Storytelling Art Studio: Visual Expressions of Character, Mood and Theme Using Mixed Media

by Cathy Nichols

Overview

Mixed Media Art Storytelling With Powerful Results!

Storytelling Art Studio is the guide that will show you how to create mixed media art that tells impactful stories. It's a creative guide for mining your own life to manifest imaginary worlds, emotional narratives and clever characters. Each chapter presents a new subject--you may paint a tree, collage a landscape or use sgraffito to create a scene. You will begin with inspirational warm-up exercises, then learn how to do it with a step-by-step demonstration and even get to see alternate versions of the piece that explore the magic and impact of different choices.

Perfect for you no matter what your skill level or style, this guide does not have to be read in order. Simply choose what you would like to do and go for it! You might:

   • Paint and collage trees and landscapes
   • Create a romantic scene with sgraffito
   • Add color to black and white photographs
   • Alter a book page
   • Create a family tree with ephemera
   • And much, much more!
10 projects and 10 inspiration exercises!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440349416
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/17/2017
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	982,271
File size:	88 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Cathy Nichols is a mixed media and encaustic artist living in Asheville, NC. Her encaustic paintings are represented by Lyrical Fine Art in New York. Learn more at cathynichols.com.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Since Feeling Is First

Painting an Emotional Color Field

To paint your stories, it's first necessary to imagine them. This can be a big leap if you're used to painting primarily from life — say, setting up an easel in the backyard and painting the roses.

Instead, as a storyteller, you make the world up as you go. This involves first turning inward before turning outward to your canvas. If you've never done it before, this process can feel uncomfortable and even scary. If you're anything like me, just looking at a blank canvas can be anxiety-provoking. It can be so unsettling that you grab a vase full of flowers and start painting what's in front of you as a way to calm down. But if you do this, you will squelch your inner storyteller right away.

Instead, a nice way to ease into a storytelling mindset without getting blocked by fear is to do a few warm-up activities and let loose with an emotional color field.

RAY OF LIGHT

Acrylic and gel pen on wood panel

6" × 6" (15cm × 15cm)

Inspirational Warm-Up Exercises

Journal to Music

One of the best ways to tap your inner stories is to write them down in a journal. This can be a lined journal just for writing or a combined writing/sketching journal.

Choose whatever feels best to you and start filling it up with fragments of dreams, narratives and any insights that come to mind. The way you see the world is important and having a written record of your thoughts will not only feed your paintings, but over time, will serve as a record of your own life story.

Before you begin painting your emotional color field, warm up by playing a song you really like and begin doodling or free-writing ideas that come to mind in your journal (I chose Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing"). Write down any colors that relate to the song. Use markers or colored pens if you want to. Don't censor yourself. Try to be open to what comes up.

Meditate to Music

Traditionally, people meditate in silence and stay focused on a mantra as they observe and release their thoughts. You can begin this way, and after quieting your mind, put on music. For the color field project, allow your mind to conjure any colors the song evokes. When it ends, write down the colors or paint them in your journal.

FINDING WONDERLAND

Encaustic on wood

8" × 8" (20cm × 20cm)

Meditation is another way to draw out the imagination.

Reference: Selecting Colors

After warming up, look at the colors you wrote down in your journal. Now make a trip to the local paint store and gather as many paint chips as you'd like in those colors. Bring your stash home and lay them out.

This beautiful bounty will serve as reference material for your emotional color field. What colors did you choose? And how can color create a story? It's helpful to turn to color psychology for some answers.

A Brief Introduction to Color Psychology

While color meanings are not written in stone, and, of course, color associations vary across cultures, it's helpful for storytelling to have a general sense of what emotions and moods colors evoke. Below are some popular impressions associated with various colors. The left column lists warm colors, and the right column lists cool colors.

Demonstration

Ray of Light

Let the Colors Flow

This abstract painting is an exercise in learning how color alone creates story. It's also an opportunity to feel your way through a painting and to have fun. So, by all means, put on some music, relax and let your emotions guide you. There's no wrong way to lay the color down. Even if we use the same color recipes, our stories will be as different as our hearts and hands.

STEP 1: Pick Your Dominant Colors

Use your color wheel and paint chips to create a harmonious and pleasing color palette. Pick a magenta chip for the dominant color and a yellow chip for the accent. You can see how these two colors are almost opposite each other on the color wheel.

