Mixed Media Experimenting

I’ve been experimenting with mixed media, and since I’m so new with it all it’s been fun just playing. I can’t remember the last time I just sat and played. You know? So this is the result of my recent playing experiment. I’m trying to get a handle on which techniques work best for me.

I had an idea to do a picture to “illustrate” one of my poems. The poem, called “Read the Label” is about people who give us labels, such as: smart, stupid, lazy, ungrateful, etc. The poem describes how a label can stay with us even after other people tell us it doesn’t fit. Sometimes we hang on to them because we’re trying to please someone else.

In the poem, there is a girl trying on clothes, and over the years she tries to squeeze into different dresses with various negative “labels,” until she finds the one that fits. The dress that actually fits her is a label that says “passionate and honest.” This was the label she wanted to give herself.  I wanted to take this concept to a series of pictures, where a girl says what her “label” really was.

So, having said all that, here comes the playing. First, I took a canvas and painted the background.

 

Then, I sketched out a girl in a dress using paper from an old book.

 

 

I printed the poem and broke it up into pieces. I wanted to put it on the picture, but not have it really be readable. I just wanted it there to reinforce what I was illustrating. I also used some old patterns, scrapbook paper, and more paint.

 

 

I kept layering until I felt like I had enough on there. I had so much fun playing, but of course I’ve also learned what I would and wouldn’t do next time. I’m going to do this one again to get the effect I really want, but the first one was so much fun. And that’s the point of crafting, isn’t it?