Simple Tips for Mixed Media Success

If you live in the northern hemisphere, spring is here. (Where I live, it was here and gone in the blink of an eye!). I find the trees and blooms around me to be the perfect subjects for mixed media experiments.

Mixed media can be fresh and surprising. If you want more “good surprises” in the mix, here are a few simple rules pointers that might help.

• Choose Contrasting Media
Use a transparent medium with an opaque one; a bold medium with subtle one; one that covers large areas quickly with one that creates fine lines. Contrasts create interest and layers of texture.
I started this sketch in a bold, transparent grey pen, then switched to finer media: a black fine liner, and colored pencils. I finished by returning to bold marks with an almost-opaque white crayon smooshed into the page to create the part of the sketch I wanted to highlight most: those white spring blossoms.

• Transparent media first, opaque next
I sketched this very lightly in big, loose shapes in transparent watercolor before layering on a whole bunch of opaque media including tempera sticks, crayon, and oil pencil. Almost anything works over watercolor but not much works over the other media I used, which accounts for the order in which I use media.

• However, the Property of media matters too…
If you know the properties of your media you could play around with the order in which you use it.
The pencil I use in step1 below is as dark and vibrant as a water soluble pencil, but it doesn’t budge under watercolor, (waterproof ink works too, but with pencil, I don’t need to wait before the watercolor goes on!) which is why I can draw first, then watercolor, before finishing with water soluble pencil and white crayon.

• When possible, I work from life
I find that it keeps my work more alive to be present with my subject.
That doesn’t mean I’m always sitting outdoors. I might bring flowers into my studio, or work from my car, especially on a rainy day.

• Break Rules
I started this piece by drawing with a magenta Neocolor II crayon, which is not only water soluble but also notoriously hard to use other media over. Spritzing my drawing with a spray bottle made the Neocolor run and blur in a surprising and quite lovely way. I brought back a bit of definition with more crayon and turned to an ink line…but of course, my pen didn’t work over the crayon, so I dipped it into a vial of ink and used it, VERY wet, as a dip pen. I had to leave my book open for a long time to get that line to dry!

In general, I find it useful to start by understanding how things work, but some of my best results come from throwing all rules out the window and just playing with stuff!

How do you figure what media works best over what? Through Play.
Gather a bunch of stuff you want to experiment with, layer it on in different ways for different effects. It’s a lot of fun!

This is the first announcement of this workshop outside of the interest list, and there are only 3 spots left. This link has all the details you need. Read it carefully, but don’t wait too long to sign up! Read all the details here:
Gateway to India Workshop(s), 2027

4-session workshop with feedback. Join live OR via a recording each week
May 21st to June 11th, 2026, 9am to 11am California time.
* you do not need to attend live. Recording of session will reach you by end of the day so you can watch it and do the the exercises and send them in for review.

This 4-week online workshop will get you feeling confident and excited about sketching people-centric stories. A huge part of the workshop is a deep review of the homework you submit each week, so more important than joining live is setting aside 1 to 2 hours for the practice assignments each week.
More detail and sign up here:
https://sketchaway.wordpress.com/2026/03/23/online-workshop-people-alive-sketches-full-of-life-2026-edition/
Read the details already? Go directly to Sign up here: https://buy.stripe.com/aFa8wPgIf3YK5rz88M4ko03

A short drawing and watercolor workshop for beginning artists

https://www.preservation.org/events/still-life-with-stuff

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Our next online sketching session for the group is on Friday April 3rd, and we’re experimenting with mixed media in our spring-inspired sketches. If you will miss it live, no worries, paid subscribers receive videos of all sessions. References for the session and Zoom details will be sent to you on April 1st. Upgrade below to join.