STEP 2: Choose a Magenta Range

Using paint chips, choose three versions of magenta: a shade (darker color), a middle magenta and a tint (lighter color).

STEP 3: Choose a Yellow Range

Do the same with your yellow paint chips. Choose three versions: a yellow shade, a middle yellow and a yellow tint.

STEP 4: Finish Your Palette

Add a bright hot pink to your palette for fun, and add additional tints and shades of yellow and magenta until you are happy with your palette. Tape the chips down on a sheet of white paper. Now you have a handy reference palette!

STEP 5: Prepare the Palette

On your palette paper, lay out the following colors: Quinacridone Magenta, Liquitex Fluorescent Pink, Hansa Yellow Medium, Hansa Yellow Light, Titanium White, Shading Black and Napthol Red.

STEP 6: Mix the Magenta Tint

Mix some Quinacridone Magenta with Titanium White. Blend this new color well with a palette knife.

STEP 7: Mix the Magenta Shade

Mix Quinacridone Magenta with Shading Black.

STEP 8: Mix the Yellow Tint

Blend Hansa Yellow Medium with Titanium White.

STEP 9: Mix the Yellow Shade

Add a touch of Quinacridone Magenta to Hansa Yellow Medium. You will end up with a warm dark yellow. This is your yellow shade.

STEP 10: Mix the Hot Pink

Add a touch of Napthol Red to Liquitex Fluorescent Pink. Mix well with a palette knife. You will use this color as a bright accent.

STEP 11: Create a Light Accent

Mix a touch of Liquitex Fluorescent Pink with Titanium White. This is a handy color to use to lighten your painting if it gets too dark.

STEP 12: Spritz the Surface

Using a spray bottle, spritz the entire wood surface of your support with a light mist of water. Also spray your color palette to prevent it from drying out.

STEP 13: Paint the Surface

Using a 1" (25mm) flat, paint the entire wood surface with watery magenta.

STEP 14: Remove Excess Paint

Wipe away areas of the magenta with a paper towel to add variety until you have a pretty surface.

STEP 15: Make a Gradient

Create a magenta gradation by adding progressively lighter magentas across your surface. Start by laying down your magenta shade on one side of the panel using the same 1" (25mm) flat.

STEP 16: Add the Tint

Add magenta tint to the painting where it feels right.

STEP 17: Add an Accent

Still using the 1" (25mm) flat, add a little hot pink where you feel it enhances the background.

STEP 18: Dry the Surface

Once you're happy with your magenta background, blow-dry the surface to prepare it for sanding.

STEP 19: Subtract with Sandpaper

Sand off areas around your piece to create balance and harmony in your composition. Your eye should move all around the painting from lights to darks, so take this opportunity to sand away any areas that feel too overworked with medium-grit sandpaper.

STEP 20: Create a Glaze

Pour acrylic glazing medium into your Hansa Yellow Medium on the palette paper. With a palette knife, mix the glaze and Hansa Yellow Medium until you achieve a viscous, translucent yellow.

STEP 21: Add Some Sunshine

Using a 1" (25mm) flat, apply strokes of yellow glaze to the painting wherever it feels right. I chose to add mine to the left side of the painting. Notice how the glaze creates a new color

when it is laid over the magenta. It looks yellow-orange when it glides over the magentas and pinks.

STEP 22: Pop the Yellow

To create focus, add thick brushstrokes of the yellow tint to one main area of the painting using a 1" (25mm) flat.

STEP 23: Brighten the Yellow

Use a smaller flat brush to add bright strokes of Hansa Yellow Light across your yellow tint.

STEP 24: Add Texture with Linework

Draw on the painting with a hot pink gel pen to add balance and interest to the composition.

STEP 25: Identify the "Main Character"

Notice how the bright yellow stands out against the magenta tones of the rest of the painting. I saw this bright splash of yellow as the main character of the painting.

Tell the Story

What is the main character like? What is the setting? Does your composition mirror the music you played while creating it? When I finished my piece, I saw the yellow as a ray of light bringing inspiration to the magenta world like the muse in Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing." What story do you see?

