Studio Saturdays: Making Faces

Faces show up often in my sketchbooks and art journal pages, but I’m not talking serious portraits—these are silly character faces I draw and paint to amuse myself. Recently I decided to show these creatures more respect by creating a little handmade book just for them, with accordion pages and a folded cover (the instructions for…

Tips for Painting on 3 Different Surfaces for Mixed-Media Art

To help you prepare for the mixed-media art projects you have in mind for the holidays (to give to a loved one, sell to a patron, or use as decor), I’d like to share with you Kimberly Santiago’s tips for painting on glass, metal, and plastic, as she advises in her book Mixed Media Handbook: Exploring Materials and Techniques, which is both practical and inspirational.

Faux Faces for Mixed-Media Art

The beauty of mixed-media faces is that they’re instantly recognizable. With enhancements of colorful backgrounds, added collage elements, and in this case, some creative photo manipulation, you can take a simple headshot and turn it into a complete artwork that’s worthy of framing. Kari McKnight Holbrook has a unique (and fun!) way to incorporate photos of…

6 Useful Tips for Sketching Faces

It’s amazing how easily identifiable faces are in everyday things. All it takes is two round shapes and a line below them for us to recognize eyes and a mouth. I’m guessing that the origins of this go back to when we were newborns, and our caregivers’ faces were the first things that we gazed…

Drawing Faces with Jane Davenport

This is a bit of praise for Jane Davenport's DVD: The Whimsical Face: "I can't stop drawing faces, thanks to  Jane "Danger" Davenport.  I signed up for the free days of videos [at CraftDaily.com over the weekend] and watched [Jane's] "Whimsical Face" video.  I have an undergraduate degree in art, and a master's degree in…

The Changing Faces of Mixed Media & Collage

In a couple of weeks, it will be 10 years since I was hired to be a midwife to a new magazine with a cool name: Cloth Paper Scissors. As an editor and a writer for the magazine, and then as the editor of Cloth Paper Scissors Today, I have seen seedling art careers grow…