MUTANT, A COLLAGE PAINTING IN MEMORY OF PLAGUE VICTIMS

I'm mad as hell about it, hate that 100,000 Americans could die from Covid-19, and countless others have already lost their lives in the pandemic.  I'm in sorrow, sheltering in place & hoping you are staying safe.

This artwork began on a vintage anatomy chart. 

It was a canvas-like scroll with rods at top and bottom.

I'll show some steps and techniques below. 

Original old medical chart.

Because the virus is rough, I added texture in places.

I didn't want the original warm tones of the figure (they were too pleasant), 
so I made a Dioxazine purple glaze. But I didn't like that either! So I went blue.

A cool blue wash (acrylics & water) for some of the

background, too, and white too. But I also wanted visual texture.

PAINTING TIP: Open a packet of de-oxidizer, desiccant or silica gel (sometimes found

in new shoeboxes). I sprinkled those tiny pebbles into the wet paint

and got a cool effect!

Close-up of part of the painting and collage elements.

I painted a cut-off tree trunk to symbolize all the lives cut short.

I collaged a cut-out eye, heart, and 3 birds into the piece. 

Owls and ravens are symbolic, too, of course.  

21" x 5.5'

Detail of ravens.

DID YOU MAKE A MISTAKE? 2 TIPS FOR REMOVING IT.

 FIX YOUR GOOFS!

HOW TO CLEAR DRY ACRYLIC PAINT FROM AN AREA

(TWO POINTERS TO HELP CLEAN  UP AN ERROR IN YOUR PAINTING)

Yes, you can cover mistakes with gesso or collaged materials. 

But here are two reminders of other techniques for different effects.

TIP #1: Sandpaper! See photo above.

It removed dry acrylic paint quite easily.

TIP #2: Pour on some rubbing alcohol and let it sit awhile.

Then rub with a dry cloth. See lighter areas above.

Thanks for viewing.

 

MORE IDEAS, TECHNIQUES, & MIXED MEDIA ADVICE

Texture: A good way to break creative block is to collage rice papers and paper scraps onto heavy watercolor paper with matte medium. See the example above. After it's dry, use pastels, pencil, watercolor, acrylics, or whatever you wish to finish the piece!

 

Love those old wallpaper books!:
Ask for old swatch books free from the paint store, and use the vinyl samples as a support for various media. Oil pastels are great because you can layer and sgraffito the pastel and enjoy a bit of the background pattern showing through. See below.

Oil pastel over vinyl, then scratched through.

 

They DO look like china flowers!

Make your own “porcelain” flowers:

Believe it or not, these “porcelain” blooms are fabric flowers dipped in tinted plaster of Paris!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A cool technique with acrylics:

See my own above! I plan to use this cut up into pieces!
Create interesting backgrounds with rubber cement, to keep certain areas white. First, apply some rubber cement and let it dry, paint a color and let dry, apply rubber cement in an interesting pattern and let dry.  Do again with another color. When that’s dry, pick up or rub off the cement across the entire piece, and see what is underneath.

(I did the one shown above 4 or 5 times on a single white surface, and needed elbow grease to remove all the rubber cement!)

 

Lefties:
For left-handed artists...turn your spiral bound sketchbook upside down and work from the back of the book. The spirals will be on the right side and not interfere with your hand.
 
A fun exercise to motivate you:
When you need inspiration, try the two-hand method. Pick up a different-colored marker or colored pencil in each hand and draw something—or nothing! Move both hands at the same time, alongside each other in a similar pattern. You'll be amazed at what your non-dominant hand can produce. A great warm-up tool.





 

MORE TIPS AND TRICKS YOU NEVER KNEW YOU NEEDED!

See last week's post, too...it was the
beginning of this series of

pointers for mixed media artists!

An old trick to see with new eyes:
To check your accuracy, view your work in a mirror. This will give you a fresh look rather than simply turning your piece upside down.

Hair of the brush:

Natural bristle or sable brushes getting scruffy? Inexpensive hair conditioner might bring back some spring to the bristles. 

Reuse old magazines (and more!) as paint palettes:

Use a magazine that you have finished reading (or an old phone book!) as a palette for your acrylic paints. The glossy paper won't absorb the paint and after you are finished your session, just flip over a page or two.
Old muffin tins and/or plastic ice cube trays hold separate colors of acrylic paint, too. Find them for cheap at thrift stores. Styrofoam egg cartons are free!

And: Whether you're finished with your painting or are just half way through, you can put your palette of wet acrylic paint in the refrigerator and it will stay fresh up to 2 weeks!

And: Use aluminum foil as your acrylic painting palette while painting and cover the paint with another sheet of aluminum foil when you are finished. Open it in a week and you'll see the paint is still usable.

