Seascapes in mixed media

One of the joys of working in mixed media is the unpredictability of mixing materials that you wouldn’t automatically use together. Kevin Scully advises on media, materials and what to expect

One of the joys of working in mixed media is the unpredictability of mixing materials that you wouldn’t automatically use together. Kevin Scully advises on media, materials and what to expect

One of the decisions to be made when working in mixed media is which combinations of media you want to use. The possibilities are almost endless, but I think we all have art materials squirrelled away that we perhaps used once or twice before the novelty wore off – so dig them out and breathe new life into them by mixing them up a bit.

Water-based media

If you’re unsure about what to choose, go with media you are familiar with. By all means experiment but it’s probably a good idea to limit yourself to just three. There’s no point using ten different media if they don’t add anything to the finished painting. I often think that the most successful mixedmedia paintings are those in which at first glance it’s difficult to determine exactly what has been used.

A good if rather safe combination is watercolour, gouache and soft pastel, where the majority of the underpainting is produced in watercolour, the gouache introduces some more opaque passages, and the soft pastel adds some texture.

Water-based media can produce some dazzling effects: watercolour, inks, acrylics and acrylic inks are all made for each other. One of my favourite combinations is water-soluble wax crayons with watercolour and acrylic ink. The watercolour provides a degree of subtlety, the wax crayons irregularity and an element of drawing, and the acrylic inks vibrancy. Wax crayons and acrylic inks come in a range of colours that can be rather crude, but by diluting them with water and layering them, some delicate passages can be suggested. It is possible to wash water over soft pastels, and the effect is often intriguingly unpredictable.

There is no reason why you have to be subtle, though, if you like bright and brash colours. However, unless your image has been reasonably well drawn,

and the composition works and holds together, no amount of paint thrown at it will rescue it.

If you are an abstract painter, you can utilise the qualities of different media to full effect without having to worry about the constraints of perceived realism. If something doesn’t quite work, it can be altered, overpainted, or even wiped away. In my own work, I like to inhabit that area of painting where the boundaries of realism become rather enigmatic and blurred, without straying too far away from the representational.

Mark making

When using techniques such as scraping, scratching, wiping away, etc, you can use a more rigid support, such as MDF or canvas boards. If you are working on paper and if you’re using soft pastel combined with anything, you will need to frame your paintings behind glass to protect them.

I like to use a variety of tools for making marks to suggest detail: twigs, matchsticks, cocktail sticks – anything that I find. These produce effects that are difficult to replicate with a brush. I also draw directly with the droppers that are supplied with acrylic inks. If you hold them at an angle, you can create a variety of line widths, providing there isn’t too much ink in the dropper.

There are no hard-and-fast rules regarding what can be combined, but in my experience some things work better than others. You could combine pencil, coloured pens and alcohol markers, but the markers work best on the special bleed proof-paper and, to a lesser degree, on smooth cartridge paper, both of which will wrinkle if you add water-based media. The markers will also be absorbed very quickly if you use them on watercolour paper.

Do bear in mind the order in which you add different layers. As a general

rule, if you begin working in a rather fragile medium like soft pastel or charcoal, and add a liquid medium on top, the pastel will be removed and end up stuck to the end of your paintbrush.

Experimentation doesn’t always work, so be prepared for a few disappointments, but remember that testing combinations can produce some unexpected and exciting effects. If you find that your paintings are becoming a bit predictable and lacking a certain something, you can switch media, and even better, mix your media.

The Blue, Blue, Aegean, Neocolor 11, concentrated watercolour, acrylic ink, and soft pastel on Saunders Waterford Not paper, 9313in (23333cm). The blue areas in the sky were first drawn in loose diagonal strokes in blue Neocolor 11 and brushed over with clean water. In some areas more blue was drawn into the wet areas to create a more solid colour. When dry the same blue, plus a darker one, were used to draw in horizontal areas in the sea. The white tops of the waves were painted around, leaving white paper. The waves of the sea were painted in watercolour. Some white wax crayon was used to create shapes in the rocks, and then washed over with a mixture of raw sienna and burnt umber. More marks were made using the edge of the dropper in black acrylic ink. Some details were defined amongst the waves with white acrylic paint, and some colour to the clouds with white and cream soft pastels

Helford Passage, acrylic and oil pastel on canvas board, 9½311½ (24329cm). The white board was tinted with a thin wash of raw sienna/violet acrylic and the main shapes blocked in with thicker acrylic colours in loose brushstrokes. Oil pastels were added using a variety of marks to add movement to the sky and a more static look to the water. In some areas these marks were dissolved by brushing over them with white spirit. Some of the original underpainting was left to show through

Bamburgh Castle, alkyd oil and soft pastel on canvas board, 11½315½ (29339.5cm). The board was first tinted with a thin wash of raw sienna/purple. The main image was painted in quick-drying alkyd oil paint. The soft pastel then provided the detail, with the surface of the canvas board adding a little texture. In some places the pastel was overlaid with another colour, and in other places rubbed with a finger to blend the colour into the background

◀ Low Tide, watercolour, gouache, acrylic ink and soft pastel on Saunders Waterford Not paper, 10313½in (25.5334.5cm). The main image was painted in watercolour, leaving some areas of white paper for highlights in the water, and then certain areas were painted with more opaque gouache. Acrylic ink was washed over the rocks in the foreground and, when this was dry, detail was suggested by adding black with the edge of the bottle’s dropper. Some black and burnt sienna ink was then splashed onto the rocks with a stiff hog brush. The painting was finished by dragging some soft pastel over the clouds and the distant hills, and sparingly over some of the rocks

▲ From Marazion, acrylic gesso, watercolour, gouache, and soft pastel on Saunders Waterford HP paper, 10314in (25.5335.5cm). A coat of white acrylic gesso was applied to give the paper a slightly textured surface. The image was then painted in washes of Payne’s grey watercolour. When dry, the painting was completed with a limited number of soft pastels, rubbed here and there with a finger. The lights and reflections were painted in gouache