrait involves graphite, pastels, and markers. The second is an expressive self-portrait with graphite pencils, graphite sticks, charcoal pencils, charcoal sticks, chalk, marker, and white acrylic—it's an example of how you can have a cohesive artwork with monochromatic colors from multiple mediums.
Mixed Media Techniques
Layering - I find the best way to explore mixed media is by layering 2+ mediums. Explore how the mediums work on top of each other to see if it's a successful combination. Test the boundaries of how many layers of different mediums you can create before it's "too much."
Combinations - Wet mediums typically go well with other wet mediums, as do dry with other dry. You can keep it safe by combining these types, but if you're going for cool chaotic effects, go crazy with the combinations! My favorite combinations from my exploration were any wet medium with oil pastels on top (applied only once the wet medium dried). Oil pastels are incredibly pigmented and buttery, therefore they're almost guaranteed to show up beautifully on top of anything. It also adds great texture. Another excellent combination I found was chalk pastels on top of acrylics. If you have a hard time creating gradients with acrylics because you're uncomfortable with paint color mixing, you can create similar effects by applying smooth blends of chalk pastel on top! A combination I wouldn't necessarily recommend is chalk pastel on top of watercolor since it doesn't show up as well (unless you're looking for subtlety).
Composing - To compose a mixed media piece, think about the parts of the piece that you want to highlight or emphasize. You could draw your viewers' attention to that area by making it stand out with a certain medium next to another.
Personal Thoughts
With mixed media, personal preference is what matters most since there's an infinite number of combinations and possibilities. It's great for vibrant story-telling or the creation of intricate pieces. It immediately captures the viewer's attention because more than one thing is happening in your artwork, therefore they're naturally drawn to it. It's also a medium arguably centered around trial and error, for there will be some combinations you may be disappointed with. However, instead of giving up, you can use it as motivation to try out other things and make some discoveries you've never thought about before! My key discovery was how beautiful oil pastel shows up on dried wet mediums, as well as the gradients you can make with chalk pastel on top of acrylic bases.
Additional sources for help!
Exploring my Theme - Cat Characteristics
Inspiring collage artists who have a cat/animal series: Judy Paul, Stacey Chiew
Mixed media (collage, acrylic, chalk & oil pastels)
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For my mixed media exploration, I chose to represent a curious cat. The mediums I incorporated included collage, acrylic, oil pastel, and chalk pastel. I started by cutting up magazine images of bright artwork and then used Mod Podge to glue. Since I wanted to paint on top of it, I sealed the collage with a coat of Mod Podge to create a thick, clear coat. Next, I blocked out the shape of a cat head with black acrylics and made his ear stick up in intrigue. I then doodled with acrylic paint using an angled brush to represent crazy thoughts. Once it was dry, I layered oil and chalk pastel to enhance the chaos and craziness of the doodles. I had the most fun with this theme exploration because it was so colorful and full of life! I'd never combined these mediums in an art piece before, therefore seeing how the colors tied everything together was fascinating. That's the main thing I've learned from mixed media—color choices could be the cohesive aspect of your artwork.
For the Classroom...
Age appropriateness & behavioral expectations:
There are different age groups depending on what types of mediums you combine. Mixing acrylics with oil pastels would be suitable for younger kids. Meanwhile, combining printmaking and collage is more complex and therefore suitable for middle/secondary schoolers.
Students should be focused on their space and not invade their peers' work areas, especially if everyone's working with different medium combinations
Students should work in stations to make clean-up easier
Create a learning contract with students who want to explore more medium combinations beyond your instruction, that way you know what to expect
Accommodations
Project Ideas
Safety & Health
Reference:
Hafeli, Mary Claire. Exploring Studio Materials: Teaching Creative Art Making to Children. Oxford University Press, 2015.
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