A Mixed Media Project Designed by Kaaren Poole

Patience Rewarded

A Mixed Media Project designed by Kaaren Poole

My pieces begin with a concept that comes from an inspiration of some sort. For this one, I was thinking about the many beautiful images I’ve seen of birds with their heads topped by crowns or bunches of flowers. I thought it would be fun to “turn the tables” on this familiar image. I decided to substitute a cat for the bird and add a bit of whimsy with the other “characters.” The cat’s head would be topped by a tangle of foliage with an opportunistic nesting bird, with another bird flying in for a look.

Materials and Supplies

DecoArt Media acrylics:
Sap Green
Prussian Blue
Phthalo Turquoise
Phthalo Green Yellow Shade
Phthalo Green Blue Shade
Hansa Yellow Light
Pyrrole Orange
Napthol Red Light
Raw Sienna
Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber
Carbon Black
Ultramarine Blue
Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide
Wasabi Green
Celery Green

DecoArt Americana Acrylics:
Citron Green
Sour Apple
Light Avocado
Hauser Green Dark
Ocean Blue
Desert Turquoise
Coral Blush
Ocean Blue
Baby Blue
Sea Breeze
Sea Glass
Mint Julep Green
Titanium White

DecoArt white Gesso if you are using a wood board as a support

DecoArt Decou-Page matte adhesive and sealer

DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Splended Gold

A rigid support such as canvas, canvas board, or board
Drawing paper such as Strathmore Mixed Media paper
One or two sheets of white cardstock
Workable Fixative
colored pencils in Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Dark Brown, Light Green, Light Blue, Warm Gray
A good quality old magazine
An old catalog to glue on
Old paperback to tear up
Variety of Brushes, including ¾” and 1” flat, a script liner, a #3 and a #6 round, and an old flat brush (or a chip brush) for the Decou-Page adhesive
A small pet tag engraved “Patience” (optional)

The Drawing

Once I have my concept, I draw the images of the main characters. I will paint these and then use them as collage elements. But for now, I work all three drawings on the same piece of paper to get the relative scale correct. I prefer to work on Strathmore Mixed Media paper because this paper works well for drawing (allowing many erasings without damaging the surface), painting (accepting a lot of water without warping), and gluing (with no wrinkling). My reference material comes from a variety of sources, including the many copyright-free web sites of images for artists.

If you’re not confident about your drawing skills, you can photocopy your reference materials, resizing them as needed, then trace them and transfer your tracing to the Mixed Media paper. To do this, use a piece of tracing paper taped over your chosen image to trace the main lines. Then turn the tracing paper over and draw over all the lines with a soft lead pencil. Turn the tracing right side up again and tape it to your Mixed Media paper. Go over all the lines with a stylus or a ball point pen. The graphite on the back of the tracing will end up on the Mixed Media paper.

Here's my drawing.

patience rewarded drawing

The Leaves and Flowers

A collage of leaves will be a major part of this piece, so I’m going to make myself a nice collection of paper leaves to begin with. I’ll be cutting them from three different kinds of papers: magazine pages, painted cardstock, and painted book pages. The painted book pages are on the right and the bottom of the photo; the painted paper is the blue, green, and coral piece near the upper left. The rest are pieces of magazine pages.

papers

For the magazine pages, use a magazine with heavier paper. Cut out pages and parts of pages that have good leaf colors.

The painted book pages add a nice touch of texture because of the text. To make them, tear a few pages from old paperbacks. Importantly, you need uncoated (that is, not shiny and smooth) paper. This type of paper will take the paint without wrinkling. Use transparent paints, many of which you will find in the DecoArt Media line. I used Sap Green, Prussian Blue, Phthalo Turquoise, Phthalo Green Yellow Shade and Phthalo Green Blue shade. These transparent colors will let the text show through.

Use a wide flat brush (3/4” or so). Brush clear water over the paper first. This will allow the paint to spread more evenly. (If you touch your paint-loaded brush to dry paper, the paint will soak right in and you won’t be able to move it around.) Load your brush, using just a bit of paint – these pigments are quite strong – and be sure it’s well distributed on the brush by wiping the brush back and forth on your palette. You can apply several layers until you have the depth of color that you want.

