I've been painting on and off for about 15 years, and i have spent most of that time using a single medium at a time. Either just oils, or acrylic, charcoal etc. But recently i discovered the joys of mixed mediums! I have never felt quite so inspired. I am dabbling in everything from air-brushing, acrylic, pastels, pen and ink and every other thing i can lay my hands on. I have to tell you this is very liberating! When you are feeling blocked as an artist of any kind, nothing works. But just a small shift in my view of mediums was enough to get me going again.
I have had great succes with oil pastel over acrylic and the effects you can achieve by adding water colours over the pastels can be truly magnificent. Air-brushing can be very effective for all that smooth detail, and there's no need to stick to just oils or acrylics here. I have had great results with normal inks in my airbrush pots. Once again, when mixing the oils and water based mediums, very unusual effects can be achieved.
"Three -D" paintings are also a good change of pace. Using plaster of paris and actually "building" up your painting allowing certain areas to actually stand above the surface of the rest of the painting. After it's dry, the plaster of paris may need to be prepped with a base coat, buy after that any medium will be fine. The only concern, is naturally the weight. You must have a sturdy frame, preferably with cross braces which you can plant supports for the plater of paris so as to "hold the piece together"
I have even begun building my own frames from scratch. Stained woods, Acrylic moulds - you name it, I've framed it. FrameCo provides all the essential framing equipment, right from the very basic requirements to the (expensive) high end of the range framing set-up. You can take it as you see it. If you have a handy hubby around, this will please him no end if he's anything like mine, the idea of a new project will get his creative juices going too.
