Mixed Media for Beginners: Painting and Embroidery

1. Introduction: Hi, I'm Elizabeth and welcome to mixed media for beginners painting and embroidery. I have a background in high-school art and I've been creating for as long as I can remember. I love finding new ways to approach art-making and experimenting with different VGA combinations. I began sowing into my artworks during an art class I took a few years ago for re-explain a wide range of artists inspirations and art-making approaches. It was amazing to see the way artists such as debbie smith through a thread. I had never considered sowing into my work before, but I really enjoy using art materials and unexpected ways. I quickly fell in love with this mixed media approach. You also love to explore new approaches to art-making. I'm confident you'll enjoy adding, rather as a new way to add texture and detail to your paintings. The left gets selling. 2. Class Description: In this class, I'll teach you some basic sewing techniques. Then you'll be creating a mixed media artwork, whether you use either sewing thread or embroidery floss to sew into a watercolor art for painting you previously created. If you don't have a painting, you'd like to send me to check out the two mini lessons I have listed below. The first one is a watercolor mini lessons that cover some basic wet-on-wet techniques that work really well as a background to embroidered paintings. The second is an acrylic mini lesson to help you quickly create an abstract approach painting, it would also be ideal for the embroidery mixed media process. For either painting, I recommend that you work rather smell, I ever say between four by four inches up to eight by ten inches will be handling our artworks a lot as we selling to them. So smaller is better for this project. Also, if you'd like to learn a couple of more watercolor techniques, you might like to check out my intuitive art-making simple watercolor and ink techniques Skillshare class to learn a couple of other processes that you can do with watercolor. There were really well as a foundation for embroidery paintings. Once you have a small painting that you're ready to sew into, you'll begin choosing which sewing techniques you'd like to incorporate into that painting and begin sewing. There's also a bonus lesson about how to add beadwork. They are embroidered paintings. In the next video, we'll go over the materials that we need to have that hand for this project. I can't wait to see what you create. Let's get started. 3. Materials: For this project, you're going to need at least one painting that you previously created on watercolor or mixed media paper. This can range anywhere from a four-by-four picture up to an eight by 105, a painting on thinner paper that I want us to go into. What I'll often do is mounted on cardboard and that kind of gives me a sturdier surface to sew into and makes it easier for handling. She might also want to have some cardboard and you can cut down to the size of your painting. And then just some basic, basic glue stick or work to attach it. If you're nervous about sowing into an existing painting, they didn't need painting supplies with either watercolor or acrylic to quickly create a small painting for this project, you're going to want some sewing thread or embroidery floss in a variety of colors. Think about what color thread would compliment your artwork, what colors will create contrast, and generally which colors you find appealing when you look at the threat against the painted surface, the embroidery floss comes with six strands put together and we can divide those up to create a variety of line weights. As we saw into our projects. You can also double or triple up your sewing thread to create a thicker line with that as well. Then you're going to want to have a needle on hand that has a large enough to fit through whichever width of threat or floss you're going to be using. But make sure that needle eye isn't too big. Because the larger than needle, the larger the hole that you're gonna be making in your painting. They're also going to want a pair of scissors for cutting your threads as you work. Then if you decide to add BDM details, you're going to want to have some beads on hand. And for this, you will definitely need the sewing thread to attach those to your painted surface. Once you've gathered up all your supplies, you are ready to move on to the demonstration video. 4. Basic Stitch Demonstration: You can use any type of statue like I'm not a great sort of close but I know the basics and that has been plenty like any new medium. It's all trial and error as we figure out what works best for us. And it's allowed me to create my own way of sewing. A few types of selling stitches are all you need to begin sewing into your paintings. Let's walk through a few of the basic stitches. Some stitches that I find works best or the running stitch or basting stitch, which you can see used here. If this one just runs along, it gets in and out. And I'm going to show you that 1 first. For this demonstration, I decided to set up my embroidery hoop because it's a little easier than tackling, sewing a painting, and demonstrating basic stitches. So you're gonna go in through the back, get your needle SAT. You're gonna go in through the back, the front, from the front to the back. Then you'll flip it over. You'll go in from the back to the front. The front to the back, making a running stitch along any india of your artwork. This is the easiest one to do. The other great thing is you can use this stitch and you can vary how far apart they are. Because we're not selling a garment together. We're summing in details. You can also