For the painted paper, I used an 11 x 17 sheet of cardstock, specifically, Accent Opaque Digital from International Paper. I used opaque paints from the Americana Acrylics line. The colors I chose are Citron Green, Sour Apple, Light Avocado, Hauser Green Dark, Ocean Blue, Desert Turquoise, and Coral Blush. The coral color gives a nice accent to the blues and greens. Squeeze generous puddles of all your colors on your palette, then use a large flat bristle brush to apply the colors randomly to the paper. Brushing back and forth will blend the colors. If you have a color that is quite different from the others -in this case, the coral – apply it last. At this point, the other paints will be partially dry and the colors won’t mix much. If the coral mixes with the greens, you’ll get mud.

painted paper

Now cut a generous supply of leaf shapes from your papers. Don’t use all your paper – leave some to use later – but have a good selection of paper types, leaf shapes, and leaf sizes. For the lobed leaves or the ones with serrated edges, cut the overall shape (drawn with the dotted lines) first then go back and cut the lobes or serrations. Make several sets of tiny leaves that are the same. You can use these later to make compound leaves.

leaf shapes

leaves

Notice that I haven’t added any color yet to my cat or birds. That’s because I want to see what colors I’ll have for my background and leaves first. This will help me understand how bright my animals should be. For the cat, I have several choices – white, black, gray tabby, orange tabby, black and white, gray and white – and each will give a different effect. I will want the cat and birds, which will naturally have duller colors than the leaves to not be overpowered by the leaves! (Of course, there is also the possibility of using bright, unnatural colors on the bird and cat, or dulling the leaves with transparent glazes once they’re in the collage!)

The Support and Background

Now it’s time to prepare the support and paint the background. There’s an abundance of possibilities – mixed media board, stretched canvas, canvas board, boards, or cradled boards. I don’t recommend watercolor or mixed media paper for this project because I have found that they don’t hold up well with all the adhesive. Although I don’t care for the texture, I have worked on stretched canvas and canvas board. They work fine if you like, or don’t mind, the texture. I prefer mixed media board, board, or cradled board.

The first step is to determine the size your piece will be. Lay your main collage elements out on your work table and you will be able to determine what size support will work best. For stretched canvas, canvas board, or purchased board or cradled board you will need to select a size from the standard sizes available. On the other hand, you can cut mixed media board to any size you like. I prefer board or cradled board and fortunately I have a wood shop and can make whatever size I need. If you don’t have a shop but want to use board, you can buy 2’ x 4’ pieces of ¼” or 1/8” MDF (medium density fiberboard) at your local home improvement store and they will cut it to size for you. I made an 18” by 22” cradled board. Although canvases and canvas boards come gessoed and ready to use, boards and cradled boards need to be prepared with a coat of gesso, and then sanded once the gesso is dry.

Once you have your support, you’re ready for the background. Since the foliage will be visually very busy I want something quieter for the background, but still with a bit of interest. I squeezed puddles of five colors, four of which are pretty close to each other in value, randomly on the board. I used Americana acrylics in Ocean Blue (darker than the rest), Baby Blue, Sea Breeze, Sea Glass, and Mint Julep Green. You have to work very quickly with this technique and a wide flat brush (mine was 1” wide and I wished it had been a bit bigger) is essential. Once the puddles are on your board, immediately and quickly begin spreading them out and into and over each other. As you do so, the colors will blend. Don’t work from one corner to the other, but work in patches randomly over the board. This gives a more integrated look. These paints dry quickly and where the paint is relatively more dry before you get to spreading it around, the colors will blend less.

Background

Adding Some Color to the Birds and Cat

Before I begin my collage, I add some color to the birds and cat using colored pencil. I’m not trying to finish them, but just to get down a “roadmap” of the colors. Also, the colored pencil gives a nice visual texture. When you’re done with the colored pencil, spray the drawings with Workable Fixative (the “workable part is important – it means you can paint and draw over it) so that subsequent paint layers will adhere to the drawings.

bird drawings

I often like torn edges on my collage pieces, so I carefully tear out (as opposed to cutting out) each of these images.

cat drawing

Beginning the Collage

Now that I have my prepared background and my main collage elements, so let the collage begin!

I place the cat, birds, and some of the leaves on the board, arranging them as I like. I’m only using a few large leaves at this stage to establish the general shape of the leaf cluster – I’ll add other layers later. Although I tore my bird and cat drawings, I decided to neatly cut any edges that will be in front of the foliage or flowers.

