Chapter 5

Projects

In this last half of the book, I’m going to share with you fifteen mixed-media projects using a variety of mediums and techniques. This is where you can begin to build off of the sketches you made in the earlier chapters and turn them into works of art. Sketching is good for more than strengthening your art muscles; it’s also a great foundation from which to begin other work.

These projects were designed to share specific techniques and mediums that can be used alone or combined with other techniques and mediums to broaden the creative process. Substitutions for supplies are not only acceptable but encouraged! Don’t feel you need to go out and buy exactly what I used. Instead, look at what you have and see if you can substitute. Substituting and experimenting is how your art evolves into your own body of work.

While still bringing new mediums and techniques into the projects, I’ve tried to use each of the mediums and the substrates more than one time. This makes buying a large sheet of paper more cost-effective as you can tear or cut it to whatever size you want to work on, and it allows you to experiment with a medium in a variety of ways.

Night Vision

by Pam Carriker

collage, acrylic, water-soluble crayon and graphite on watercolor paper

12" × 9" (30cm × 23cm)

Artists Share: Mediums

Here are the contributing artists’ favorite mediums. You’ll learn how to use most of them in this chapter’s projects.

Violette Clark: Pen (Micron), pencil, crayons, acrylic paint, collage

Andrea Matus deMeng: Acrylic paint, collage, graphite, inks, oil pastels

Cynthia Stroo: Acrylic paint, graphite, ink, collage

Kate Thompson: Acrylic paint

Katie Kendrick: Acrylic paint and collage

Sunny Carvalho: Acrylic paint, ceramic, fabric

Serena Barton: Oil, cold wax, encaustic, mixed media

Dina Wakley: Acrylic paint, crayon, Stabilo All pencil, beeswax, plaster

Jane Davenport: Watercolor, acrylic paint, ink, colored pencil

Cindy Silverstein: Acrylic paint, ink, pencil, collage

Michael deMeng: Assemblage, collage, paint

Traci Bautista: Mixed media, acrylic paint, watercolor, collage, marker/pen

Misty Mawn: Acrylic paint

Mindy Lacefield: Acrylic paint

Jane Spakowsky: Paper, acrylic paint