Begning Of My Final Mixed Media Piece

Painting on a big or over-size has its own delights and challenges pre planning- I made little plan before starting my final piece. I stapled the fabriana on the wall,the scale I am  working on  is 302.5cm x 148.5cm.This time I had to remember to make figures smaller to fit the background.  The piece will have five figures including myself in the centre. I laid the photographs according to the plan so I can refer it back.. I chose it to work with mixed media because  it can take so many forms. The sky's the limit! the project itself is blending two culture together. Variety of my artworks are  created  using mixed media. I will be using acrylic , watercolour, watercolour pencils, ink,oil pastels ,threads,fabrics,emulsion paint,and soldering iron to engrave maps.

  I manage to finish this piece bit late than I expected.Main problems I faced while doing this piece are

coping with large scale  and  proportions

I found working on  the  large scale of  challenging in every aspect. So I tried  dividing the fabriano up into five parts  each portion with one figure in it.this parts varied in size.I  tried to finish  a section at a time rather than working on the whole canvas at once.to get the proportions right I  

Drawing and perspective problems are  more acute by the fact that I need to encompass more surface.I Pulled back often to get wider image at a glance.Classmates even gave their valuable tips which improved my work. At few places I even took help of projector to get the accurate proportions.

 Allow More Time to Finish a Big Painting

A large scale took   longer to paint than your ‘normal’ size .I was lagging behind because it took me longer than I thought .A schedule of work is very useful to hammer out a larger piece. Since it is painted in stages, it is essential to maintain a rhythm.

 acrylic paints dries out quickly .especially when I used for blog printing.from my previous experiment  on large scale  I learnt many lessons, which were very useful for this final piece,for example-I should avoid  mixing  acrylic paint  too vigorously— because this  produced bubbles which  caused cracks and also avoid using  too much water when mixing colours or applying the paint, as this was causing acrylics to lose their quality and thick texture.I am glad that my previous experiment  on large gave me good chance to improve in this final piece but also that I incorporated more techniques like blog printing which I did not include in that trial piece.

overall I am very pleased with the outcome according to me the  heavily textured mixed media piece has worked well .