McElroy Darlene Olivia - Mixed media revolution: creative ideas and techniques for reusing your art

MIXED
MEDIA
REVOLUTION

Creative Ideas and Techniques for Reusing Your Art

By Darlene Olivia McElroy and Sandra Duran Wilson

createmixedmedia.com

Introduction

Mixed Media Revolution will shake up the way you make art!

We all know the creative process can result in many leftover extras, stuff like transparency transfers, scraps and used paper towels. This book will have you reusing, repurposing and reinventing by using these leftovers in creative ways. Making art can be like finding the right puzzle pieces to go together, and this book will help you put together those pieces in a whole new way. The concept for this book takes its inspiration from our first two books, Image Transfer Workshop and Surface Treatment Workshop, as well as all those bits and pieces leftover from our many experiments.

We play around a lot with texture and transfer materials, and as a result we end up with a lot of leftover stuff that is just too cool to throw away. When that stuff is repurposed, not only will you be saving the planet but you will be learning some new tricks you never thought of before. Like reusing the leftover backing paper from fusible webbing that has been painted. You might just find this leftover piece to be more interesting than the web you painted and used. You will learn how to reuse it, morph it and change the color and scale of it. This book will also provide techniques for working with composition, perspective and color. Being a double agent isnt about espionage; its about adding depth and dimension to your art by painting on both sides of clear acrylic sheets, like Plexiglas. You will learn wonderful ways to use scanners and copiers and how repetition and scale can enhance your composition. Your crackled surface can become a new surface when it is enlarged, and we will even have you cutting up your artwork and weaving it into something entirely new.

This book will inspire you to push the limits of your comfort zone and turn your work upside down (literally!). We will share tips on how to collaborate with other artists as a way to add on to your work. We had a hilarious time with Tango for Two and dancing with the paint using the music as inspiration and our feet as brushes (see to watch it). We think youll enjoy trying this yourself!

This book also includes suggestions for additional techniques that will provide further inspiration. A greater focus lies on ideas than technique, but we do run you through all the different transfer and texture techniques that we use (some of them will be found onlinevisit createmixedmedia.com/mixed-media-revolution). We are always inspired by our readers, our artist friends and colleagues and, of course, our students. We had a lot of fun coming up with these ideas and hope you will take these concepts and run with them. Explore and experiment and dare to be different.

To view the Tango for Two video outtake, visit createmixedmedia.com/mixed-media-revolution.

LAND OF OZ

Sandra Duran Wilson

Featured Technique: Two Way Street ()

Mixed Media on Plexiglas

How to Use This Book

Mixed Media Revolution contains much more than how-to techniques. We provide inspirational ideas, studio tips, suggestions for repurposing just about everything and even techniques for completely reinventing your art. We provide the tools for you to embark on your own creative journey and ideas for connecting with other artists and groups. The chapters are divided into concepts, like changing scale and working with copiers and scanners and playing with color and composition. You may want to select one idea from each of a few chapters and base a painting on those ideas. Or throw a party and put a few page numbers into a hat. Each partygoer tries a different technique before passing the piece onto the next person. Oh, the ideas are endless. We just want you to create and have fun.

And speaking of having fun and creating, well, during the making of this book, we did both. In fact, we had so much great content for this book, you could say it was overflowing. And, unfortunately, we only have so many pages to work with. Something had to go. We didnt want you to miss a thing, so weve created this great companion web page that will house everything we couldnt fit into the book. Throughout the book you will discover a bunch of references to bonus content like so many little treasures. Click the links or type the web addresses into your web browser) for access to exclusive companion content, including tips and tricks, variations, additional tutorials, videos and more.

To visit the Mixed Media Revolution companion page, visit createmixedmedia.com/mixed-media-revolution.

Tools and Materials to Get You Started

While the techniques in this book use a variety of materials to create innovative surfaces, we make good use of some basic tools and materials you can probably find in your home or studio. Some of those items include:

eyedropper

newspapers

plastic sheeting

paints

paintbrushes

palette knife

paper towels

sandpaper

scissors

spray bottle

stamps

stencils

Dont let this list limit your creativity. As youll see when you get deeper into the book, we love using what is on hand, and we love being creative with existing materials. Consider using what you already have, and see what happens to your art.

ARTIFACT

Darlene Olivia McElroy

Featured Technique: Be a Famous Artist: Louise Me ()

CHAPTER 1

Recycle, Reuse

Be green: Reuse and recycle everything you can!

Mixed-media artists are the original green artists. Nothing goes to waste. How often have you picked up something off the streetlike a used Metro ticketand ended up pasting into your art? How many times has the paper towel you used to wipe your brush become a collage element? Lots, I bet.

The pack rat in us saves labels, paper scraps, rusty bottle caps, used transparency transfers and old works of art in anticipation of the day that this bit of ephemera will become the perfect addition to the next art project. You can honor the stories, and all those who have touched these objects, by incorporating such things into your art, and you can save space in the landfills by recycling your leftovers.

LATE AFTERNOON

Darlene Olivia McElroy

Featured Technique: Play It Again

Seeing Double

Double the use of a transparency after the image has been transferred. A ghost image left on the transparency can be used as a collage element. Save them for future projects, if you dont have an immediate use in mind.

TECHNIQUE ONE: Glue It

The ghost image left over after transferring your inkjet transparency image can add another layer to your collage.

A SLICE OF THE MOON