Located in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains in Todd, NC, Askew Studios, owned and operated by Michael and Renee' Askew, is an expression of love of nature, family, spirituality, and music. Michael and Renee' met and found their common ground at Arrowmont School of Art in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. That connection was the magnet for their joining in making and expressing art as a lifestyle. Michael's main expression is through the medium of stone sculpture, supplemented by songwriting, singing, and playing the guitar. Mixed media and painting are the means by which Renee' communicates.

Having completed a BA in Painting and a Minor in Photography, Renee'took additional Art classes from Arrowmont School of Art, and several courses in Inner Healing. Renee' has participated in Juried and Invitational Shows and has work in the United States, China, India, and Africa. Renee's favorite activity is Worshiping through Color!

Fluid acrylic paints work best for mix media though any acrylic paint will work. Acrylic Medium, a variety of inexpensive brushes, and a canvas or matt boards is all you need to get started. From there you will want to try some of these techniques and other materials.

**If you really want to learn Mix Media a book I recommend is Celebrate Your Creative Self by Mary Todd Beam. This book has great detailed instructions, projects, and photos.

Some Techniques:

Freezer Paper Packets/ Photo Transfer:
(This technique is by Fiber Artist Joan Schulze)

• Cut freezer paper into 8 ½ X 11" pieces
• Cut cloth approx. 10 X 12" (a little bigger than the paper)
• Heat Iron to Cotton Setting
• Iron shiny side of freezer paper onto the cloth
• Carefully cut edges of the cloth to the edge of freezer paper
• Copy photo on regular paper first to make any adjustments to size or darkness
• Trim any loose threads from cloth
• Run freezer paper packet through single sheet feed
• Wait a minute or two and peel paper off cloth
  

Graphite Paper or Tracing Paper

• Put tracing paper down on canvas or other surface. Put image you want to trace face down over graphite or tracing paper.
  
• Trace with pen or pencil
  

Transparencies
(by Artist Joan Schulze)

• Transparencies can be purchased at an Office Supply Store. Check your copier or printer to see if it is Ink or Toner and then choose Transparencies. Copy images onto Transparencies just like making a copy onto paper.

Xeroxed Images on Tissue, Rice Paper, or other Paper or Canvas
(by Artist Vae Hamilton)

• Tape paper onto flat surface. Turn Xerox copy face down, tape to hold
  
• Use paper towel or rag and dab lacquer thinner on to rag. Rub over the backside of the image in small sections, about 2"x2".
• Use end of brush or spoon and burnish back until it transfers onto tissue. Repeat small areas this way until you get the whole image transferred.

Dying Tissue Paper
(by Artist Vae Hamilton)

• Lay down plastic sheeting (available in the paint section at WalMart or Lowes)
• Put White Tissue Paper down about 1" apart
• Lightly Spray with water to keep in place
• Mix about 2 TBLS liquid acrylic paint or 1 TBLS acrylic ink with about 6 oz water (stir well)
• Pour onto paper, spray, overlap with other colors, swirl, etc
• This should dry over night
• When lifting off the next day, peel one corner and slide your hand underneath to release it
  
• If the tissue turned out too light, pour more paint over it - you can put as many layers of paint as you like
  
  

Acrylic Medium is used to mix with paint, to adhere transparencies, fabric, paper, etc

• Liquitex and Golden make this. I mix 4 oz of Acrylic Matte Medium with 4 oz of Acrylic Polymer (Gloss) Medium. Vary this to get the mix you like best. If you want a shinier surface, you can use all Gloss or 6 oz Gloss, 2 oz Matte.
  
• To adhere a transparency, paint the back of it with Acrylic Medium, put it on the painting and smooth it out. When it dries, you can put straight Matte Medium on top to dull the shine.
• To put tissue paper on a painting: Use a small or round paintbrush, dip it in water, use the paintbrush to draw the shape you need of the tissue. Tear along edges and it should come apart easily right where you want it to. Take Acrylic Medium and paint on the area of canvas that you want the tissue paper, lay the tissue paper down, and paint a layer of Medium on top of it. Smooth out air bubbles.
• Mix your liquid acrylic paint with water only if you want a wash like water colors. If you want to keep the paint fairly transparent in order to put more layers over it, mix the paint with Acrylic Medium (example 1 TBSP Paint, ½ to 1 TBSP Medium). Find the mix that you prefer. If after a couple layers you want dark paint, use without Medium.

Painting
When beginning a painting, you can either start with paint or with your tissue and transparencies. I prefer to put some paint down on the canvas first in some areas. You do not have to cover the whole canvas. You might want to leave some areas white for tissue or transparencies. Try to be loose at the beginning like finger-painting. After a couple layers of paint, let the painting dry, then cover with one layer of plain Medium. Let that dry. Then put on more paint or transparencies or tissue, etc..

If you are using a stretched canvas (on a frame) then you can sew things right onto the canvas.

Another benefit of canvas is that it does not warp.

Other Textures

Use textured wall-paper - Put some paint on a flat plastic surface, press wall paper into paint, put face down on your painting and rub over the back. Use also bubble-wrap, corrugated cardboard, and pretty much anything you see that has texture to it.

Salt / Alcohol - While the paint is still wet, if you want to make an interesting area, spray a little rubbing alcohol or water onto an area and sprinkle with salt, margarita salt works well as does table salt. Let this dry and rinse salt off in sink.

Toilet Paper - While an area of paint is wet, roll T.P. across the surface to get an interesting texture

Saran Wrap - Again, while the paint is wet, lay a piece of saran wrap on the paint and let dry for a while. When you peel it away, you will have great shapes to work from and some of the paint underneath will come through. Or, you can put a new layer of paint and put the saran on that.

A good Magazine for learning new Mix Media Techniques is called Cloth, Paper, Scissors

A Book about becoming Free in life and in art is Life, Paint, and Passion by Cassou / Cubley

I think it is best to work on 2 to 3 paintings at a time, spending about 30 minutes on each one. After 30 minutes or so, set that painting aside to dry and get some distance from it. Keep rotating. It also helps to set the painting upright and get some distance from it physically, like stand back several feet or look at it across the room. If you get stuck, put it away until another day. Don't throw away any paintings. If you absolutely cannot fix it, you can use white Gesso and paint over some or all of it. This gives you a regular canvas surface with interesting textures underneath when you go to re-paint. Live with a painting for a while before deciding to do this. Show it to someone else. Sometimes it helps to have another person look, whether they seem Artistic or not, because they might see an obvious way to help. Ask children especially. They will be honest and are usually pretty free.

When you are stepping back from a painting to look at it, squint your eyes real tight so that you see just light and dark areas. This will help you to decide if your painting is overall dark or light. You want a combination of light and dark.

If you are having trouble pulling a painting together at the end, you can mix a little bit of off- white paint with a lot of Medium and spread that over the whole surface. This will push back the colors a little. You can also use Quinac. Gold to do this and get a warmer affect.

Mostly you just want to have fun. Make sure to start some paintings with no theme or idea, just colors and shapes and textures. A good way to loosen up at the beginning of an Art time is finger painting or tissue dying. Or just choose one canvas that you can be free on and not worry about turning out a certain way. Keep it loose.......