I think when people think about creating “mixed media” they think they have to add layer upon layers of paper, paint, glue, clip art and more. That is has to be a collaged, when in actuality, mixed media just means to use more than one medium! It can be two, it can be four, and it can be ten… The best part about it is, except for using more than one medium, there are no rules to mixed media! 

Items Needed:

• DecoArt Media Mediums and Specialty Products - Texture Sand Paste (DMM23-71)
• Canvas
• Palette Knife

Instructions:

I made a Tie-dye modern mixed media canvas piece using two mediums: DecoArt Media Textured Sand Paste, and Media acrylics in Cobalt Turquoise Hue, Yellow Oxide, and Quinacridone Red, and a palette knife.

It’s a fun beginner’s mixed media project, and by just using three colors, it gives a fun, summery tie-dye effect. It’s a great practice in leaving some white space, and learning when to stop working paint.

Start by scooping out the Textured Sand Paste, and randomly spreading dollops onto the canvas. It’s very free-form and unstructured. Next, drip the Cobalt Turquoise Hue onto the canvas randomly, and spread with the palette knife, mixing into the Textured Sand Paste.

Drip the Yellow oxide randomly and do the same. The trick when adding extra colors, is even though you want the colors to mix, if you go over them too many times, they will start to become muddy. For the Tie dye effect, you really want to maintain the vibrant hues of the paint. When you get to the point where they are just mixing and a new color emerges, stop. 

Drip the Red paint and repeat the technique.

Then, once all of the colors are on, go back and scrape the canvas in random areas to remove paint and the Textured Sand paste.  It’s important to scrape and remove the mediums together to get the effect. I just offloaded my excess product onto a paper towel but you could use  it to make an entirely new art piece!

This will give it the tie-dyed effect, and open up some white canvas underneath all of the color. It has a really cool effect, and the final piece ends up having the raised texture with the sand, but the underlying texture of the canvas too.

Let dry completely flat.