All Mixed Up

Create your own piece of magic and train your eye to see composition within the composition. M.C. Escher was a master at doing this. Give your art new life by creating bold graphic elements both in your painting and on paper. You can use copies of your own images or magazine images for these great exercises in color and design.

TECHNIQUE ONE: Be Bold

Step 1

Words or strong graphics can be painted, stamped or printed from your computer.

Step 2

Cut them into smaller shapes. You can use squares, strips or whatever shape you think will fit into your scene. Arrange the pieces to create a composition.

Step 3

Make copies of your composition, and experiment with scale.

TECHNIQUE TWO: Copy and Play

You can make copies of background papers that you have already painted or use magazine images cut up into small squares and sorted by color. Create your collage using these smaller images. You may use larger sizes to develop general shapes for your composition and then use the smaller ones to create the design within the composition.

For a full photographic step-by-step demonstration of a gel transfer visit createmixedmedia.com/mixed-media-revolution.

BOLD HORIZONS

Sandra Duran Wilson

I used the background to the left as the background for this piece. I scanned it and flipped it. I took my laser copy of the cut-up letters and increased the scale. I then transferred the cut letters onto the background using a gel transfer process.