change directions. So I can kind of map out where I want my design line to go. Say I want to create an angle up here and a map it that way. We'll get back through. Then if you want to, you can create a little you can go in through the back and kind of create a security stitch or kind of go in on the side of my stitch line like that. Then I jump over to the other side of my stitch line and I pull it back and that kind of holds it in place. This is very handy if you're going to be doing long stretches of thread on your painted piece. And it adds another element you could keep going with those. Go back through the back. Here we go. Create a crisscross. We're looking at threat as a way to add line detail, not to show something together. So it's purely there as decorative elements. And you can do anything you want to as far as how you approach those stitches. Another stitch that's a good one that carries over from sewing is a backstitch. And that's what I use to create this peace. Let me demonstrate that for you. So you go in through the back and out through the front and back down again, just like we did with the running stitch. Then you're gonna go continue on just like the running stitch and go back up again. But this time instead of going forward with a stitch, you're going to go back and you're going to go back through the hole that you did in the original one. Now, in sewing, you would just have to focus on going through the base of the previous thread. But in embroidered painting, you want to really make sure you go through the same hole. Because the less holes we can create, the better. But we want to sew into our paintings. So you've got to work with it. Then you can do what is traditionally done with a backstitch and you can move it forward. Have it go that way. Or because we're not necessarily playing by sewing rules, you could go back up through this hole, which is what I tend to do. Then create another forward stitch like that. Then if you jump ahead again and you'd go back up, go back down through the same hole. And it creates a nice continuous line. Either this way or the traditional backstitch method is fine. I just find I'm using the same amount of thread and I like to see my line grow. So going back through, going back up through this whole feels more appealing to me. Then during the traditional method of backstitch for you to go back down and then you would move forward. Then you go back down again. Then instead of going up through this stitch, you would go up to here. But in my mind, that's thread that could be done on the front side. So that's why I instead jump back to here to continue my line. The same thing we did here as far as changing directions can apply to a backstitch, I can jump over here. Starts to June, that way. You don't have to. There's really no rules. I can then go this way and then backstitch there and just kind of creep. Creating something that's showing, again, I don't have to go through this whole if I wanted them jump my line. I can jump all the way over there and create that stitch. And then this stitch could go any which way I want or it could go back to there to continue the line. We have a running stitch, modified and backstitch commodified also, cross stitches. Another citric theories overwhelmed from basics of hand sewing two and brighter paintings. Just like our running stitch and our backstitch, you would start going up from the back. Then instead of going straight out, whichever way your stitch line goes, he would go at an angle. You go down through your sewing surface. Then the backside, you would try to line it up with that first stitch. In the traditional world of cross stitch, you come back up here and then this sign would crisscross back over that way. You can, you can create the axis and then you'd go back up through this bottom crossover following the same angle. They're parallel lines. Let me go back down through there. And then you'd crisscross to meet this one. This one also works well if you want to add some really interesting axis or cross texture, I did something similar to that in this piece down here, where I let my lines cross at different flanks. You can get as creative with this as you want to say you want to. You can't get too small with it because you want to keep your holes spaced apart but you could stitch any which way. Like I could do a nice long running stitch around here if I wanted to kind of close in those in signs or I could do kind of a long stitch and then crisscross this guy. Some other, other artistic way. It doesn't really matter as long as you're having fun. So play around with these basic stitches and see how luck with your painting. And again, the type of painting that you have for your starting surface is going to give you an idea of what type of stitches going to work best with your piece. One thing to keep in mind, like I mentioned, is that the closer together your holes are, the greater risk you run up the BIM, your paper. So really be mindful about how you go about it. If you want to have a lot of stitch line, the backstitch is probably your best bet. You can always, you can jump all over your painting and have some really interesting stuff happen. I also don't tend to think in terms of what stitches I'm using. I just go with what type of line or texture I want to create. This is a great starting point, especially if you are a beginning so or something you haven't done it in awhile or transitioning the idea of sowing into painting is blowing your mind a little bit. Starting with the basic stitches is a good way to first approach this style of mixed media work. I do recommend using a small scrap painting to experiment on as you become more comfortable sowing into paintings. This is a great way to try out different ways to create line dimension and texture with your thread before you get into the bigger pieces, Let's head to the next lesson to learn how these stitches will be used to embroider your painting. 