ARTISTIC WORKSHOP

Mixed Techniques

There are mixed techniques for drawing, painting or sculpture. Mixed techniques are those that use more than one material or technique in the creation of the artwork: prints or engravings with acrylic paint, watercolours with markers, charcoal drawings with sanguine and ink, clay modelling with wood inlays, etc.

Materials

• In mixed techniques, specific materials from the fine arts (acrylics, gouache, inks, markers, graphite pencils, clay, steel, wood) can be mixed with any other type of material or object out of the field of art (coffee, tea, seeds, soil). The range of possibilities is inexhaustible and only limited by the artist’s imagination.

Mixed Techniques In Art

Remedios Varo (Girona, 1908 - México, 1963)

Remedios Varo was a Spanish artist who belonged to the Generation of ’27 and to a group of surrealist painters from Paris. She had a free and independent personality and stood out for the creation of esoteric worlds in her works, full of enigmas, objects and characters from stories. The fantastic and dreamlike elements in her work acquired real qualities thanks to their symbolic meaning. This was one of the most outstanding merits of this artist.

Remedios Varo was one of the first women to study at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. She lived and worked in Paris, but had to go into exile to Mexico during the Second World War. She died there just when her career was recognised as one of the most influential of the time.

Process

In a mixed technique, the process can be very diverse, but we can highlight some general rules. Regardless of the chosen technique, it is very interesting to photograph the creation process while it is taking place.

➜ In wet techniques, such as oil painting, watercolour, or acrylic, a basic rule to follow is the ‘fat over lean rule’. In other words, oil or wax techniques can be applied over others that do not have them in their composition, like acrylics, but never the other way round since water-based paint would be repelled over oil-based paint.

➜ In drawing techniques in which washes or gouaches are applied, the rule is to first apply the watercolour technique, and then use other techniques to make graphics on top, such as markers, inks, chalks or wax crayons.

Making a symbolic self-portrait

1 Growing is a vital process in our life and our image is linked to this growth. We make decisions about our appearance. We decide how we want to show ourselves to others or if we want to identify ourselves with an urban tribe or style.

Portraits and self-portraits have always existed in art history. The art world has experimented with the self and the image. In portraits and self-portraits, the artist always wants to tell us something about the person’s character. Artists paint portraits or self-portraits to express a person’s personality, mood, or power. At other times, they choose to be someone else for fun, to denounce or criticise something, to imitate somebody, to reinvent themselves, to disguise, hide or not be seen.

Mona Hatoum (Beirut, 1952)

Due to conflicts in the Middle East, Mona Hatoum’s Palestinian family fled, first to Lebanon and then to London. As a Palestinian woman who has never been able to live in her country, she works on issues that speak of political and religious conflicts, the role of women in the Arab world, domestic violence and exile. She has done performances and she has made videos and large sculptural installations featuring domestic objects taken out of context to find new meanings.

Form groups establishing a membership criterion. For example, having the same hobby, being on the same team or belonging to an urban tribe. All the members will create their self-portraits using a mixed technique. All kinds of graphic-plastic techniques and materials can be used, such as collage, decollage, acrylics, stencils, airbrushes or markers. The works will be exhibited grouped by subject, so that the viewer can discover the personal touch, the imprint of each person despite their belonging to a group.

Photograph the creation process

2 Photograph the entire creation process to create a GIF or time lapse to present to the class. You must also write a brief explanation of the idea and intention behind your project.

Microbo (Catania, 1970)

This Italian artist is interested in what is not always visible but is fundamental to our existence. She is inspired by microbiology and the microcosm, since she uses organic forms to express the complexity and diversity of life.