MIXED MEDIA PAINTING - Start + Finish

DO YOU LOVE LOTS OF COLOR?

Oil pastels, gouache, & acrylic paint. 12" x 24"

I began this mixed-media work by sketching on a primed, stretched canvas with oil pastels, as shown in the image below. 

Step 1, a plan to begin with!

Oil pastels act as a resist under a wash of thinned acrylic paint. I began with purples & ochre.

Next, I added red acrylic paint, 

magenta & golden yellow gouache.

                          Two techniques I used were wet-on-wet and splattering.

 

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.

 

NEW ABSTRACT ACRYLIC PAINTING: A Geometric Landscape

"Two Doors," on stretched canvas, 12x24"

Thanks for looking! Do come back.

NOW OFFERING FINE ART & MORE ON ETSY!

Blue-grays and yellow-oranges. One-of-a-kind photograph.

I'M FINALLY BACK ON ETSY!

 

 My shop is called guhinp, and I hope you'll take a look. My fine art work is very reasonable, economical, and inexpensive for being original, not mass-produced. (mainly because I need the storage space! Ha!).

Young Arabian Horse

 

 

 Because I was away from Etsy for so long,

my shop offerings are really hard to find.

Their search engine is putting me waaaay behind

everyone else, darn it. But I'm back now and will 

continue listing fine art and mixed media.

 

FOUND OBJECT ASSEMBLAGE ECO-ART

If you feel as strongly as I do about protecting

our world, please leave a comment about

saving our lands, our waters, our national parks. 

MIS-MANAGED, 2020, 18" tall

Hazard symbols painted in acrylic

Doll body encrusted with bits of rusty metal.

A different doll head adhered, painted, and altered.

Wood, metal, nails
(Free-standing or wall-hung)

 

Thanks for looking, and do come back again!

                                                               Paula

ABSTRACT COLLAGE - PAINTING with TERRIFIC TEXTURE

ROCK, PEBBLES, SAND

...and Water!

Neutrals rule! I've always liked neutrals: tans, beiges, cream, ivory, white, Payne's gray, brown, khaki colors, rust, warm stone colors. In clothes, shoes, art, and more.

Neutrals, or natural colors, are not bold or vivid ones. They can be light, medium & dark, & of course you want a contrasting combo of values in your work. 

Texture is an art element I'm fond of, too. Some areas were made more textural with handmade, ridged art paper adhered to the surface.

TIP: If any of you wonderful readers plan to work with heavy texture, DO use a board: if not an actual wooden or Masonite board, then at least a canvas panel. You need a stronger support than a stretched canvas!

I wanted an abstracted effect of clean, clear water over rounded pebbles or river rock. Wet stones are the most beautiful!

Close-up detail

The clear or frosted beads are called river pebbles, glass gems, or even fire pit pebbles. I found a mixed bag for cheap at the thrift shop: some translucent, some opaque, even some iridescent.

My original sketch for the artwork.

DecoArt also makes Sandstone Textured Acrylics, which I employed in a brown, a tweed, and their Terra Cotta (in the Grand Canyon color). Burnt Sienna & Van Dyke Brown acrylic paint were dabbed, stippled, & rubbed selectively to get a stone effect.

 
For an abstract stream, I first thought of ModPodge.
It's self-leveling, so I needed barriers to hold in
the very fluid medium. To form "walls" to prevent
the runny ModPodge from going everywhere, I
used DecoArt Texture Stucco (see the white line below).

Unfinished. Detail. The white you see is actually a short barricade to hold in the fluid medium.

The finished artwork.

Spattering would be good for a rock-like effect, too. Can you spot the fine, dark lines as well? I always enjoy a bit of mark-making!

With this abstract acrylic painting with collaged elements, I set out originally to  use ONLY neutrals, but decided the brighter orange was necessary. I think it contrasts nicely with the (complementary) blue-gray areas. More contrast is seen in the smoother, shinier areas versus the matte. The entire piece turned out warmer than my original concept. But then I always love rich, bright color, don't you?

FROM A MIXED MEDIA IDEA TO AN ACRYLIC PAINTING

Don't you love a brand new, snow white canvas? Especially when it's stretched, primed, and deep! I've read that all that whiteness is intimidating to some, but it inspires me to try something different. 

I wanted to do a cityscape for a change, 

but my grand idea flopped.

I had planned this artwork as a collage/painting 

with lots of interesting artsy papers combined with

a very wet, blended sky. I thought the watery acrylics 

would contrast nicely with the hard edges of cut paper pieces.

I  used dioxazine purple, Quinacridone Violet, Indian 

Yellow, Titanium White, & a few other colors that I 

mixed from leftover acrylic paint I had on hand. I 

liked the idea of a complementary color scheme...

& purple is the complement of yellow. (Also, 

yellow-green is the opposite of red-violet!) 

To enhance the wet-on-wet effect, I used a floating medium.

Flow release medium works much the same way.

I extended paint to the sides too.

Art ideas can change as you go along.

Yep, I had cut a variety of textured

and painted papers, but as I arranged

them on the canvas I realized that

they were too precise and perfect for my

"messy," loose, freely painted portions. 

I painted the buildings & more, including a   

few shadows, and then stamped in lines,  

shapes, & textures. See below,
though I want to do more to it.  

   

   I hope you'll try a cityscape if you haven't

   already. If you want to create a collage that's

   not too tight and hard-edged, 

   consider torn papers.