5. Watercolor Mini Lesson: If you don't have a watercolor or acrylic artwork on hand. So into them, this lesson we'll cover a few basic techniques you could try to quickly create a painting for the next part of our class. I love working with watercolor and acrylic paint and experimenting with different ways to manipulate these mediums. For the first few paintings, I'll be using watercolor. I'll be applying a wet-on-wet approach to lay down some color. Then I'll develop some details based on how that turns out. I've got my watercolor paper, It's 140 pounds. It is to pay for that. I really enjoy using that happen to have a lot of on hand. So as long as it's watercolor or mixed maniac, you should be all set for this project. I'm going to start with a very small piece of watercolor paper. Then you can either white it with a paintbrush or by spraying it with water. I'm going to show you the effect that both wedding techniques create. First, I'm going to wet my paints. You can either wet your paints by loading up your paint brush with water, then dropping it into your paint palette areas. Recently I learned about the magical wonders of a water spray bottle, and they are very inexpensive. Every craft supply store has them. This is my new best watercolour friend. So now I just kinda spray into the paint wells where I want, which colors I wanted to use. And it's really easy to keep my paints wet and have them ready to go. For the first way to do wet-on-wet technique. I'm going to load my brush with water. I'm going to wipe the edge a bit off because I don't want it to be crazy wet. And then you just start painting across your surface of your paper. You could have the whole area be wet or you could leave some areas dry. Is up to you. For this piece. I'm just going to get a nice even amount of moisture. The paper with a clean brush to wet. One of my other brushes, wipe off the access of that, load it up with the paint. Like really saturated paintings. Water is going to do the magic for me. Then I'm just going to start. You can do debts. You can do whatever you want. Also, reload your brush with water and kind of splatter that down onto the paper as well. We're kind of squish it out and let it plop down. Doesn't want to do it right now. Okay, there we go. And then let it that has a little bit more movement to happen. The other thing you can do with your wet-on-wet is drop one, drop more colors into what you've already put down. I've got some purple. I'm just going to put my blue down into that. Or you can just kind of gently trail along. You didn't spend as much time on this as you want. But the ultimate goal is to get yourself a painted surface that we can then go into. Also drag some water overlying those edges and create a little bit more movement. Encourage the paint. Take a little trip. I want to spend too much time. But I really love watercolor as hard not to get sucked in C ways, you could push it further. But I loved the fact that you got when you just let the water and the paint dance on the page. Now if you are creating your painting specifically for this project and Skillshare, you have complete control over your colors versus finding a painting that you're going to decide is going to become an embroidered painting. Sometimes the control is nice. Sometimes we get a little carried away. As you're having fun. Right? Now, even though I wet the whole paper, I still have a lot of open spaces. But that's good because for this project, we want it to be a combination of paint and embroidery thread. So having those open areas will give us some space for the thread to exist in its own right. The other thing you can do, BLAT up some of the paint if you get areas that are a little too heavy, it's good to have some paper towel on hand. If you get some edges, some areas where things are getting a little more intense than you want and you kind of want to pull it back. You can just Some paper towel in there and it'll soak it up, bring back some of the lightness. And if you've layered colors, it will also reveal some of the colors that got hidden. That balloon kind of overpowered the purple. And a lot of ways in some areas, this lets that come back. I don't want to over paint this and I'm risking doing that. I'm going to stop there. Just kinda let that be. I missed that this aside. So there's one way to do wet-on-wet paint your paper with a nice even coating of water. Then just start dropping your paint and playing around with touching the tip of the paintbrush dry and dragging the line out. Adding more water, however you want to do it. Set this one aside to dry. Then the next one we're going to do wet on wet with our spray bottle. You could do this with even if you've just had old spray bottles around from cleaning products or beauty products, you could rinse them out really, really well, wash them out and then put some clean water in there. The spray bottle is a different kind of wet-on-wet approach because of the way the water goes down in lots in one area, I can have a mist in another section and it changes how the water comes out of the page. And because of that, it changes the appearance that we get on our painting. You can still do the drop-down thing, but you see what's happening? Because the paper because they didn't brush it on, I just let the water droplets exist there. This is really cool areas that are just left the white of the paper. If I