SPRING FLOWERS

Acrylic on wood panel

8" × 8" (20cm × 20cm)

In this painting, I used the same techniques to create an emotional color field. Green, periwinkle and touches of lavender evoke a feeling of spring.

CHAPTER 2

You Look Like a Protagonist

In the First Person: "Kraft" a Character

For this project, I'll take you step by step through the process of creating an autobiographical character on kraft cardstock. As you draw, don't be overly concerned with perfection. This can be a primitive or whimsical character and does not need to be a photo-realistic portrait.

You will add personality to your character with color, clothing and accessories. Of course, Little Wing is the character I created from my own personality; feel free to recreate her or use the strategies in this chapter to develop a protagonist who is completely different and uniquely you!

LITTLE WING

Gel pen and gouache on cardstock

11" × 8 ½" (28cm × 22cm)

Inspirational Warm-Up Exercises

A Few of Your Favorite Things

Where can you find inspiration for your characters? If you're creating a character based on yourself (and some would say, as in dreams, all of our characters are parts of ourselves), look around your own house. Gather up items you're particularly drawn to and place them in a pile. Think about what these items say about your personality. Do you have a favorite scarf or piece of jewelry? A stamp collection? Funny shoes? Books you like? Many of the things you love can be worked into your character's personality.

THE WISHMAKER

Encaustic on wood

10" × 8" (25cm × 20cm)

I was drawn to the quiet wisdom of owls when living in New York City, so I decided to create this portrait of my spirit animal.

Find Your Animal Totem

Another way to tap into a character's personality is through an animal totem. Cultures around the world have identified with spirit animals for strength, intuition and wisdom. Are you drawn to a particular animal right now? Has an animal been showing up in your dreams (or outside your window)? Is there an animal you keep seeing in your artwork, books or music? If it feels right, spend time meditating and asking for your spirit animal to appear. An animal totem can be a powerful way inside a character's personality.

Reference: Finding Models for Your Characters

It can be helpful to use a reference photo to "kraft" a character. Find a photo you like of yourself or use a photo of a person who reminds you of yourself. For Little Wing, I used a photo of my daughter as reference because we look alike, and I imagined my character with a childlike personality.

Reference material for your character's spirit animal can help you add accessories or clothing details. Feathers, animal print fabrics or representations of animals can be great resources.

Another option is to use an artist mannequin as a reference for drawing people. Mannequins have the advantage of being poseable, and they work long hours without complaint. You can also set them up beside a window to see cast shadows if you want to create a consistent light source in your drawing.

Demonstration

Little Wing

Extreme Makeover: Taking Your Character from Drab to Fab

How do you transform a family photo or a gray mannequin into an interesting character? Consider actors in a play. They don't walk onstage in their street clothes as the curtain rises. They wear costumes and hairstyles to get into character. They may even carry props. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, for example, Johnny Depp wore a signature red Edwardian jacket and top hat, and he carried a cane. He even wore buck-toothed dentures to get his smile into character. You can do the same in your drawings. Consider the beginning drawing as an actor you can dress up to show personality.

STEP 1: Sketch Your Character

Set up your reference photo and/or artist mannequin next to a piece of sketch paper (roughly letter-sized). Begin to draw your character using the reference materials to guide the shape of the face and body. For now, keep the clothing simple. Just draw the character wearing a plain T-shirt and skirt. Make sure the hairstyle complements her personality.

STEP 2: Add Personality

Once you have a plain sketch, add details that convey the character's personality. Use a real feather to help you draw the feathers on her skirt.

STEP 3: Continue Adding Details

Draw a rainbow and a little sun on her T-shirt.

STEP 4: Add the Animal Totem

Add a bird on her shoulder to represent her animal totem.

STEP 5: Add Butterflies and Stars

Sketch a butterfly in her hair and smaller butterflies and stars around her head.

Using Wax-Free Transfer Paper

STEP 6: Embellish the Sketch

Add expressive details, like a small bird on her T-shirt and a flower growing up one knee sock. When you've finished the sketch, you'll transfer it to kraft-colored cardstock using white wax-free transfer paper.

STEP 7: Test the Transfer Paper

Position the transfer paper on top of a dark colored sheet of scrap paper and make a mark with your fingernail on it. If you see white, you'll know the downward-facing side will transfer. You'll want this side touching your kraft surface!

