Have you already accumulated a lot of materials for painting? Are there pens, chalks, paints, inks hidden in your drawers – and yet you keep reaching for the few, always the same favorite materials?
Why do we sometimes find it so difficult to try something new?
Today I would like to invite you to empty your drawers and put everything that appeals to you on the painting table!
Let’s bring different materials into your picture: You will be surprised how the use of other pens and colors will inspire you in a completely new way.
Mixed Media: It could be so easy …
I know it all too well: You keep buying new material because it looks so tempting in the shop . And when you then go to the painting table, you are all too happy to return to the familiar materials. Why?
Sure: you already know roughly what to expect.
That gives security, orientation.
The entrance to the picture is familiar, as is the handling of the materials – and small mistakes.
You know how to use the materials.
And how you hide mistakes (no: little coincidences!) And paint over them.
YOU’RE ON THE SAFE SIDE.
But is that really what it is?
Is it really about feeling safe while painting?
Shouldn’t it be more about creating spaces for yourself in painting in which you are free?
In which new things can arise?
In which you can experiment, try out, yes, even make mistakes?
Painting is YOUR room.
Nobody evaluates or judges him.
It’s only yours.
And in it, EVERYTHING can happen, everything can be seen.
And with every step, every stroke of the brush, every new material that takes you out of your creative comfort zone, you give yourself a little more freedom.
Freedom to grow, to meet you even more deeply, to continue your artistic path.
There’s so much in it for you!
So: just pick up different materials now.
Some that are actually so beautiful, but have never or rarely been used.
Give them a chance!
Mixed media: Get out of your comfort zone and try something new
Usually I am passionate about painting with watercolors. Fineliners and colored pencils are also my favorite choices.
But what about the beautiful pastels, the oil pastels, the acrylic inks, the acrylic paints, the markers, the gesso, the inks?
They can now also flow into the picture!
When you have all the materials on your painting table, you may be overwhelmed for now:
Where do you start? Where should which pen, which color go?
And what should actually be created?
Let go!
Let go of the expectation that you need to know everything by now.
The picture arises by itself if you just surrender and let the colors and lines flow.
My tip for getting started with mixed media:
A sheet of white paper can be quite pressure.
Put the first traces on paper quickly and easily.
Once it’s “inaugurated”, the next steps are all the easier!
I like to close my eyes to get the first lines on the sheet.
I start with completely haphazard lines or with simple shapes like circles.
Today it’s up to the circles 🙂
Then one thing leads to another: just keep reaching for other material and bring it into the picture.
Remember that it doesn’t matter what comes of it later!
Now it’s just a matter of taking in the moment and enjoying the process!
Merging in the flow: material mix with dedication
I paint until the paper is full and there are hardly any white spots left.
Then further layers may follow.
- Where are you drawn to on your paper?
- What other materials can be used?
- What did you try out for the first time today and immediately found pleasure in it?
- What is doing you really good now?
Develop out of the flow.
Go with your feeling – it always guides you correctly!
Your mixed media picture can be exactly as it is created with ease.
Whether abstract or with a motif,
whether tender or powerful,
whether wild or gentle.
How does it feel for you not to know where your picture is going?
Just to enjoy what makes you happy?
Trying out what’s new?
Surrender to yourself, to feel yourself and to create from within yourself?
Keep your inner critic silent
Be brave to intensify contrasts and make colors stronger and stronger.
Perhaps you will discover parts of your picture that you really like – go into more and more details here and work out what you like.
Maybe there are places that don’t appeal to you at all: Do you have the courage to paint over them completely with a new layer of paint?
Or scribble wildly about it?
Stop criticizing yourself for not liking or failing something.
Instead, ask yourself: “What can I do to make this area, this picture entirely mine?”
The answer from inside follows promptly. You just have to listen and trust!
Mixed media: Courage comes from doing
For me, a little white gesso comes into play. I gently walk over some places with him to take them back a little.
Other places are a bit more colorful and powerful.
The further you go in the process, the braver you will become.
You can change everything again at any time!
Until your mixed media picture is really yours.
Do you feel how liberating it is to get involved in this experiment with different colors and materials?
And how do you suddenly break new ground, simply because you have other materials at hand?
Enjoy this feeling of freedom and discovery!
Sometimes a single new pen or a new color can break so many boundaries and lead you on new paths!
Complete your picture, your way.
It can be, be easy.
Just as you can simply be.
In every moment, with everything that is.
The “after” is also part of your creative process
After painting, you might want to take the time to look at your picture and reflect:
- What was particularly nice while painting today?
- Where did you feel particularly free?
- What touched you, moved you, made feelings palpable in you?
- What did you feel particularly comfortable with?
All of this can give you information about how you can use painting even more for yourself and how you can find yourself in your pictures.
And especially:
Celebrate your picture, your trial!
Every picture is a personal encounter with yourself and a mirror of your being.
Celebrate it! Celebrate yourself
Much love to you and:
Happy painting!
