Mixed-Media Portraits
For my Mixed-Media Portraits, I wanted to mix together my two favorite creative outlets. I have always had a love for painting and creating my own pieces. I have recently discovered my love for photography. I have also wanted to figure out how to use procreate since so many people talk about how much they love it. I also wanted to prove to myself that I am still a good artist and can accomplish anything I set my mind to. If you have ever had a project that you wanted to accomplish I think today is the day you start it.
Digital Edits
I really wanted to learn how to use procreate and all the cool features it has. I have always seen these really amazing drawings and illustrations that people have done on procreate. After the first couple of hours of trying to figure it out, I wanted to give up and just use Illustrator because that was what I knew how to do.
After I figured out how to use procreate, I was able to accomplish some of the ideas I had in my head. I really loved the swirly patterns or illustrations over the original photos. I played with using the original colors and then brighter colors. I honestly like the brighter colored ones more than the original colors.
I also wanted to play with two photos. I used a photo where her face was turned a different way and then layered it over a moodier photo. Overall I love procreate, and I am excited to keep using it and learning more about it.
Physical Edits
Like I said earlier, I absolutely love painting; I grew up painting with oil, and it is one of the only mediums I know how to use. When I ordered my photos, I ordered them on unstretched canvas material. But when they arrived, they were on photo paper, which I had no idea how to paint on. I had emailed the company, and they wouldn’t be able to send me the correct ones until I returned the wrong ones and which was going to take a couple of weeks to arrive. I obviously didn’t have that kind of time.
So after I did some research, I realized that you could use acrylic paint on that kind of material. So after watching some videos and practicing painting, I was able to create these three pieces. I had a really hard time at first figuring out how acrylic paint worked, but once I did, I had a lot of fun. I planned out all my photos in my sketchbook and then figured out how I wanted to execute each one.
I planned on spending around 30-40 hours on this project, and I probably spent over 40 hours on all these photos. I also wanted to create 3-5 digital and 3-5 physical edits, I really wanted to use different things like thread and ripping the photos. But they came wrong so I needed to adjust my plan. If you want to look at my photos before I edit them, take a look at this blog post.
Also, go check out this person’s mixed-media portraits here. They are really amazing.
