Stream "Still Life: Mixed Media Textures Techniques on Paper”

was live on May 03, 2026

⏱ Total duration: 2 hours
 

🌿 About This Stream

Step into the playful side of mixed media — where watercolor meets ink, gouache, crayons, markers, and even a palette knife and a roller, all on one paper.

In this ~2-hour live stream recording, I guide you through a full 12×16" (31×41 cm) still life on Arches rough paper, exploring how to combine watercolor with multiple other media to build rich texture, depth, and personality. Our subject is a layered composition of organic and man-made objects — a blue glass vase, dry herbs, peonies, pebbles, seashells, a book, a feather, a bamboo mat, and more — chosen specifically for their variety of materials and textures.

You'll see my full thinking process — from initial composition and color decisions, to choosing which medium goes where, to overcoming "I don't love this" moments and turning them into something interesting.

What You Will Learn

• Composition with intention — placing your focal point using rule of thirds / golden ratio, cropping the reference, and using gaps and tension between objects to strengthen the main contrast
• Drawing directly on a damp wash — using watercolor pencils on a wet surface for soft, velvety lines instead of hard graphite
• Building a temperature foundation — one continuous wash where wall and table are separated only by warm-cool shifts, not by lines
• Layering media in a deliberate order — watercolor → ink with bamboo pen → watercolor crayons (Caran d'Ache) → gouache → acrylic gouache → markers → palette knife, and why the order matters
• Texture-making tools you may not have tried — sprinkles of water, ink blocks, a rubber roller, stencils, palette knife marks, dry-brush gouache, hatching with a fountain pen
• Opaque vs. transparent contrast — using gouache and acrylic gouache against watercolor washes to create one of the strongest mixed-media contrasts
• Connecting the painting — repeating the same color or same material in different parts of the composition to unify a busy still life
• Adding text and graphic marks — when and where written words become another texture in the work
• Permission to play — how to approach mixed media like a kid experimenting, while still making intentional artistic choices

✅ Lifetime access in your Library — watch anytime, paint at your own pace