Taking a weee little break from the CHA show countdown today for a special little mixed media art tip from the ole shoebox. I know that this year you’ve resolved to spend way more time creating than cleaning and I right? I thought so! To make the most of your creative time – you need to work smarter not harder and I know that this teensy weensy little tip will be of special interest to you!
As you work through your art journals and your art canvases, make sure to have your camera handy and snap photos as you go along. I highly suggest you fall in love with photoshop or your photo editing program of choice because it will become your bestest art buddy in the whole wide world.
As I work along here’s a list of the photos I try to remember to take:
- Finished Background – the whole canvas and then add pictures zooming in on interesting areas. Think color and texture with these photos. Did you know splotches can be made into photoshop brushes? When in doubt take a picture!
- Midway through – This photo will consist of some focal areas – such as faces if I’m painting them, houses, etc – you get the point.
- Almost finished – Generally this means without a lot of the squiggly lines, added texture and words.
As your arsenal of backgrounds, brushes, words, and ephemera grows you will soon have a library full of doodles, squiggles, textures, backgrounds, brushes, focal pieces yadda yadda yadda you get the point. And guess what? You now have the ability to mix one piece of artwork with another and create totally new pieces – without lifting a brush or having to clean up a big mess.
Personally, I’m into messes, but there is that rare occasion that I like to sit and create on the computer.
The photo above is a perfect example of this concept. I snapped photos of different areas of the canvas to create different pieces of art. Now with a “blank background photo” I can overlay words, phrases, additional brushes – even change the color palette.
This is the original photo of a couple of mixed media art girls that I painted a couple of years ago in acrylic- can you find the smaller area I photographed? Now it’s time for you to put this tip into action!
Share below your tips for how to make the most of your artwork.