Open an image of a watercolor painting (such as the free digital download listed above). You will use this as your base image.Take your art to the next level by combining your hand-painted creations with a little digital twist. Exploring the digital aspect of design is a great way to enhance your art. I use a pen tablet to doodle on the computer to create precise lines and marks. Experiment with drawing on the computer!
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
IMAGE OF PAINTED WATERCOLOR FACE (DOWNLOAD AT WWW.CREATEMIXEDMEDIA.COM/DOODLES-BW)
PEN TABLET (WACOM)
Open an image of a watercolor painting (such as the free digital download listed above). You will use this as your base image.
Create a second layer. Using a pen tablet, select the brush tool. Choose a brush with a spray paint finish and paint the hair.
Create a third layer. Import a brush from the Doodles Unleashed digital brush kit (www.treicdesigns.com) and stamp the brush around the painting to add doodles to the hair.
Create a fourth layer. Change the brush size and color. Add more doodles using the brush tool. Repeat and add a few different widths and colors of hair. Draw the eyelashes with two different colors and add color to the lips.
Create a fifth layer. Change the brush size and color. Scribble and write words with the pen tablet. I changed the brush color and size four times to achieve varied lettering styles. Fill in the face. Add shading to the face with a brush with a soft edge.
Experiment with drawing over your own images or adding doodles to photos. It takes practice to master the pen tablet, so don’t give up. It’s just like using a paintbrush with a little twist. The nice thing is that you can always UNDO your marks. Practice writing by changing your brush sizes to see what works best for you. When you write on the tablet, make the same movements that you would make using a real pen. Download the Doodles Unleashed digital kit at www.treicdesigns.com.Now it’s time to work with photocopy collage. Make black-and-white laser photocopies of your original artwork and cut out pieces to repurpose. You’ve experimented with making marks and other elements; now it’s time to put them all together in your own unique fashion. Look for the doodle in your background collage and venture into making marks with a small paintbrush.
ACRYLIC PAINT
BASSWOOD CANVAS (WALNUT HOLLOW)
BLACK-AND-WHITE PHOTOCOPIES
BLACK PEN (COPIC MULTILINER)
COLLAGE PAUGE MATTE
COLORED PENCILS (PRISMACOLOR)
COLORED PERMANENT MARKERS
GESSO
ROUND PAINTBRUSHES
SCISSORS
TISSUE PAPER
Paint a basswood canvas with a mixture of acrylic paint colors and white.
Draw a butterfly and face on tissue paper. Adhere the tissue paper to the canvas with Collage Pauge Matte medium. Brush the medium over the tissue paper to seal it. Rub it lightly with your fingers to get rid of air bubbles.
Collage pieces of black-and-white photocopies to the canvas with Collage Pauge Matte.
Paint gesso over the photocopies to lighten the color. Paint over the top with acrylic paint.
Add contrasting colors of acrylic paint. Accent the doodles with an outline of darker paint. Use a very small round brush for the detail work.
Add final details. Color in the lips and butterfly with colored pencils and colored permanent markers. Add shading to the face by blending a darker color pencil over the black lines. Blend the colors with a white colored pencil.
We all have a style of writing that defines us—a personal graffiti. My style of writing has developed from the time I was a little girl practicing with a calligraphy pen. I would sit everyday and write letters neatly on binder paper, trying to copy the samples in the book. As I grew older, my love for lettering grew, and I would practice creating my own doodling in my Pee Chee folders. My personal graffiti has developed into layers and layers of letters. I often write whatever is on my mind in my journals or as layers underneath my paintings. I write in a fast, conscious stream and let whatever I’m thinking spill onto the page. Sometimes I mix my doodles with my journaling by intertwining the words with the lines of my doodles.
Personal graffiti is an exploration of you. Delve into aspects of your creative soul by capturing unique images for a collaged self-portrait. For a week, take pictures every day of your favorite things and collect your “paper trail”—any paper ephemera that is somehow related to you, from junk mail to receipts to clothing tags. Create a collage using these elements. Journal your thoughts onto the collage to complete your personal graffiti self-portrait.
What excites you? What or who inspires you? What are your favorite colors? Where do you go for inspiration? Who are your favorite artists and musicians?This is an inspiration board I created from magazine images. I used these images to inspire my drawings on the surface of a hand-painted dress. Create an inspiration board of images, colors, marks and letters. Use these to inspire your artwork.
My words are often intertwined with my drawings and doodles. My thoughts and ideas flow from the pen dipped in calligraphy ink and swirl onto the page to create my personal graffiti. Every year, I visually brainstorm a list of the things I want to accomplish personally and professionally.
Spend some time pondering these questions: What do you want to accomplish? What do you desire? What changes do you need to make? Color a piece of bristol vellum with brushmarks of paint. Write over the painted background to create interesting marks and shapes with your lines. Overlap words. Create layers of writing with a dip pen and India ink. Alter the painting by adding more marks with markers, gel pens and colored pencils. Be free with your words and lines.
Explore combining your writing and collage to create a mixed-media journal page with layers of handmade stamps, paints and doodles. Blend your stylized faces, unique marks and personal graffiti, and enjoy the process of being free and mixing your favorite techniques!
Paint a piece of 140 lb. (300gsm) mixed-media paper with yellow flow acrylic paint. Add a dab of green to the brush and mix the paint on the edges of the paper. Cut a rectangle shape out of cardboard and peel back the top layer of paper to reveal the corrugated center. Apply green paint to a handmade cardboard stamp and press it onto the painted background. Paint a shape of a face and body with a mixture of green, blue and white. Let it dry.
Tear a piece of graffiti tissue paper. Brush Collage Pauge over the painted background, working on small sections at a time. Press the graffiti tissue paper onto the Collage Pauge. Apply another layer of adhesive over the top of the tissue paper. Let it dry.
1" (2.5CM) FOAM BRUSH
140 LB. (300GSM) MIXED-MEDIA PAPER (STRATHMORE)
COLLAGE PAUGE
COLORED PENCILS (PRISMACOLOR)
DIP PEN (BRAUSE FINGER NIB)
FLOW ACRYLIC PAINT (MATISSE DERIVAN)
GRAFFITI TISSUE PAPER (SEE PAGE 48)
HANDMADE STAMP FROM CORRUGATED CARDBOARD
SOFT PASTELS (PANPASTEL)
SPONGE APPLICATOR
WATERPROOF INDIA INK (SPEEDBALL)
Draw a girlie glam face with a dip pen and waterproof India ink. Answer the journal prompt “Where does my path lead?” Write words with a dip pen, intertwining them with the face.
Begin to add color to the face with soft pastels and a sponge applicator.
Draw doodles into the hair with two colored pencils. Add more color definition in the shirt and flowers.
From A to Z, employ different mixed-media jumpstarts and doodling techniques to create an exemplar of letters. Leverage your art by taking photos, digitally altering your letters or printing and collaging them into all of your mixed-media creations.
