Sherrill Kahn wants to free you from worrying about your final product when you are in the midst of creating your mixed media materials!
"Have fun and don’t worry about making masterpieces. Think about creating fabric and paper that will be cut up or torn to be used in larger works—don’t worry if every part of a piece of paper or fabric isn’t perfect. You can select and use the portions that work for you. The examples in this book, especially in Putting It All Together (pages 131), will give you some great ideas on combining and collaging." (page 7)
If you don't already have any good surface design books, get this one from C&T Publishing. This isn't a project book...it's about techniques, explained in the simplest possible way. This is a strength or a weakness of the book, according to different reviewers. You might expect that a book titled Mixed Media Master Class would have a lot of new and/or advanced techniques, but I think what was meant by this title is that Sherrill has collected over 50 techniques to share them all step-by-step in a consistent and thorough way.
I really like the organization: Sherrill covers creating surfaces, media, resists, textures, rubbings, and printmaking. I was a bit sorry that there weren't more new-to-me techniques and materials, but I really do think it's a good beginner's book. There's a very cool section at the end where Sherrill takes you through creating one of her multi-layered lovelies, step by step. Then she shows several more finished pieces with the different components identified as to the technique (and page number) used.
Technorati Tags:mixed media,collage,assemblage,digital art,photography,altered books,art journals
