Mar 102013
Mixed Media Revolution: Creative Ideas for Reusing Your Art
Recycle, Reuse, Reinvent! With Mixed Media Revolution, you’ll learn how to leverage your art and take your paintings and transfers to the next level! Leftovers, little bits and scraps, pieces of art that didn’t turn out quite right…we all have them. And it hurts to have to throw them away. But what if someone could suggest another way? Another way, perhaps, to get one more use out of that transparency. Or cut up a piece of art and put it back together differently. Or use leftover paint to crea
List Price: $ 24.99
Price: $ 13.37
Not a project idea book,
I guess I thought there would be more project ideas and genuinely useful ways to use and reuse your art, but this book really lacked on that front. I think if you’re looking for something like that there are other books that could work out much better.
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My least favorite of my mixed media books; instructions lacking/too craftsy,
I have purchased stacks of mixed media books lately as my husband is having a new art studio built for me and I am wanting inspiration into new ideas.
I have to say this is, unfortunately, my least favorite book of my purchases.
First, the instructions are lacking. It might show a photo of a finished piece…Let’s say a work that has the same pear but printed out all different ways. The headers, I felt, were more like things I would have said to my class of kids as an art teacher. Such as in this case “Multiply Me: Let’s play a game. If you see an individual person walking near you, what do you think? If it was twins would you feel different? What about triplets? Something about seeing multiples piques our interest.” (Odd for an adult book, good for a kid’s book)
It then shows a work I like with 6 pears printed differently but overlapping and simply gives the instructions to print out the same image several times, differently, in a photo program.
That’s it. I have no idea how it was then compiled, what kind of paper was used, was this adhered to canvas or wood or what? And how? Why do some look like they are on transparent paper? What type of coating would be used over the paper to finish the work? etc.
On very complex works, they included a tag you are supposed to scan with your iphone then read the instructions. Now I could get art examples all over the internet but I bought a BOOK because I like to use idea books where I can mark the pages with art that spurs my creativity. I wished the instructions could have been included in the book which they could have had some of the images been made smaller.
As it stands, it’s more a very basic book with examples of their art but little info on how to create ones like them that work for me. In fact, many of the instructions were for things with other artists: Like give a work you are unhappy with to another artist and let them finish it. That doesn’t help me in my studio by myself. Also, other instructions were for odd things like doing a project with your used transparency films…
They could have taken instructions everyone could use and given an instructional tour through mixed media. I felt it more a book on things they have done in ways that worked for them but might not be workable for most.
Here’s how one instruction goes: “You will need a background image and an image printed on glass. Put the two together with the glass piece on top and frame.”
Now how many of us have those two things handy to start this project? It advises you’ll need to take a printmaking class for that image on glass you’ll need.
And yes that’s really the full instruction for the project. That’s what I mean.
I didn’t mark many pages of this book. Most were very abstract artworks that I felt more arts and crafts than my personal style. I wish they had shown more varieties of styles than they had for further crossover to different art tastes. There is a lot of collage and the rest abstract art. This would be great for a beginner but since the instructions are so lacking, it really is better suited to those already familiar with art and how to finish the works, yet the works are so simplistic and abstract and student-craftsy in my opinion that many may not enjoy it.
That said, I would have loved the book to spur ideas when I was a school art teacher. It really would have given me new ideas of things I could try for school projects….like taking a plastic cutting board and cutting it into tiny pieces and ironing it onto a canvas.
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Excellent Acrylic Painting Technique Book,
I really like this book. It basically has acrylic “recipes” for a number of painting techniques. The materials needed for each product are outlined at the beginning of each technique and the photography illustrates the required techniques. I am using the book for a number of my photography/mixed media art projects.
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