kept dotting and do that, if I could lose that and that would be fine. See what happens when I dot with a wetter brush. You can even go in with a bigger brush. I could still kind of paint into there, but the edges are different. Bleeds in a different sort of away because of how the water was put on there. Just really cool. That's why the spray bottle is my new watercolor best friend. A bit more on this one will be done. Don't want to lose this effect because that can only be achieved with a spray bottle. I'm gonna stop right there. There are two watercolors frame down, so you can see two different approaches to wet-on-wet. Very different looks. These pieces, but both so fun to create and they only take a little bit of time. Now because I've created them with this project in mind, I don't have to worry about being stressed about sowing into them because they were created for that purpose. You're gonna do watercolor and you need to make a new watercolor painting. I hope you'll give us a very quick process. 6. Acrylic Mini Lesson: For this painting, I'm working with acrylic paint, so I have my acrylic paint tray setup. I've got a jar of water, some paper towels to clean my brushes, and a couple of different sized brushes on hand. I don't want to spend a lot of time on this. I just want to lay down some colors so I have something to work with for my embroidered painting. With acrylic paint. You don't have to wet your brush before you go into the paint, you can to change the viscosity or thickness of your paint. But I like to more so just because it's a habit, It's called If the brush pen, like the water off and load it up with paint. Again, different acrylic paint brands have different thicknesses. The water can be great. The water can be disastrous. This is black acrylic. On the thinner side. Just great. For this project. We don't want to be working on terribly thick paper. I like to do a lot of my mixing right on the paper. Just let things blend. Because I'm going for an abstract picture who doesn't really matter, what happens. It's all just kind of letting the medium decide how things go and making decisions in the moment. Like, I don't really love that pink there. That's not really what I wanted. The great thing about acrylic, just paint over it. It's a great medium to explore if you're new to painting. It's also great to create different textures. And the whole goal of the embroidery is to add another layer of depth through a texture or dimension to our artworks. You can do that by already having that in there. With your acrylic paint. You can also change it up. You can wash your brush. I can paint that. Doesn't have every other color and mixed into it. Stays wet for a little bit of time. So you can experiment and play with shading if you want to. You're gonna have less negative white-space. Probably. If you're going to do an acrylic picture for your embroidery painting. But that's not a bad thing. And you can always do what I'm doing here and paint some in. I could also let this dry and then paint some white in or paint some other lighter values in. But I want to get to the sewing. So I'm going to just keep going and let it mix a little bit. Because I still get that value contrast that I was aiming for when I picked up the white. Just a little different because it's got a little bit of the purple in there. Because there is no predetermined image that I'm going for. I can just flip it around and keep going. Now some of my red dried, so I have a little bit of an edge there, but that's not a bad thing at all. It wasn't going for a smooth blend out was I should've painted a lot faster. Just want to get some sort of color down so that I have a starting point. Keep working there. So you could go into this and do a bunch more stuff. You could spend as much time on your paintings as you want to. For this one, I decided to just keep using the watercolor paper that I used in that mini watercolor lesson. Because I had it. And I don't want a very thick paper. I want to be able to easily sell into. Watercolor paper works pretty great for that. If you needed it to dry faster, you could get a blow dryer out. And again, we're not pressed for time. I also just don't want to stress about it. Let it be a little rough, little rustic. You can also do kind of a glazed effect with your acrylic. Watered it down a little bit. Too much. That's too much. That effect, it would be easier to kind of mix it up on your palette and get yourself kind of a thin layer. You can kind of lay it down. See what happens. Still, see some of the orange there. It just play around with it. If this is the way you want to go for your mini painting, change this color one last time. Call it good. They're going to call that done that aside to dry. And then now we're ready to get our sewing supplies. 7. Choosing A Painting: So these are some of the pieces that I'm considering sowing into for my final project for this class. We've got a couple of different options. I've got a couple of my squares that I'm revisiting to see if there's anything that feels inspiring. I always wanted to make sure that I turn it, especially if I'm revisiting old experiments for techniques like this to see which way feels like up, or at least which way gives me an inspiration for where to start. So we've got these small ones that are ready to go. And then I've got a lot of different experiments with watercolor. This piece was actually one of the pieces that I made as an example in my intuitive art-making simple watercolor and ink techniques class, exploring some wet-on-wet techniques and then inking backed into it similarly to what I share in watercolor mini lesson. This one was created using