STEP 8: Prepare the Transfer

Cut a piece of transfer paper to a size just a little bigger than your character sketch. Tape it mark-making side down to the kraft-colored cardstock.

STEP 9: Place the Sketch

Position your drawing over the transfer paper. Make sure the transfer paper is under all the lines of the drawing.

STEP 10: Trace the Sketch

Using a pencil, trace the entire sketch, pressing down firmly as you go. Lift up the drawing after a few strokes to make sure it's transferring. Completely trace all of your lines.

STEP 11: Finish the Transfer

Lift up the original drawing, untape it and voilà! You have a beautiful white outline of your drawing ready to be painted with gouache and gel pen.

STEP 12: Choose a Palette

What colors work for your character? Go through your color chips and pick out colors that evoke her personality. Here I've picked white for innocence, pink for femininity, magenta for spirituality and yellow for her sunny disposition. You can include black to stand in as a neutral. (As I used the same song for inspiration for both Ray of Light and Little Wing, I also used the same color palette.)

STEP 13: Create Color Swatches

Make swatches of your chosen colors on a blank piece of kraft paper to use as a guide. To keep it simple, use only three gouache colors — Pale Pink, Rose Tyrien and Primary Yellow — along with paler tints of the Rose Tyrien and Primary Yellow (achieved by mixing them with Titanium White). Make additional swatches of color with your chosen gel pens.

STEP 14: Outline the Body

Outline the unclothed parts of the body with a 01 Micron pen. The great thing about kraft-colored cardstock is that it can stand in for skin tones.

STEP 15: Draw the Facial Features

Since the face is such an important part of your character, it helps to jump in by bravely penning in the eyes, nose and mouth with a 01 Micron pen early in the process. This way, if you mess it up, you can start again without having to redo the entire piece.

STEP 16: Prepare Your Paint Palette

Get ready to add color. Lay out dollops of Pale Pink, Rose Tyrien, Primary Yellow and Titanium White gouache on your palette paper.

STEP 17: Paint the Shirt

With a no. 1 round, paint the shirt yellow. Leave the details (bird, rainbow and sun) blank.

STEP 18: Mix a Yellow Tint

Mix a pale yellow tint by adding Titanium White to your Primary Yellow gouache and blending with a brush or a palette knife.

STEP 19: Add Some Sunshine

Switch to a no. 00 round watercolor brush and paint the skirt with the pale yellow tint. Paint around the feathers so the kraft paper color stands out against the creamy background.

STEP 20: Paint the socks

Paint the knee socks with Pale Pink.

STEP 21: Add Small Details

Still using the no. 00 round, paint in the small details. Use Rose Tyrien and Pale Pink for the bird and a mixture of Primary Yellow with a twinge of Rose Tyrien for the sun on her T-shirt.

STEP 22: Add the Stars and Butterflies

Fill in the butterflies and birds with Titanium White. Add tiny stars with the tip of your paintbrush.

STEP 23: Add Clothing Details

Use the gel pens to add details like the rainbow, bird and sun on her T-shirt. These pens are great for popping details. Once dry, they glow against the darker kraft-colored background.

STEP 24: Color the Shoes

Make her shoes glow by coloring them in with a pink gel pen. Color the flower on her knee sock with gel pen, too.

STEP 25: Add Glitter

Add a touch of red glitter gel pen to the feathers and tummy of the bird to bring it to life.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Storytelling Art Studio"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Cathy Nichols.
Excerpted by permission of F+W Media, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Special Offers,
Introduction: How to Use this Book,
The Magic of Storytelling,
Materials,
CHAPTER 1 Since Feeling Is First,
CHAPTER 2 You Look Like a Protagonist,
CHAPTER 3 The Secret Life of Trees,
CHAPTER 4 Setting the Scene,
CHAPTER 5 Mark-Making for Mood,
CHAPTER 6 In Paradise There Are No Stories: Adding Conflict,
CHAPTER 7 From Darkness to Light: Painting a Plot,
CHAPTER 8 The Moral of the Story,
CHAPTER 9 Symbolism,
CHAPTER 10 Meditations on a Theme,
Afterword: Title: Your Secret Weapon,
Resources,
Acknowledgments and Dedication,
About the Author,