Baby wipes are great for cleaning oil paint off your hands and tools. And they’ll help moisturize your hands!

And: Add about 10% Liquin Original (medium). Not only will you get more out of your paint, but the painting will dry faster, allowing you to re-work sooner.

Having trouble with the caps on your paint tubes getting stuck and hard to open? Place a small square of Saran Wrap over the tube before replacing the cap. It keeps the paint

from drying on the inside of the cap and sticking to the tube. Much easier opening!

And: To prevent paint from drying out prematurely because of cracked caps, save extra caps from those tubes that are still in good condition when you’ve used up your tube. That way, you will always have a cap ready to replace the bad one when that happens.

Stop with all the paper towels!:
Cut up old, stained t-shirts into small pieces. Excellent for drying brushes, erasing off wet paint when needed, cleaning your palette. Helps to save the environment.

 

Next week I'll even have pictures illustrating
more hints and suggestions

for artists using many media.

 

Complementary Color Schemes are Great!

Complementary colors are our focus with this post. This acrylic painting, shown below, uses the complements of red and green.
Yellow and violet are lovely together, as are blues and oranges. Notice the pastel pink below rather than real red. And notice the many shades and tints of green!


Are you busy planting or potting for Spring?

Do you have a color wheel handy? Pairs of complements are found directly opposite each other on the color wheel.
Often it's wise to use one color predominantly and its complement as an accent.
I especially like red-violet with yellow-green...sooo pretty. Blue-violet is another fave, with touches of yellow-orange.

Try your own artwork with a complementary color scheme!

MORE ART PRODUCTS & EFFECTS ON A WET SURFACE

In the previous post here, you'll find visual texture effects and more on watercolor paper. Today we'll use the same type of watercolor paper to experiment dry-on-wet with a number of waterbased products. If paper becomes too dry, re-spray with water as needed.


Water soluble art media

Scrape dry pigment from color sticks with a knife, or rub the color over rough sandpaper. As you'll learn, I only had really good luck with the latter with one of the  the above water-soluble materials. (But that's just me.)

#1 is Cretacolor wax crayons with
knife scrapings onto a wet strip.

#2 is Portfolio water soluble oil
pastels (LOVE THEM!)

The last two are my favorite effects here.


#3 is Weber Costello WaterCrayons...
do they even make them anymore?


#4, I used Crayola Watercolor
Colored Pencils for a
fine, misty effect
in water.


#5 was done with shavings of
Neocolor II Watersolubles.

And do try dropping dry
crystals and concentrates
on damp paper.

Order it here!

 Brusho is still my all-time
"bombastic" product for
a strong pigment on
a wet surface...it blooms
beautifully! Love it! See Dyes
in Dry Form in my book,
CREATING DECORATIVE
PAPER. 



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PROPORTIONS OF THE FACE - A Guide for the Novice

1. First, draw an egg shape. The chin portion should be more narrow than the crown.
2. Believe it or not, the eyes must be placed nearly halfway down! (Especially if you're drawing a young person.)

                                         

3. In the lower half of the face, divide the space into thirds (with the bottom of the chin being the bottom of the final third). The bottom of the nose is at the bottom of the first third, and the bottom of the lower lip as at the bottom of the second third. These are only approximate proportions, of course.

 

4. The ears in the front view should not protrude too far. The top ear tip is about at the eyebrow, and the bottom of the ear lobe is about even with the bottom of the nose.

 

5. Don't forget to add a neck, and not too thin, either!

 

Finally, add lots of strokes for the hair. TIP: Youngsters often begin the hairline too low on the forehead. Don't do that!



IN A RUT WITH YOUR ART? HERE'S HOW TO BOOST YOUR CREATIVITY!

If art inspiration just won't strike, use these 
techniques to ignite your imagination, 
motivate yourself, & 
fire up some artistic ideas!

1. Buy some fun art supplies, if you can afford it. Or trade some that you don't use with another artist, exchanging for different materials! Using new and different art materials can get you stirred up and stimulated.
2. Even if you don't use an art journal, write notes to yourself on anything that moves you or grabs your interest. It's best if you keep the notes together (even in a file folder or a labeled manila envelope). 
3. Enjoy your art attempts even if they seem to fail. Take chances, and try to have fun and loosen up!
4. Be receptive. Try to open your mind to novel, offbeat challenges. Attempting to accomplish the unusual is how you will grow as an artist.
5. See the artist's quotes on creativity and inspiration on Janice Tanton's blog, http://www.janicetantonblog.com/blog/101-quotes-to-inspire-your-artist-mojo

MIXED MEDIA MANIC