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Thursday, January 30, 2014

What is Mixed-Media?

Have you ever been asked about your hobby, and when you answered that you´re a mixed-media artist, all you´ve seen was a big question mark in the eyes of your counterpart?
I usually start telling people that I often use digital images to make handmade art, but most people need to see an example to understand - so here it is: a handmade postcard for a swap themed "Love is in the Air".
You can see the finished card above, and here´s how I made it ...
 I scanned a background that I´ve made with spray inks and a stencil and opened it in Photoshop.
 I scanned a vintage postcard from my stash and pushed the contrast a bit because the original was quite dark. Then I used a filter to get a silhouette from the couple and deleted the sentiment. I moved the result on another layer over my background.
I picked four different hearts from Marsha´s new kit "65 Hearts" that matched my colour scheme and placed them where I wanted them to be in my collage, then added shades and a bevel and emboss effect. Finally I added the title in Photoshop. When I was satisfied with my collage, it looked like this:
I printed it out on a watercolour postcard and used stamp pads, pencils, and rubber stamps to work on it.
That´s it - the result was the card you´ve seen in the first picture. All I have to do now is write a few words on it, put it in the mail and hope that it will make its way to Mary-Beth in Canada before Valentine´s Day!

8 comments:

Analia Cristina said...

Hi Marion,I love the mixmedia works!!!

~*~Patty S said...

You do mixed media SO well dear Marion...
Thank you for sharing some of your creative process with us...
one day I hope to be better at PS...
you amaze me again and again!
oxo

Annie said...

This is interesting. I always thought mixed media was "more" of a drastic mix. Like fabric/paint/yarns type art. I guess I'm actually a mixed media artist. Lots of times it isn't noticeable that I used fabric, ink pads and colored pencils on one piece. Very interesting indeed. Thanks for sharing this information.

bockel24 said...

you´re totally right, Annie: mixed-media is anything using more than one medium/technique, so of course it includes fabric and sewing (and other techniques like soldering etc.) but doesn´t require it ...

peggy gatto said...

Charming example and loved see the process!!

Jo Murray said...

Seeing how it was made is great...lovely card.

Kati said...

Oh- danke für die Erklärung, ds Ergebnis gefällt mir sehr.
lg
Kati

ULKAU said...

Die Karte ist wirklich toll geworden - wie nett, dass du den Werdegang so genau beschrieben hast, wirklich inspirierend!
LG Ulrike