Imaginary Characters: Mixed-Media Painting Techniques for Figures and Faces
Karen O'Brien
Dec 2015 · Penguin
5.0star
2 reviewsreport
Ebook
128
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About this ebook
Believe in magic, trust your intuition and find your individual artistic style!
In this book, you're the storyteller and the artist and you're on a quest to bring the soulful characters, mythical creatures and magical landscapes of your imagination to life through mixed-media art. You'll tap into your creative voice to fuse together lush dreamscapes, imaginary characters and found objects to build enchanting scenes, whimsical figures and expressive faces out of layers of acrylic, collage, watercolor and more. Learn the techniques necessary to create one-of-a-kind mixed-media masterpieces.
On your journey, you'll discover:
• Five skills to uncover your unique creative voice.
• A magical drawing method. Easily find your characters' bodies and faces hidden in random shapes on painted backgrounds; it's like seeing animals in the clouds.
• Imaginative warm-up exercises. Learn tips for creating a character reference library, secrets for drawing unusual faces, how to develop a color palette and advice on how to play with proportion, light and shading.
• More than 30 exciting mixed-media projects using watercolor, vintage photographs, gouache, pencil, fabric, ink and much more to bring your imaginary characters to life on everything from woodblocks and paintings to fabric collages and paper dolls.
• How to paint without a plan. Trust your intuition to create something out of nothing.
• Inspirational quotes about creativity from famous artists and thinkers.
Embrace your curiosity and see what happens!
In this book, you're the storyteller and the artist and you're on a quest to bring the soulful characters, mythical creatures and magical landscapes of your imagination to life through mixed-media art. You'll tap into your creative voice to fuse together lush dreamscapes, imaginary characters and found objects to build enchanting scenes, whimsical figures and expressive faces out of layers of acrylic, collage, watercolor and more. Learn the techniques necessary to create one-of-a-kind mixed-media masterpieces.
On your journey, you'll discover:
• Five skills to uncover your unique creative voice.
• A magical drawing method. Easily find your characters' bodies and faces hidden in random shapes on painted backgrounds; it's like seeing animals in the clouds.
• Imaginative warm-up exercises. Learn tips for creating a character reference library, secrets for drawing unusual faces, how to develop a color palette and advice on how to play with proportion, light and shading.
• More than 30 exciting mixed-media projects using watercolor, vintage photographs, gouache, pencil, fabric, ink and much more to bring your imaginary characters to life on everything from woodblocks and paintings to fabric collages and paper dolls.
• How to paint without a plan. Trust your intuition to create something out of nothing.
• Inspirational quotes about creativity from famous artists and thinkers.
Embrace your curiosity and see what happens!
Ratings and reviews
5.0
2 reviews
Sarah Mitchell
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April 21, 2025
nit ONLY. is this hands down one of the most fun, unique, imaginative and so easy to follow but not so easy an expert would get bired...heck no there's a lot of great information and it's got something for every skill level. PLUS I had a personal mishap that I won't get into and upon reaching out to the author I was astonished how sweet, kind and understanding doesn't even begin to describe how personable she is! I highly recommend it!!
About the author
Karen O'Brien, Grants Pass, OR, www.keobrien.com, is a self-taught artist and teacher. Karen's artwork and articles have appeared in Somerset Studio, Art Journaling and Art Doll Quarterly magazines.
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