How to create a mixed media painting

I attended the Artists of Northwest Arkansas monthly meeting in January,  and had the privilege of watching Karen Ahuja demonstrate her abstract mixed media process. She uses a wet on wet technique with fluid acrylics. I was really inspired by her paintings and couldn't wait to give her technique a try. 

I started out by wetting my canvas and applied Golden fluid acrylics onto the canvas, letting the colors mix and drip-it's very messy! I let the first layer dry, and then added another. This is what I ended up with.

Well, of course, I saw flowers here and loved the color scheme. I used a water soluble graphite pencil to sketch in a rough design.

Then I defaulted into my own techniques, and had to add some papers. I have some great vintage hymnal and responsive reading papers I found online that I'm loving using right now for my under layers of my paintings.

I used paint mixed with a soft gel gloss medium for the background so it would be semi transparent but thick. I wanted the papers to peek through, and also I love scratching designs and words into the paint.

Here I added a few more drips and the flower stems. Also started filling in the flower shapes with a heavy body paint mixed with soft gel to give a heavy impasto look to the flowers. I really like the look here, but as you will see I messed it up in the next step :/

I attempted to make the vase transparent, but that look wasn't working for me. I also added in a table here. My paintings never turn out how I invision them in my head, but I try to go with it and enjoy the process.

As you can see, I ended up painting the vase white and added some stencil shapes with gold paint mixed with a heavy matte medium.

Lastly, I gave it my usual distressed look by using a palette knife and some raw umber paint. 

So my painting looks nothing at all like Karen's style, and most of the underpainting is covered, but I still had so much fun experimenting a new technique, and loved the way it turned out. I'm will definitely give it a try again and do a few things differently the next time.

Look for this painting at the Junior Civic League The Big Party silent auction.

Painting Pumpkins on Canvas

Yes, I teach art. But, as a parent, art is a great way to spend time with your child, and make some cute art for your home. Here's a lesson I've done before with a class, but YOU could easily create these with your kids. Just have fun with it, and you will end up with some great art for the fall season. Add your own personal touches, like words, patterns and color schemes.

 First, I teach students how I draw a pumpkin-use the steps above. I always teach that before you paint to practice your drawing and plan your painting. And I love talking about painting fruits, and stress that there's not such thing as a "perfect" pumpkin. They can be fat, tall, bumpy, lop-sided, etc. Students painted on a 12 x 12 stretched canvas with acrylic paints.

When drawing your design onto the canvas, DON'T use a pencil. You will have a very hard time covering the pencil and correcting mistakes. Use a light color paint or chalk. I have students use baby wipes to correct mistakes. They remove wet paint from a canvas almost like it's a dry erase board.

For younger children, just coach them on what to do one step at a time. For instance, "First we are going to paint our pumpkin shape. What shape do you see? Now try that on your canvas." Remind them to paint big. If they mess up, show them how easy it is to erase it and try again.

Outlining with a darker color helps the colors "pop" and gives the art a more "finished" look.

We added a little green puff paint for the vines and tricked out our edges with stripes. Students were kindergarten through 2nd grade (one fourth grader), and completed their paintings in a 2-hour workshop.

Beach Time Paintings

No, I'm not teaching any workshops this summer :( But I did donate a group lesson to our school auction, and I got to paint with a fun group of girls yesterday! Made me want to go to the beach!

This is a fun summer painting lesson to learn about using lines to draw shapes...

About landscapes and horizon lines....

Shading and complementary colors...

Warm and cool colors and how they add depth and distance...

How to draw or paint Santa

Each year I do painting workshops for children where I teach them how to paint a portrait of Santa Claus. I do this in groups of 6-8 and it takes about two hours. Here's how I teach kids how to draw Santa Claus. I start out breaking him down into basic shapes. Once they get the basic design down, I show them a variety of painted Santa portraits and how the shapes are incorporated. Then they can change it up and make it their own.

Basic Shapes

Santa Variations using shapes

Break down

Some Santa portraits...I love how they each turn out so unique!

These were painted by 2-5th graders.

Painted in acrylic on a 16 x 20 stretched canvas.

To see more, follow me on Facebook under "Sleepyhead Designs Studio".

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6 Have a Blessed Christmas!

Crazy Hair Portrait Paintings

This painting idea of Crazy Hair Portraits was inspired by a lesson I first saw on Pinterest, but it came from Mrs. Brown's Art Class website. I adapted the ideas for paints, and to teach the concepts I wanted to emphasize for a younger age group. 

We learned about lines; how many different types of lines there are, how they can show texture, motion, mood, etc.

We learned the terms "portrait" and "abstract".

We learned about the color wheel - primary and secondary colors.

We learned about patterns with lines and with color.

We learned about cool and warm colors.

There are a ton of great teaching possibilities with this lesson.

These were done by students between the ages of 7 and 10.

We used acrylic paint on a 16 x 20 stretched canvas.

Girlz Just Wanna Have Fun Painting Camp

Great girlz week of art camp!

We did hair...

Iced cupcakes...

Peaced out with a polka dot party...

And designed our own dresses.