Limiting Art Materials to Boost Creativity: Mixed Media Artwork in Progress
- Jun 3, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 9
Day 4 of Louise Fletcher's 'Find Your Joy' taster course was about limiting materials as a way to boost creativity, which sounds incongruous, but it's a tried and tested method of working for many mixed media artists.
My 'Curiosity Series' was just such an exercise which I loved doing, as it seemed that much of the choice paralysis was taken away which enabled me to focus on getting the most out of a limited number of materials and colours.
Louise's limitations were pretty prescriptive by anyone's standards but I was keen to have a go and see what would happen!
2 brush marks
2 marks with another tool
2 lines in pencil
1 charcoal mark
2 collage pieces
1 mark in oil pastel or crayon
Doesn't sound like much to work with does it?!
| Mixed Media Art Puzzle
I just worked on small squares of leftover gessoed paper and didn't think too hard about what I was doing. At the end I felt like these small snippets looked like puzzle pieces, so I took the results one step further and had a play around with making lots of different compositions with them. This was the best part!
| Composition Starters
I could instantly see how I could use this method as a starting point for compositions on larger pieces. I think it's something I might try beginning with black and white puzzle pieces next time. If you watch the video til the end you can see how I could have just kept going and going, matching up lines and shapes and colours.
Looking at the work that was posted in the Facebook group it was so interesting to again see the diversity of responses to this challenge from so many different artists, yet we all had the same instructions.
| Individuality Shines Through
It just shows you how unique and individual we all are - a great exercise and a timely reminder to just follow our own path when it comes to art making.
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