This inspiring creative manual offers a unique, participatory experience that teaches core art skills and shares a range of exploratory techniques for the aspiring artist. Exercises include drawing, painting, portraiture, collage, photo arts, origami, and

Knot Thread Stitch presents a modern, experimental, and creative approach to thread and embroidery projects. You'll find fun and surprising project ideas, a unique artistic approach, and uncoventional mixed-media materials such as stamps, paint, sequins, paper, and shrinky dinks. These projects are designed to be quick, fun, abstract, and creative, and many offer clever ideas for personal customization. With easy-to-follow steps and project variations, this book also includes project contributions and embroidery patterns from a long and stellar list of renowned artists and bloggers, including Lisa Congdon, Camilla Engman, Heather Smith Jones, and Amy Karol, just to name a few.

Set your portraits apart from the rest! Portraits can be an intimidating subject. But not with Art At the Speed of Life author and workshop instructor Pam Carriker as your teacher. She helps you take on faces one quick sketch at a time for faster, easier, more enjoyable drawing and painting. Not your average book on drawing the face, Mixed Media Portraits With Pam Carriker shows easy ways to draw more realistic faces in your own signature style. The goal is not an immaculate finished portrait, but a continually growing collection of personal, expressive sketches that you can use and reuse in your mixed-media work. Inside you'll find: • An easy-to-learn face-mapping technique that allows you to draw faces from your imagination, without a model or photo in front of you • Mini-demonstrations breaking down each facial feature • Simple color combinations for mixing both realistic and out-of-the-ordinary skin tones • 15 step-by-step projects featuring original ways to use your portraits as starting points for mixed-media masterpieces • Tons of expert tips, from selecting the right pencil for the job to creating self-portraits, working with reference photos and using transfer techniques In the true spirit of mixed media, this book is all about combining, layering and experimenting in your pursuit of portrait nirvana. It will get you out of your comfort zone and into the habit of making faces that are truly and uniquely your own.

Digital Photography and Mixed Media--a creative match made in heaven! Love photography? Want to make yours better? Want to use your photography as a springboard for fabulous and diverse mixed media and digital projects? Photo Craft will help you elevate the average into the extraordinary! Using Adobe's Photoshop Elements and following thorough, easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions, you'll learn to make basic adjustments to your photographs that will yield stunning and artistic results. You'll also learn to use those photographs--along with some everyday mixed-media supplies--to create unique and personal art. Inside You'll Find: • 13 stepped out mixed media techniques and projects • 16 stepped out digital techniques • 9 stellar techniques and projects from contributing artists including Michele Beschen and Claudine Hellmuth • Dozens of great examples of and tips for iPhoneography • Countless inspirational suggestions for photo field trips and photo shoots • An author curated list of recommended apps to take your photos to the next level • Access to exclusive online materials including new techniques and projects and downloadable materials for your personal use So get to it! Take new pictures today (any every day!), look through those boxes of old and long-forgotten photos, and free those lonely images from your hard drive. Make them better, make them new and make them art. Soon you'll be seeing things in a whole new way!

Whether you have experience drawing or are completely new to it, this exciting workshop-style book provides practical, inspiring, and creative exercises which will expand your drawing skills and provide a framework for integrating illustration with other mixed-media techniques, With a focus on drawing what you love and what is familiar, you will be led through the development of several illustration exercises, which launch from jotted notes and eventually blossom into unique mixed-media creations. You will become familiar with a wide variety of media and approaches to drawing, learn how to work through "creative blocks," and discover ways to scan and layer your illustrations using a computer.

decorative arts & crafts.

Take your creativity to another level with this collection of more than 60 surface-design techniques and 7 richly layered projects. In this follow-up to her bestselling first book, Fabric Art Collage-40+ Mixed Media Techniques, Rebekah inspires you even more to stretch the boundaries of fabrics, papers, and fibers. Learn how to combine techniques like resists and image transfers with unique surfaces, embellishments, and found objects to create dimensional works of art. Transform everyday materials such as batting and foil into something even more extraordinary than you ever dreamed was possible! • Learn the basics of working with paints and other mediums on creative surfaces • Mixed-media artists at any skill level will find something fresh and fascinating to try Praise for More Fabric Art Collage “Sixty new surface-design techniques will keep you busy creating with everyday objects, new products, and a variety of materials. . . . Whether you’re new to mixed media or a veteran, More Fabric Art Collage has the information and visual inspiration to get you on the road to discovery and creativity.” —Barbara Delaney, Cloth Paper Scissors