shaving cream and food coloring, where you take, I take a pan and I fill the pan on with shaving cream and then you drop in the color and you can take a stick and swirl it and then you set the paper down and press it in a little bit and then flip it off and scrape off the phone. And you get some really beautiful color that transfers to your paper. These were a couple that I discovered in an old mixed media sketchbook. And I'm really excited by these pieces. I think I might explore both of these as I approached some different options for my final project for this class, I have this piece that I started there was just exploring working with ink using brush, as well as the straw to kind of blow out the ink blobs that I'm really excited by. This is an in-progress piece where you can kind of see I started with the ink and then I just started playing around with different sewing techniques that I will show you the demonstration video. 8. Embroidered Painting Examples: These are some of my embroidered paintings that are, they're part of a bigger series of 12 pieces, I think in total they show some might have a range of the different sewing styles that you can use. And they were made with a variety of different materials. This one, the painted part was just done with watercolor and then I inked in to kind of add the dot details and create that speckled texture and outline around some of the areas. This one was done with coffee. I love to play around with different materials and different ways that I can get color and value on the paper. And I was doing a ton of experimental processes with some of my students in my classroom. And we tried coffee and kind of see how that would, what happened with that. So some of it's more diluted depending on how we apply the coffee, this one, ink. So it's a bunch of water was put down on the paper first and then I let the ink bleed around. And then after it was dry, I went back in with some stencils to create the circles. This one was created with ink as well as some gel food coloring. So the yellow areas are the gel food coloring. And then because of the different interior walls that were used to between the ink and the food coloring and kind of created this oil slick look. And then after that was dry, I went in with the ink and then I went in with the thread after that push the contrast, this one, the paper was submerged and then I went into the water to the paper and applied soft pastel. And you've already drawn the paper, the pigment from the soft pastel, kind of connected and absorbed this one. All of the outlining is done with the thread in both the black and the maroon. And then this last one was watercolor and ink. This might have been liquid watercolor versus tube watercolor. It looks really saturated with that blue. Then after that was dry, I went in and outlined with the ink and then went in with the sign texture. All of these were done as bigger sheets of paper. Much more like a bigger sheet like save this was I treated it and kind of experimented on the whole thing. And then after it was dry, I cut out the sections I wanted for this series. I knew I wanted to work small. I knew I wanted this size piece for the entire body of work. I've cut out the size cardboard I wanted and then use that as a stencil. Then I had my bigger sheet. I would lay it down, kind of look at it and decide what areas I wanted to save. And then I trace it and then cut them out and then mount the paper. Can see on this one you mount the watercolor paper to the cardboard for stability. Then it was much easier to go in. And so between the two sides. Then, yeah, then different sewing styles. So this one, if there are very few holes, but a lot of connecting radial lines that go around this one and this one are very similar in that I wanted to kind of take these lighter spaces and connect the threat across, kind of create this stitched enclosure to them. This one I wanted to contrast the very organic nature of the coffee and the ANC with a much more geometric lines system in the lighter areas. This one was about contrast as well. I had created, I did the inking first for the, the lines for the circles and partial circles that I wanted to contrast that with some straight geometric lines and kind of play with variety as far as scale between the longer lines and the shorter lines and overlap there. And then this last one, I wanted to do kind of a loose loose stitching, not worry about getting precise lines and just let them be a little more relaxed in nature and then also see what happened with instead of tying off on the back. I wanted to see what happened if I tie it off on the front. Kind of letting, letting the threads, letting the nature of the threat be celebrated. Its full glory, messiness, but still kind of having a, having a system and so kind of playing around with different elements and principles to create that. Here are some of the smaller pieces that I've created using the techniques that we'll be learning in this class. 