Mixed Media Demonstration – Acrylic Paint and Collage

About Terry

Terry Honstead is an artist that enjoys using all kinds of media. Her favorite is acrylic collage, but watercolor collage and glass work are a close second! Feel free to check her work at: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/terry-honstead.html or email her at honstead@paulbunyan.net. She doesn’t have a website at this moment, but it is in the works. She lives and works as a full time artist in Bemidji, MN.

Acrylic Collage Demonstration

Step One

I am using Multimedia Artboard for this piece. I started out finding some pictures and papers that I wanted to use. The diamond pattern, the stripes, and the snake pattern came from tissue paper that I found. I added some musical notes from a music book with a copyright from the early 1900’s. The pictures were from some I found in the public domain. I cut what I wanted and “glued” them onto my 18 x 24 Artboard. I also use watercolor paper and canvas at times. Any of them will work. I glue the papers on with matte medium if they are very lightweight (like the tissue) or with soft gel gloss if they are heavier (like the paper with grass in it ). Then you need to let your paper dry. I usually dry mine over night so as to be sure it is very dry!

Step Two

After coming back to my painting, I first put on some acrylic glazes over the whole page. ( here I used Sap Green Hue, Quinacridone Crimson, and Quinacridone / Nickel Azo Gold) When the glazes were dry (you can dry them with a hair dryer), I added some thicker paint with a large piece of cork with the green (the cork is about 3 1/2 in. in diameter. I also used a small wine cork for the smaller circles. I applied Violet Oxide with a pallet knife on top of a piece of gridded plastic. and removed the plastic right away. Be sure to wash the plastic immediately after using it on one spot, and before you put it in another spot. You can use other found objects to stamp paint or use as a stencil. I often use things such as card board, bubble wrap, plastic wrap, gauze, etc. At this point, I decided to put some found objects on the papers to add more texture. I used gauze, skeleton leaves, and eyelash yarn. Again I let it dry over night

Step Three

I decided that I didn’t like the bright red colors (the Alizarin Crimson) of the painting so I put white gesso over some parts of the painting to tone it down. Once that was dry, I put a glaze over the whole painting with Quinacridone/ Nickle Azo Gold.

Step Four

Once the gold glaze was dry, I did add some spots of violet oxide with my pallet knife on various areas to bring out that color some more. Next I had to decide what the subject of my painting was going to be. I decided on a mother and baby giraffe. I tried to draw it on, but found I could not see the picture at all, so I drew it on with white paint instead. I also put in the black for the eyes and nostrils. When “drawing” this onto the painting, I used some of my found objects that were three dimensional, to use as parts of the drawing. (See the dark line of the mother’s mouth)

Step Five

Next, I used Titan Buff to tone down the white of the areas between the spots. Also begin to use Raw Umber along the outside of the animals so as to differentiate the animals from the background, fading it as you go further from the animals.

Step Six

Continue to darken the outside and build up the colors in the animals

Step Seven

I decided I needed to add some color to the background to help differentiate it. I put several glazes of Turquoise (Phthalo), while still continuing to add more details to the giraffes

Step Eight

Continue to darken and add details until you are satisfied with the result. Don’t forget to sign your painting.