Two Mixed Media Paintings

Here are the paintings I made yesterday and the day before. I have an 8x10 frame with glass and I thought it would be fun to frame a different painting each day.

These are both mixed media on Bristol stock. First you tape your paper down and do a watercolor wash.  Let dry completely and untape from the board. Then I drew the shapes with 2 permanent markers, one a thick point and one slightly finer. For the trees I just freehanded it.  For the 'rabbitlike' creatures, I did the pencil sketch first and kept an eraser on hand to make corrections. Then I colored them in with Crayola Crayons (TM).

This would be a great project for teens and tweeners, but younger kids might need a hand.

I sketched these bunny like creatures in my sketchbook a few weeks ago. Then when I saw the bunny-like image the watercolors had made randomly in the top center part of the painting, I knew it was the perfect background for my rabbits. It's like the great bunny spirit in the sky.

The inspiration for this was a gourd my boyfriend had wordburned a tree design onto. It was really fun to color over the background painting which made all kinds of subtle layers and nuances.

I can see this technique used for so many subjects. It has just enough randomness to keep it interesting, and enough planned art to feel like you still did some art.