I use DecoPage as my adhesive, and glue the pieces down one at a time. For each one, I use an old flat brush or a chip brush glue onto the background where the piece will go, then brush glue on the back of the collage piece, press the piece in place, then brush over it with more DecoPage. To brush glue on the back of the collage piece, I put it right side down on an old catalog and brush the glue over it. Each time I repeat this, I use a “clean” part of the catalog page and when the page is all glue-y I just rip it out and throw it away, proceeding to a new, glue-free page.

I’ve been thinking I’d like some flowers amongst the leaves but hadn’t really thought that through. Then, as I was gluing, I saw that the catalog I was using was an old summer bulb catalog, and there, right in front of me, were the most gorgeous photos of dahlias! So I cut out a nice selection, and chose one or the larger ones to place behind the cat’s head in this first collage layer.

Although I tore my bird and cat drawings, I decided to neatly cut any edges that were going to be in front of the foliage or flowers.

the main elements of the collage laid in place, ready to glue

Painting the Cat and Birds and Continuing with the Collage

painting the cat and birds and continuing with the collage

The first thing I need to do is get rid of the white paper around the flying bird. To do that, I simply paint the edges the same colors as the surrounding background.

Next, I paint the cat and birds. I use washes of transparent color with the Media colors. (This is the way I do the birds and cat – first a pencil drawing, then a colored pencil roadmap for the colors, and finally deepening the colors with transparent washes of color. But of course there are many different ways to finish these characters – use a method that you’re comfortable with!) Here are the colors I used:

For the cat: Hansa Yellow Light, Phthalo Green Yellow, and Phthalo Blue (all very light washes) for the eyes; Pyrrole Orange and Naphthol Red Light for the nose and the outer edge of the inner ears; Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, dark brown (Carbon Black plus Burnt Umber) for the colored fur; light gray (washes of a mixture of Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue) for the shading on the light fur.

For the birds: the same colors as for the cat’s fur plus very thin washes of Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide on the lightest areas of brown.

Then I continued building the foliage cluster with more collage. I added more leaves, choosing some from those I cut earlier, and cutting others as the need arose.

Solving a Problem

I’ve been aware of the problem of what to do with the area under the cat, and I finally figured it out. I decided to simulate a rock wall with foliage growing over it. Also, under the cat’s paws, I have the plans she made for catching the birds.

solving a problem

I began by tearing some chunks of mixed media paper and gluing them in place like rocks in the wall. To color them, I first brushed them with Americana Wasabi Green and Celery Green, using two colors for variety and placing them randomly. Then I washed lightly over the greens with thin washes of Media Raw Sienna then Burnt Umber.

I added another layer of collage leaves, particularly the long thin ones for a little drama and movement. I also looked for places with clusters of leaves of the same value and broke up those areas by adding more leaves of a darker or lighter value.

I wrote the cat’s plans with pencil on plain pieces of paper from an old paperback, then tore pieces and glued them in place. Finally, I added long stems of foliage to the rock wall. I cut lots of little leaves. I drew the stems with white chalk pencil (which will disappear with water (or the glue) then glued pairs of the little leaves in place.

Finishing Up

I decided I needed another branch of the small leaves in the lower left. I also added single leaves here and there outside the main foliage cluster.

You can barely see it in the photo, but I painted the title of the piece, “Patience Rewarded” as though it were behind the leaves and cat. I used a mixture of Americana Titanium White and Baby Blue. I used the same mixture to paint swirls and spirals over the background, particularly in the upper part of the piece.

the finished piece

Those spirals didn’t show much, so I added more white to my paint mixture and added more spirals.

I needed shadows under the cat’s paws and to separate the parts of the “plan”. I used light washes of Media Burnt Umber. I gave the cat a hint of a pink collar, and added a name tag. I made the tag from a heart shape that I cut out of thin sheet aluminum and punched the cat’s name – “Patience” into the heart, then added touches of pink paint. But I could just as easily have bought a pet tag at a pet supply super store.

I made a mixture of Media Carbon Black and Sap Green and used this dark green to paint stems and veins for many of the leaves. Then I made a light mix of Americana Titanium White and Seaglass Green for the stems and leaves in some of the lighter leaves. I liked this mixture so much that I used it to add more swirls and spirals. Then I decided to use this same very light mix to add clusters of tiny “five dot” flowers (shaped by painting five dots in a small circle).

I used a white Uni Ball pen to draw the whiskers.

Gold is hard for me to resist. I used Splendid Gold for a few little dots and comma shapes here and there. Then I signed and dated by work. All done!

Postscript

Once you have a piece that you like, consider cropping it in different ways and using these new views for cards or prints. Here are a few other views from this piece.

another view