Student Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Type of Workshop: Process
Prerequisite: None
Workshop Category: Mixed-Media, Portraits

I love to play with a variety of media in my art journal to build up beautiful, colorful, complex layers using oil pastels, watercolor, stencils, acrylic paint pens, and spray inks. These could easily be called finished works of art and left alone--but why stop there? I like to use these lusciously layered backgrounds as a backdrop to my portraits. I love the way the layers peek through each face, telling a unique story. In this class, I will show you how I create my own unique collage papers using a very simple set of art supplies and build layers in our journals with those same techniques. We will explore how the different media work together to create different effects (resist with oil pastels and watercolor/spray inks, stenciling techniques, how to layer collage, etc) and we will be working on multiple surfaces to keep our creative momentum going (basically, we're going to spread out and get messy!). The last layer will be drawing the face and shading with oil paint sticks to create dimension. This is where we will play with transparency as we allow some previous layers to "peek" through the face. We will focus on ways to make our portraits come alive. This is great for beginners who've never drawn a face before, as well as those who know the basics of drawing faces but would like to build on that knowledge to create something a little less "stiff" and a lot more alive! The faces will be very simple and raw but the results are dramatic!

Kit/Materials Fee (payable to instructor at class time):

• $15.00 includes:
• use of all shared materials plus a collage pack full of unique, vintage, and recycled paper
• collage paper
• Stabilo marks-all pencil

Instructor Provided (for use in-class, and to share):

• Acrylic paint
• spray ink
• stencils
• stamps
• stamp ink
• oil pastels
• texture plates
• brushes
• mark-making tools

Student should bring:

• 9"x12" or larger art journal (I like the Canson XL mixed media or Strathmore mixed media spiral bound journals, but any brand will do. Just be sure that it is mixed media weight paper. But not watercolor paper, as that can get too bulky).
• Oil paint sticks (titanium white, yellow ochre, alizarin crimson or other red/pink color)
• glue stick