Mixed-Media Girls with Suzi Blu: Drawing, Painting, and Fanciful Adornments from Start to Finish

Growing out of her popular online workshops and videos, Mixed-Media Girls with Suzi Blu takes you step by step through the process of drawing a folk art and stylized girl’s face. You will learn to create simple, balanced features and add shading with colored pencils and paint. From there, you will learn how to draw the rest of the figure and put it into a unique, textured, mixed-media background.

—Learn to design costumes and personalities for your girls and adapt them to fit your own artistic style.

—Create vivid, exciting backgrounds by layering paint, collaging with fabric, carving beeswax, distressing wood, and building up texture with mediums and pastes.

—And on the accompanying DVD-ROM, which you can play on your Mac or PC, there is a mini-workshop full of whimsical mayhem, motivation, and real-time video with Suzi Blu showing you detailed drawing and shading techniques for faces, beeswax finishes, and how to make a mixed-media art journal start to finish.

Mixed-Media Girls with Suzi Blu takes you step-by-step through the process of how to draw a folk art and stylized girls’ faces. With inspiration from Suzi’s popular online workshops and videos, this inspiring book teaches you to create simple, balanced features and add shading with colored pencils and paint. From there, you’ll discover how to draw the rest of the figure and put it into a complicated, textured, mixed media/waxed background.

After learning to design costumes and personalities for your girls and adapt them to fit your own personal style, you’ll create vivid, exciting, backgrounds by layering paint, collaging with fabric, carving beeswax, distressing wood, and building up texture with mediums and pastes. Extensive examples and close ups of work will inspire you to take your art to the next level. This book also contains a 1-hour companion DVD where Suzi demonstrates featured techniques step-by-step!

Known for her quirky videos and down to earth style, Suzi Blu is a leader in teaching art to women all over the world through her online school Les Petit Academy. She lives in a gypsy cottage in San Diego, California with her best pet friends Gigi Rainbow Sparkle and Finnegan Glitter Sunshine Magic. She encourages everyone to be an artist. Visit her blog at http://suziblu.typepad.com.

Introduction

Chapter 1: Getting Started

Chapter 2: How to Draw and Shade a Pretty Face and Folk Art Body

Chapter 3: Putting It All Together

Project 1: A Petite Doll: Your First Mixed-Media Girl

Project 2: Marie Antoinette: Making It Larger

Project 3: The Gypsy Girl: Creating a Carnival Environment

Project 4: Angels and Fairies: Adding Wings

Project 5: La Sirena: Making a Mermaid Mosaic with Large Embellishments

Chapter 4: Taking It Further

Project 1: La Maison: Houses for Your Girls

Project 2: Scrapbooks and Journals

Project 3: ATCs and Mini Paintings

Chapter 5: Student Gallery

Templates

Contributing Artists / Resources

About the Author / Dedication