MIXED MEDIA REVOLUTION Creative Ideas and Techniques for Reusing Your Art By Darlene Olivia McElroy and Sandra Duran Wilson createmixedmedia.com How to Use This Book Tools and Materials to Get You Started Recycle, Reuse Seeing Double Play It Again Yummy Leftovers Backward Thinking Street Sweeping Instant Gratification Be Green Copy, Scanning Group Fun New From Old Dreamy Do a Restart Paint and Scan Save for Another Day Read All About It Create Layers Make a Sandwich Multiple Personality Transparently Collaged Energy Boost Draw On It Two-Way Street Morph It Changing Identity Be an Architect All Shook Up Disposable Art Forget About It A New Weave Pass It On Change of Scale Multiply Me A Different Point of View The Large and Small of It Size Makes a Difference Loosen Up Find Your Opposite Mop It Up Tango for Two Be Brave Play with Composition Check It Out Keep It Simple, Silly Be a Double Agent All Mixed Up Premonition Trace/Copy/Transfer Here and There Fear No Color Color Theatrics Conquer Fear Cut It Up Be a Famous Artist Color Filter Dream in Color Texture Where You Want It Controlled Chaos Stencils Rule Distressed Dryer Sheets All Cracked Up Finger-Painting Memories Everything Else Forever Yours Naturally Preserved Beyond Trading Cards Don’t Mulch Change of Life Hot Off the Printer Embrace Me Dare to Be Different Work in New Media Resources About Sandra Duran Wilson About Darlene Olivia McElroy 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 isn’t about espionage; it’s 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 Chapter 6). There is even a video outtake online (visit createmixedmedia.com/mixed-media- revolution to watch it). We think you’ll 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 online—visit 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 (Chapter 3) 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 didn’t want you to miss a thing, so we’ve created this great companion web page that will house everything we couldn’t 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 Don’t let this list limit your creativity. As you’ll 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 8) 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 street—like a used Metro ticket—and 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.