Artist Trading Cards

I've been intrigued by mixed media artwork recently, but I haven't done much in it.  Mostly, I feel a little overwhelmed by all the possibilities and it can be hard to branch out and just experiment and play. 

I met a lady at one of my art classes here in Scotland and now we get together once a week and do art.  She does a lot of mixed media work and artist trading cards (ATC's).  Since doing art together, I've been trying to do some mixed media collage.  I think I get a little too random, but it's all about experimentation, right?

Today, she was working on a set of ATC's with the theme of "doors" and I tried to do some as well.  

 ATC's have a standard size of 2.5" x 3.5", so they're pretty small and don't need to take days to finish a piece, which is nice for me.  I had fun doing these.  This one is on recycled cardboard from a cereal box and I used some paper scraps, washi tape, marker and pen. I was kind of going for an old, wooden door.  

This one is a bit simpler, also using some washi tape, cut up paper and marker and pen.




























I can see why people love doing these so much, I might find myself doing some more pretty soon!

Inspired by Strathmore workshop...

Hi Everyone,
It's been a while since I've posted on here! I've been playing around with some mixed media stuff and some watercolors and watching the video workshops Strathmore has put out and have really enjoyed them so far. The first workshop was open in January and the second one opened this month. The first workshop was mixed media and faces called "Doodles Unleashed".  I've forgotten how much fun it is just to doodle and draw stylized faces. I haven't done that since grammar school days, doodling away in my notebooks (and of course getting in trouble for it). 

 I bought one of the Strathmore Visual Journals in mixed media, size 5.5"x8". For the background I first took a large brush and just plopped down some turquoise watercolor. I then mixed turquoise blue watercolor with some blue and violet pearlescent liquid acrylic ink in a spray bottle and sprayed the paper so it has a bit of a sparkle in the light. I took some scraps of lace (I worked in a bridal salon and we have in-house alterations. There's a scrap box with the fabrics they cut off when they hem dresses. So many great pieces of lace!!) and laid it down on the paper and sprayed again so there was a subtle lacy patten. I then drew my girl in pencil and the flowers behind her. I wanted to do all the flowers in just writing (like the one next to her head) but it was getting a bit tedious. I wrote lyrics to Eric Clapton's "Change the World" (just because I love that song and it was playing while I was making this). There is really no special meaning to any of this, just playing and having fun. I enjoyed drawing the birds flying out of the wisps of whatever that is coming out of her hand and playing with her hair with those shades of blue and purple. I really need to draw more faces, it was too much fun :) Other supplies I used were micron pens and Caran D'Ache watercolor crayons.
I also played around with drawing some octopus' (octopii?) just because I love drawing them too.  Their arms (legs? tentacles??) are fun to draw and they're just really interesting creatures. 

 This one is more pearlescent liquid acrylic ink, gouache (opaque watercolor) and micron pen outlining the octopus. This was more playing with backgrounds, playing with the acrylic ink. I just love this guy :)

This one I mixed up the background with blues and oranges. I splashed down some golden crimson watercolor and then took that blue mixture I mentioned before and a swirly cardstock template and sprayed it, so it left behind this blue, shimmery pattern, which reminded me of octopus legs (tentacles? arms?) so I went to town with more octopii just doodling and having fun. The little black guys were done with a micron brush pen while the alien octopus with the hat wad just a regular micron pen. The large blue guy is acrylic. The little guy in the top left corner I saw on the internet somewhere and I loved how cute and simple he was so I copied him and the one on the bottom is my own, as well as the one with the top hat. Hope you enjoyed my doodling! :)