Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun (Lab Series)
Carla Sonheim is an artist and creativity workshop instructor known for her fun and innovative projects and techniques designed to help adult students recover a more spontaneous, playful approach to creating. Her innovative ideas are now collected and elaborated on in this unique volume. Carla offers a year’s worth of assignments, projects, ideas, and techniques that will introduce more creativity and nonsense into your art and life. Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists offers readers a fun way t
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Adventures in Mixed Media: Collage, Stitch, Fuse, and Journal Your Way to a More Creative Life
Mixed media in all its forms—not just traditional two-dimensional, paper-based collage but three-dimensional pieces that include fiber, fabric, a variety of embellishments, found objects, and even repurposed and recycled materials—offers artists an opportunity to move freely across the boundaries of art, craft, painting, quilting, and collage. In Adventures in Mixed Media, Jane Davies shows you how to use this art form to enrich your creative expression.
In lessons that inspire cre
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“If I can’t draw, I can’t be an artist”,
I’ve never considered myself an “artist”, because I’ve never been able to “draw”. That belief has colored my artistic expression for decades. Lately, the pull towards art has led me to some wonderful books, but THIS BOOK speaks to me. When I look through the activities, I know I can do them, and I know they are non-fail projects. There is so much fun and whimsy built in, that creating will be a joy. I stumbled on this book by accident, and what a happy accident it has turned out to be. If blank pages intimidate you, Carla has solutions to inspire.
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|Fantastic book for young and old,
I love this book! It just arrived today so I haven’t had time to try any of the exercises yet, but I’ve read it through and I’m looking forward to experimenting with the techniques and creative ideas provided by the author. For many artists, drawing can seem intimidating. I myself have less than fond memories of the drawing courses I took in college and later in art school. But this book is very different from the traditional studio approach to drawing–thankfully!
The exercises and prompts in this text are perfect for kids of all ages as well as for playful adults looking for ways to add an original element to their artwork. One of my favorites is the “Imaginary Creatures” assignment, which begins with random paint splashes and encourages creative thinking as you look for “creatures” in the paint, which you then draw with an ink pen in a sketchy manner. It’s pretty cool, and definitely original!
If people and portraits are your thing, the author provides several exercises that will spark creative approaches to portraiture and life drawing. Out of the seven units in the book, my favorite is called Inspired by Famous Artists. Various assignments in this section encourage you to really learn from the masters by not only copying their work but adding a special twist of your own. One example is to try creating your own abstract drawings of dogs reminiscent of Picasso’s cubism style; another is trying your hand at a Joan Miro abstract drawing. The author breaks down this assignment by starting you with simple hand-drawn symbols that anyone can invent (or use the author’s provided symbols). Fill your page with them, and when satisfied with the design go over the penciled lines with a dark marker. Then add washes of paint, preferably in the primary colors that Miro often used in his art. And wa-la, you have your own “Miro” drawing/painting to enjoy and admire.
Speaking of painting, I really hope that the artist will follow up “Drawing Lab” with a book called “Painting Lab!” She’s great with paint, and I’d love to see a fun project book on this subject from her. Someday I hope to take a workshop with Carla Sonheim (she has a stellar reputation as a workshop art instructor), but until then, this book will do very nicely. Thank you, Carla, for sharing your creative ideas and talents with us! And do please consider writing a book someday on your creative painting techniques.
Sharilyn Miller, author of Bead on a Wire
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|inspiring and original,
I buy a lot of art and craft books and consider it worth the money if I get an idea or two from a book. This book is absolutely inspiring from start to finish! I love each and every of the 52 drawing exercises and can’t wait to try them out. I appreciate the creative twists to the old standby drawing exercises and found lots of new ways to approach drawing. This wonderful little book is exceptionally well done and perfect for young artists and artists young at heart.
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|excellent book,
i get a huge amount of books from the library on one topic. i then go through all of them looking for the best book for my standard reference work on that topic. that is how i found this book, which is now my standard reference work for mixed media collage in books. the pictures are marvelous, which is a MUST with any art book. there is also a comprehensive listing of materials and a series of projects. The paper dolls appealed to me hugely as did the shrines and the fuseable wall hangings. this book would also be good for quilters who are looking to branch out into mised media. i recommend this book hugely. there are patterns for every project at the back of the book with enlargement specifications.
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|MUST BUY IMMEDIATELY!!!,
Just spent 2 hours at a bookstore drooooling over this book, which is fabulous for many reasons! I recently took an art journaling/book making class, and it got me VERY excited about a new way to craft. This book does a much better job at it than that class did – it’s very beginner friendly without being too simplistic or overwhelming. It starts by explaining the materials and tools you’ll use (and lists sources in the back of the book.) It covers different types of papers, how to decorate/embellish/collage them, what types of mediums/paints/etc. to use on which ones, all easily explained and with excellent photographs, and then gives you projects using those techniques. Projects include: pages for journals or scrapbooks, picture frames, ornaments, paper dolls, paper mosaics, fabric projects, etc. The author starts with the easier ones, but even the “harder” ones aren’t intimidating, and I am new to art journaling AND scrapbooking. The author also includes a lot of helpful tips and tricks to using the various products and mediums, and sources for buying them.
The book has a great Table of Contents, and is physically easy to use – it’s paperback, so it lays out flatter than a hard cover would when you’re trying to read it.
I looked at about 5 other books of this kind tonight, and this, by FAR, was the best. Fantastic photographs, thorough about the topics, user-friendly, not frightening for beginners, encouraging, and I liked the artist’s work and the variety of techniques and projects she offered. And I readily admit it – I am fussy about books in this type of genre – I want practical information, good instructions, appropriate photographs, and projects that aren’t so far out there that you’d never make them, or be brave enough to try. Well done! I encourage anybody interested in sticking a toe into art journaling to throw off their towel and jump right in!
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|Jane does it again,
I just got this book today. It’s chock full of great mixed media techniques. Jane works with paper, fabric, tissue, makes her own boxes, shrines and paper dolls…and that’s not all. Lots of fun projects, ideas and templates. She has a great way of writing as if you were having a conversation with her in person. I like that personal style.
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