Mixed media is usually a variety of art materials such as acrylics, oils, crayons, pencils, pastels etc. combined with paper, tissue, card, magazines to create an art work. The terms collage or assemblage are related to this.
Materials such as stone, ceramics, cloth, and wood can also be used to create mixed media art forms like assemblages, recycling, journaling, and collages.
The main difference between mixed media art and multimedia art is that mixed media uses only visual elements and multimedia art uses a range of video, sound, literature, lighting, graphics etc.,
With mixed media, play and explore… The foundation is most important as it needs to be sturdy and support the materials glued on to it, and it needs to take the weight of a pastel or a pencil lead as it is being drawn on.
It is a good practise to experiment with your materials and see what they can do. Dyes over crayons to create a resist, inks over papers to see how they are absorbed and pens over food dyes are all good to play with to see how the various media interacts.
The Art Friends online workshops have three mixed media workshops.
Beetles
Using coloured food dye and water we experiment with the effect that different colours and water have on each other.
We create several different papers that will be the colourful back of the beetle.
Using fine liners, we will create different patterns and lines and then collage onto our beetles.
Passion for fashion
This workshop is all about experimentation and play.
Using oil pastels and eco-colours, you will be able to achieve amazing effects and work through a variety of mixed media activities to create a fashion portfolio
Bright Books and Birds
Make a brightly coloured picture story book.
In this colourful module you will learn how to create your own papers with pastels and dye.
We will then look at creating characters and the basics of picture story writing before collaging your own story book.
These modules are suitable for all ages