Practice for mixed media

too dark too fast

This was one of my first experiences with mixed media art. Before this I had only cutout letters from magazines and glued them onto paper to spell out someone's name. However, I've now learned that layering is crucial in this form of art. It gives your artwork substance and a more developed look. I enjoyed layering different materials (ribbon, crape paper, origami)  because it gave my artwork a 3-D aspect. Through some trial and error I also learned that when layering, its better to layer dark and then work your way up with lighter colors. On my first try, I started layering with white and red, and then tried to put a layer of dark blue on top. The effect of the blue crape paper layer was only noticeable.

When I started the practice, I was flipping through magazine, looking for something pretty or interesting to paste. I had no theme or story that I intended to tell through my work. Since, I was looking at magazines like People and Teen Vogue, I realized how much these magazines focus on beauty. I wanted to take a slightly critical view of that in my practice. So i cut out pictures of pretty women, shoes, and other stuff we tend to regard as beautiful. My favorite picture is of this girl sipping a drink, and layered beneath that is a green eye. I tried to make it seem like its a complete picture and as if they both are meant to go together. when the viewer looks at it, I want him to realize that  when we look at a person we tend to look at the outer beauty only (thus the eye weird but pretty in its own way).

In the third practice I tried to see if could make a picture on the first layer and then layer with black on top of it.It was similar to a pciture of text Id seen that had used to a similar effect to make text stand out. Personally, it was kinda hard to layer black paper so carefully and precisely. I also should have used colors that were more contrasting, it would have made my picture more appreciable to the eye

Mixed Media Card

     Through this artwork I was able to communicate through my work and wish my friend a happy birthday.Like any other birthday card, I wanted it to show that a lot of considerable effort was made and that I had customized it for my friend. In the card  I included a lot of clip outs of jokes that would make her laugh, words cutout from magazines that described her, and on the backside, i wrote my message over white crape paper that I had layered. I tried to give it a girly touch with the butterflies and glitter paper that I glued onto the red crape paper. Through this project, I also got to show my friend what I value about her and our friendship, through my art, and in the end , I believe that it made a personal connection with the viewer (my friend).

This project not only reflect my own ideas, but also that of my peers, who collaborated and gave constructive feedback while i made the card. Emma helped show me that I was solely exploring the crape paper media on the card. She brought over some wrapping paper and reminded me how we had learned to make origami butterflies in Art 1. Not only did this liven up my card, but it also gave it a 3D aspect. I also discussed with her the idea of putting glitter on the front, on top of the solid boring layer of black paint i had applied. when i was finished with the card, I was holding it and considering how I would hand it over to my friend. Sabrina suggested that I should attach a ribbon on the top, so that my friend could hold it less awkwardly, and even hang it up.

For this project my source of inspiration, was from cards i had seen on Pinterest. these cards had cut out letters from the magazine spell out "Happy Birthday". I decided to take this a step further, and customize it more I also wanted the card to have more mixed media on it. since my friend always has an awesome sense of humor, I also chose funny pictures and jokes that would make her laugh.