Expressive Painting in Mixed Media

By Shirish D and Shirish Deshpande

Dive into a world of boundless artistic creativity with Expressive Painting in Mixed Media.

Unleash your inner artist and discover the secrets to crafting stunning, expressive masterpieces that combine the vibrancy of colors and textures. Whether you are a novice or an experienced artist, this book is for you.

Discover the power of various drawing and painting mediums to transform your canvas into a playground for your imagination. With expert tips, step-by-step techniques and inspiring projects, this book is your key to unlocking your inner artistic potential.

 

What will you learn in this book?

- What is expressive art and how is it different from fully realistic art and abstract art?

- Various mediums used for expressive mixed-media art

- Composition for expressive art

- Color theory

- Creating interesting and harmonious compositions

- Mixed-media art techniques using various mediums

 

 

The best way to learn any skill is to do it. And that's what you will do with ten step-by-step exercises that will guide you to create your own masterpieces.

- Doodle your surroundings

- Painting on colored paper

- Painting with coffee

- Watercolor collage painting

- Painting with ink and alcohol markers

- Acrylic spray paints and acrylic paints (and stencils)

- Palette knife painting using oils/acrylics

- Painting using acrylic spray paints (and newsprint paper)

- Watercolor and colored pencils

- Expressive digital painting

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shirish D
• Release date: Dec 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9788195735792

Shirish D

Shirish D (1974 till now, and counting) is a self-taught artist from India. Information Technology is one of the expertise of Shirish, but his heart (and mind) is completely devoted to art. Shirish dabbles in sketching and painting in various media like pen&inks, watercolors, acrylics, oils and spray paints. He paints various subjects like landscapes, portraits, urban sketches; and figures & nudes. Shirish also does video production for various art-related courses that he publishes on various platforms, and has taught thousands of students worldwide. Shirish believes in having no limits to living an artistic life and has now jumped into the wonderful world of books to share his passion for visual arts to art lovers of the world.

Book preview

EXPRESSIVE PAINTING IN MIXED MEDIA

Learn to Paint Stunning Mixed-Media Paintings in 10 Step-by-Step Exercises

Shirish Deshpande

Copyright ©2023 by

HuesAndTones Media and Publishing

Author: Shirish Deshpande

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission of the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

All artwork presented in this book is the copyright of the artist, regardless of whether they bear the artist’s signature or not.

The Tree Reflection – soft pastels on grey pastel paper

Table of Contents

Title Page

INTRODUCTION

A Case for Expressive Art

What is Abstraction?

What is Abstract Art?

What is Expressive Art?

A Pitfall to Avoid When Painting Expressive Art

MATERIALS

Watercolor and Gouache

Watercolor Pencils

Acrylics and Oils

Pen and Ink, Brush Pens, and Markers

Soft (Dry) Pastels and Charcoal

Acrylic Spray Paints

Colored Pencils

Digital Tools

Using Stencils

Paper and Canvas

COMPOSITION FOR EXPRESSIVE ART

Focusing on Values

Identifying and Simplifying Shapes

Eliminating Unwanted Elements and Being Selective About Details

Exaggerating Elements (Normal is Boring)

COLOR THEORY

Warm and Cool Colors

Analogous, Complementary and Neutral Colors

INTERESTING AND HARMONIOUS COMPOSITION

Dichotomy 1 – Unity and Contrast

Dichotomy 2 – Balance and Dominance

Dichotomy 3 – Repetition and Variety

An Example of All Three Dichotomies Working Together

TECHNIQUES

Using Interesting Framing

Using Colored Surfaces and Bright Colors

Using ‘Imperfect’ Tools

Negative Painting

Using Time Limits

Using ‘Real’ Objects

Causing ‘Happy Accidents’

SOME INTERESTING MIXED-MEDIA EXERCISES

Doodle Your Surroundings

Painting on Colored Paper

Painting with Coffee

Watercolor Collage Painting

Painting with Ink and Alcohol Markers

Acrylic Spray Paints and Acrylic Paints (and Stencils)

