This will be a long post, because of the many many pictures. I promised you this mixed media step by step ages ago, but the weather kept intervening by making my studio just too hot to work in. But now it's all done and I hope you like it. It was done in my Studio Book which measures about 10x10 inches which is 25x25 cm. You will see I use a truckload of different materials for this one, but that's why it's mixed media, right?
Of course I started with blanc pages, but I took no picture of that, you've probably seen white pages before. ;-)
Let's get to work!
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| I put some Derwent aquatone pencils on the pages and diluted the marks with gesso instead of water. |
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| Then (after drying) I wrote over the surface with a graphite pencil. The same words over and over again, like a charm. |
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| I cut circles from decorative papers and pasted them on with gel medium. |
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| I drew circles around the paper circles with paint markers. |
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| I stamped a pattern with bubble wrap and gesso. |
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| I stamped some bigger circles with light blue acrylic and a foam stamp. |
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| More circles were added with another foam stamp and turquoise acrylic. |
Of the next step I didn't take a picture, because it was invisible on camera. I took some sticky back plastic and made masks by cutting different size circles and sticking them to the (dry) surface.
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| I went over the surface with watersoluble pastels (neocolor II). You can see the masks clearly now. |
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| I diluted these pastel marks also with gesso. |
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| I stamped a new pattern with gesso and another foam stamp. |
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| A diamond patterned foam stamp and a darker turquoise paint. |
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| And again circles, now with orange acrylic. There's lots of circles on this spread! |
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| After drying I removed the masks, revealing the first layers underneath. |
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| With paint markers I turned these revealed circles into flowers by drawing leaves around the edge. |
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| I outlined the flower leaves with a black glaze pen. |
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| I added swirls over the circles inside the flowers, again with a black glaze pen. |
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| Of course I just had to ad my signature dashed line around the borders of the spread. ;-) |
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| I took an orange glaze pen and added swirls to the orange circles to give them a little more oomph. |
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| Then I got my label maker and started adding text. I wanted words that expressed abundance. |
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| I still felt something was missing so I got out a box of little trinkets. |
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| I decided to add some metal butterflies to complete the spread. |
And with that I considered the spread finished. Here's just a few more close ups.
I like the 3D effect of the butterflies and the glaze pen and the label words. It gives the pages just that little extra.
So for this page I used:
- aquatone pencils
- gesso
- graphite pencil
- decorative papers
- gel medium
- paint markers
- foam stamps
- acrylic paints
- sticky back plastic
- bubble wrap
- watersoluble crayons/pastels
- glaze pens
- a label maker
- metal butterflies
I hope this spread inspires you to mix and match your materials and try some new combinations. I also hope you enjoyed this step by step explanation of how this spread came together.
If you have any questions, please ask them in the comment section so others can profit from them too.
Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy weekend!