Seabird Mixed Media

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

As my first foray into traditional mixed media, I just kind of threw a lot of things at the paper and called it a day. I don’t love this, but it included a lot of techniques and different media, so it gave me a nice lesson on what works, what doesn’t, and where my own style may lay. I also used my clear gesso to reinforce the paper, which helped a lot.

You might recall the centerpiece from a post where I was first learning how to make photographs look a little nicer on the computer. A decade or so later, I still can’t care enough to do much, especially with blog photos in my dark cave-like house, but I do make the occasional attempts, I promise. I worked hard in this piece to let the colors inspire me, but I found I just had to include a peachy feel regardless. (Considering Pantone named Peach Fuzz the color of the year, I think I am well justified, surely!)

I used an alphabet stencil my brother gave me with markers on a used dryer sheet that tore beautifully. On top is an old circle circuit leftover from a scrapbook project that I painted. I came up with the phrase myself – I just wanted something with text and I felt like the bird could be speaking. It reads, “Come away to the sea; fly away with me”.

I added a small cutout from a magazine that reads, “Back in 5 minutes” and drew sketchy outlines over it. This is where I saw firsthand that gesso can work as glue. Cool! On the left are some teabags and a small fraying selvage strip of a shiny white fabric (painted with pink). I also dyed cheesecloth and threw that over the whole thing. To weigh this corner down, I had a woodcut fence I painted and outlined, and then a small strip of burlap trim.

This corner was rather empty until I decided to add a landscape design. Teabags, dryer sheet, tissue paper, and cheesecloth, all over top of some scraps of paper. I also used a stamp – this was the foamy wrap a pear came in that I rolled up. I liked that a lot!

Then to weigh down the bottom right, I piled on some shells, and added reindeer moss anywhere there was glue, and a small tuft of raffia grass I hoarded from some shipping material.

Overall, even though I am not in love with this visually, I had so much fun just learning how crayons, pencils, pens, paint, and so on would work with each other. It looks nothing like the work of Laly Mille, a blogger that set me on this mixed media course, but maybe some day I can take a workshop of hers.

 

 

See more posts related to:

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Looking for more cases of the Crafties?
Update

Update

Just a summary of random things that’s been keeping me from posting.

read more
Stitch Club: Kaur

Stitch Club: Kaur

Saima Kaur led a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club designed to make us smile by stitching brightly bold and whimsical figures, and I was inspired by ancient South African rock art.

read more
Stitch Club: Edwards

Stitch Club: Edwards

Priscilla Edwards led a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club where we learned to make a wire frame and use batik wax to form a sculpture. For whatever reason, I decided I’d make a sailboat!

read more
A new era

A new era

My craft room has two new additions, Toby and Ollie.

read more
Hexie Dreams + Template

Hexie Dreams + Template

My Hexie Dreams quilt, which was carefully fussy cut and hand pieced by me, then hand quilted by my gramma, is finally finished after three+ years of work (and avoidance). The proof is in the stitching – persistence pays off!

read more
Stitch Club: Dias

Stitch Club: Dias

Cassandra Dias lead a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club workshop on embroidered landscapes, and I was inspired to recreate a honeymoon photo of France’s Pont Du Gard.

read more
Hello 2024!

Hello 2024!

For the start of 2024, I’ve been playing with drawing, paint, and watercolor pencils to get a feel for the media.

read more
Ida Andersen Lang’s Tutorial

Ida Andersen Lang’s Tutorial

I followed a water color pencil tutorial by Ida Andersen Lang to work through some techniques to set me up for a successful Mixed Media 2024 journey.

read more
Stitch Club: Boschert

Stitch Club: Boschert

Deborah Boschert lead a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club on creating a mixed media art quilt. I based mine upon a visit to a new town and restaurant.

read more
Finds and Things

Finds and Things

A random post about some art supplies, vintage finds, and an AI-generated experiment for future crafts.

read more
Stitch Club: Stone 3

Stitch Club: Stone 3

Sue Stone’s third workshop with TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club prompted us to use text in our piece, so I recorded a trip to Shawnee National Forest.

read more
Stitch Club: Stone 2

Stitch Club: Stone 2

Sue Stone led a TextileArtist.org’s Stitch Club in her well-known portrait style, and I was inspired to capture a man in a hat in four variations.

read more
Hexie Dreams 19

Hexie Dreams 19

My hand sewn fussy-cut EPP Hexie Dreams quilt is all ready to go to my gramma for hand quilting. Check out a few of my embellished hexies, and come back in the future for the finished product!

read more
My Village Quilt

My Village Quilt

I present to you My Village Quilt, based on the Urban Village Green quilt: a four-year-long project that tipped the love-hate scale finally over to love.

read more