Palette Knife Painting Using Oils/Acrylics

Painting Using Acrylic Spray Paints (and Newsprint Paper)

Painting Using Watercolor and Colored Pencils

Expressive Digital Painting

PARTING WORDS FROM THE AUTHOR AND BONUS CONTENT

GRATITUDE AND REQUEST FOR REVIEW

Also by Shirish (Ebook, Paperback, Hardcover)

INTRODUCTION

Jungle Stream – spray paints on poster board paper

An Important Note Before You Begin:

This book is meant for readers who want to learn to paint expressively without the stress of making a painting look photo-realistic or completely abstract. We will avoid both these extremes and focus on painting expressive yet realistic paintings.

Everyone interprets the phrase ‘mixed media’ differently. So here’s a clarification about what you can expect from this book.

Some books and training programs about mixed-media art focus entirely on making art using collage techniques which involve little or no drawing and painting. This book is the opposite. The main focus of this book is on drawing and painting techniques using various mediums individually and in combination. Other techniques such as collage are covered, but they accompany the drawing and painting techniques rather than replace them.

A Case for Expressive Art

Once upon a time, I used to work in the corporate sector. Once I happened to attend an office party with several of my colleagues. Yes, it was that kind of awkward party where one is expected to let their hair down and be well-behaved at the same time!

That evening, the discussion turned to the subject of art. Normally, art is the last thing on the minds of officer-goers at an office party. But some of them had a drink too many. Then someone mentioned abstract art, and all hell broke loose (figuratively, of course). Now, you may owe some of these emotional reactions to the copious amount of alcohol flowing that evening. But I have seen even more extreme reactions from sober people.

Memory of a Previous Party – digital drawing for illustrative purposes only

What were the reactions?

Well, some drunkards from the crowd completely trashed any art that is not hyper-realistic as pretentious and shallow. The other extreme insisted that abstract art is the only ‘real’ art, and everything else is just imitation.

I beg to differ with both views, though I have seen my share of trashy art sold as abstract art, sometimes for millions of dollars! In this book, we will bust some popular myths related to expressive painting. The ignorance about abstraction emanates from the (false) assumption that art should be either ultra-realistic or completely abstract, that is, they are an either/or proposition.

Expressive art falls on a spectrum of infinite shades of reality between a completely abstract and a completely realistic painting. We will strike a sweet spot between hyper-realism and abstraction to make expressive art. This means we will aim for a type of painting that is not too photorealistic and not too abstract.

These statements will become clearer once we delve into the concept of abstraction and understand how it is related to expressive art.

What is Abstraction?

To understand abstraction, let’s begin with a not-so-abstract piece of art. This is a portrait of a pilgrim (also called Warkari in the local language) in the western state of Maharashtra in Bharat (India).

A Warkari (Pilgrim) – fountain pen with black ink, white gel pen and soft pastel on brown paper

We can simplify this portrait by drawing minimal lines…

… or we can simplify everything except the most striking elements of the picture…

… or we can exclude the features from the whole face and keep only the turban as the signature piece.

The possibilities are endless.

As we keep on simplifying this picture, we keep diverging from reality, thus creating several levels of abstraction.

The most abstract level would be to remove all linework and write the word ‘PILGRIM’.

What is Abstract Art?

You may have noted that as we move from realism to abstraction, the viewer finds more options to interpret the imagery. For example, in the image below, the leftmost image is the most realistic. The viewer can clearly interpret what the picture contains.

The middle image is somewhat open to interpretation, while the rightmost ‘image’ is completely open to interpretation. The word ‘PILGRIM’ may conjure several images in the minds of people depending on whom you ask.

So, in essence, as we move from full realism to abstraction, the viewer has more options to interpret the artwork.

*A Dynamic Abstract – acrylics on canvas

In the case of a complete abstract artwork like the one above, the viewer has complete freedom of interpretation. The same viewer may interpret a piece of art differently each time they see it. Some viewers see this artwork as a huge spaceship traveling through space, while some