9. Bonus: Adding Beads: I wanted to show you how to do the beads for your project if you decide that you want to add that element in, the first step is to find a small container to put your beads in so they don't roll away. I'm just going to use my dried paint palette, kind of pour out that I've decided to use. Now not all beads are created equal in the sense of that. They're all uniform in color and they all have a hole in them, but not all the holes are. Even. If you're using larger beads, it won't be a problem. Your needle will go through just fine. The smaller the beads, the more careful you have to be a need to check it. You could go through in advance and kind of put your needle through each bead and make sure and kind of create a pile of beads at work and then the other beads set them aside. These beads are all gonna be fine because these are pretty big. But I've used the super tiny beads before. Some fit, some kind of you can kind of work the needle through. If the needle it doesn't fit, you can force it a little bit, but it can also snap your beat in half. This size works great. These are just some basic needs that I found there. E beads, their size, the sex you can see works really well for this type of project, but you might not want beads this big. Do I want that large of a beat on my picture? Or do I want something more delicate? And if you want something more delicate, definitely just use a smaller needle. Or just kind of be prepared to work your way through the beads to see which ones fit. You can add these as you go along. You can wait till the end and then decide. So for the sake of demonstrating, I'm just going to go ahead and put some beads in. I've gone back up through my painting. I'm going to carefully not stop my finger. String the bead, can take it down. And then the most secure way to do it is to then go back through the hole. You came up through dealing with beads that are loose and then you pull it tight. And then with beads, it's a really good idea to do a whole lot more of those anchor knots to secure them in place. You've added your anchor stitch, you've got your bead in place and you can keep going and add as much feedback as you want. If you wanted string a bunch of beads. I have not done this in a piece before. What I liked the idea of it. So I'm gonna take my needle and you could create a pattern. You could have as many colors as you want. It's completely up to you how you do it. But I'm going to see what happens. Because I love experimenting and trying out new ideas, especially as they pop into my head. I'm gonna keep string of beads like odd numbers, so I'm gonna stop it. Actually. I want to connect it to this other line right here. I'm gonna string until I get enough beads. Go to that line. Work. Then I'm gonna hold those in place. I'm gonna so back into that whole gonna pull it tight. Not too tight. I'm going to flip it over. And I'm going to do another anchor or not to really make sure that my thread is as tight as it needs to be to hold that line of beads in place. Now you've got the variation of the thread thickness. Single traditional thread, a needle doubled up The embellishment of one beat and even kind of spin these. Return it a little bit. You can get it so that it'll either show the circle side or you can get it to show the side. The full side of the bead. Little maneuvering. Sometimes, sometimes it works. And then this one we actually thread the needle was seven beats. And then so back down to kind of just keep going until you're happy with your embellishments in play and experiment and see what happens. There is how you would add beads to your embroidered painting. 10. Troubleshooting: Knots and Threads: That's your throat gets tangled coming through the holes just like minded. They're just kinda keep gently tagging and pulling and it'll eventually get itself untangled. Then once you get it untangled, It's a good idea to put in one of those anchor knots. Just to kinda secure things, can get really frustrated with it. Just cut the thread. Just cut it off, start over. It'll be fine. But I prefer to fight with it to see if I can get it to untangle. I like a challenge. Nine times out of ten, you usually get those nuts. Fix themselves. Might be maybe the tenth time where it doesn't work. Sometimes when this has happened. And he says, I kinda like the mask that's created, the jumble aisle, even work it in institute down. I've done that quite a bit. And some of my abstract embroidery pieces. You can see a few. Follow me on Instagram. Elizabeth welfare. You want to follow me on Instagram to see what other fun art adventures I'm up to. Quite a not. So what you can do to help get it untangled is use your needle. Kind of get in there and pull some of these guys apart. Here we go. Give me very careful not to pull too hard. If I was working with my embroidery hoop, I I can yank on it pretty good. It's not going to rip the fabric. Paper. It could rip it. You just keep working away. I'm pulling from the front and then I'm also pulling from the back. We'll try to do Tango. It almost went through the whole. The other thing I can do to save it is to just pull some of these guys through. Here we go. We did perseverance paid off. I still have kind of a mess in the backside, but I can I can fix that by just continuing to do tangle and stretch things out. If you're using metallic thread like this, really take your time with the stitching, especially in this case, I've doubled up the thread. I'm actually stitching with four strands instead of two. Which creates a nice difference in line weight from this to this. But it means I've got a little bit more of a mess to work through. I still have a knot in my thread from the tangle, but I'm just going to try to keep gently working at through. But I am going to do those increments are also really important because if you get to a point where your thread becomes a mass, you just need to cut it and walk away. You've got an a secure thread. You haven't lost to what you've sown. That's another great thing about the anchor nuts. Make sure that you get it all pulp through before you continue on because there is a point of no return. If I hadn't noticed that tangle, almost event, I could have ended up with a tangle on the front side. Again, nothing we can't nothing we can't correct something. I don't feel like dealing. Want it to