Mixed Media Magazine Faces

The children have been working on these amazing mixed media portraits for a few days. It's a really easy process that gives fantastic results. You'll need large pictures of faces from a magazine, watercolour paper or card, gesso or white acrylic, stamps and ink pads, coloured acrylics, tissue paper, and gel medium or PVA glue. A white and black marker or paint pen are useful too.

First we stuck our magazine picture down on some watercolour paper. We left enough room around the face to extend the hair (you might want to add a hat or a crown too).

Next we painted right over the magazine with watered down gesso so the picture could still be seen through it.

Next we drew on facial features with a pencil, don't forget to continue right off the magazine piece.

We then painted the background and stamped over it.

Next we glued on pieces of tissue paper with gel medium; we made sure to scrunch it up as we went to give the hair some texture. We also added some book pages to light areas of the face.

Once all that was dry we started on painting the face. We used a ready mixed skin colour as a base and added white to make a lighter shade and brown to make a darker one.

We used the magazine picture for guidance to place the three skin tones. We gave the hair a base colour too. 

Once that was done we painted on strands of darker hair and added highlights using a dry brush technique. We used a Posca paint pen for the whites of the eyes and a Sharpie marker for the pupils (if you have a steady hand just use a brush). We redrew in any details that had been lost with a pencil.

Here are the finished pictures:

By L age 4.5

By R age 6.5

By Mum