work because I wasn't paying close attention. I have so and I did not so across this one, before I jump to the next guy, I almost came up through my threat. Again. Not a problem. Just kind of go backwards. Even if I came up between my threads. Also not a problem. You can just undo it a little bit if you just add that design in there. Now, I'm gonna do my ink or not. Because now I've added all those stitches and I don't want them to become loose on me. Anchor and I am please see where we're at. I like it. 11. Final Project: For your final projects, you'll be choosing a watercolor or acrylic kidney to sell into. I recommend working on a piece that's between four by four inches and no larger than eight by ten inches will be handling our paintings a lot and large you go the more risk there is and damaging your artwork. Decided which other threads you'd like to choose. It's helpful to get out a bunch of colors and begin putting combinations together against your patients or test. What is your goal and adding some details, do you want to add a lot of texture or create contrast? Will the song parts become a strong focal point to the work or provide some dimensions that is close to those used in the painting. Take some time to observe your painting and pick out areas where additional details with strengthen it, it might be helpful to rotate the painting if it is an abstract artwork to help me see it with fresh eyes, then start poking holes as you map out your first selling areas. Actually have it. We still align goals started, began to sell into the artwork. Take pauses between sections so you can assess how is coming along and where to sell into knots. So for my final project, I've narrowed down my painting options to this piece that I found in one of my mixed media sketchbooks from those kind of digging around, looking for inspiration. The next thing I need to do is decide what color thread I want to use. I've been really enjoyed working with embroidery thread lately. So I'm going to use that for this piece. I'm going to start by kind of seeing what threads I have a kind of match the colors that are already in here, as well as what would add a nice contrast. This piece doesn't really have any black in it. Many darks at all as separate as accidental blue that happened. So I'm going to add some black, some pops of colors this pink and matches pretty well. I really liked the pops of yellow. So I'm gonna pull up my lightest yellow and then it just feel like I want to give it a little shine. And I happen to pick up some of this silver embroidery floss. This is going to be my color scheme as I go into this piece and turn it into a mixed media piece. This piece is definitely bigger than I want my painting and embroidery piece to be. What I'm gonna do is I cut some cardboard down to the size that I tend to like it to be. And then I'm just going to start playing around with how I want to practice. I don't want to lose some of these yellows and kind of like to get rid of that blue. I'm not really loving it. Since we'll make an art for fun. Not going to stress about it. Just going to lay down my cardboard template, start cutting. The worst thing that could happen would be I didn't like what I cut out on the end. That happened. Just the different piece. The process again. Love happy accidents. So we're gonna see what happens here. Now if you wanted to have a cleaner cut, you could definitely use an exact name. I'm really excited to get to showing. So I'm just going to go for a scissors. Now. I love that, that's great. I still have some of the yellows that I really enjoy about the big piece, have lots of great and negative space in there. It's super great job getting MakerBot history, but that's okay. Always clean the whole thing up with Dr. knife. When I'm all done, I'm going to grab my glue, glue down to my cardboard backing. And then you're gonna go for it. This is where it might be helpful to kind of rotate the painting if it's an abstract piece to see which side seems to be the top of the painting to help you kind of see it with fresh eyes. Then once you've got your painting chosen, you've picked out your threads. It is time to start somewhere. You're gonna begin by poking some polls to map out the areas that you're going to go into first. And then after you have at least a couple of holes started, then It's going into the artwork. You're going to want to be very careful not to pull the thread too tightly that could cause your paper to rip. And you're going to want to also add little anchor knots along the way just to secure the thread so it doesn't slide back through the hole and become too loose on this site. It's a fine line between two tight on the thread and to loose those increments, I'll give you a lot of control along the way. Then also be sure to take pauses as you're working on different sections. You can assess how it's coming along and where you want to go into next. If you have any questions along the way or health every the posted the discussion fraction. Once you're satisfied that you've added your started to photograph of a finished project. Actually never loved last year. 12. Final Thoughts: I hope you enjoyed exploring sewing is a new mixed media approach. The techniques we learned in class can be applied to artworks beyond watercolor and acrylic paintings. Have fun and see where your needle and thread can take you. If you enjoyed this class and want to hear about future Skillshare classes, I'll be teaching. Be sure to click the follow button above. I can't wait to check out we create. So be sure to click on the great Patrick button and share your final project to the project section of our class until next time.