Finishing Up

How and what I use 

to finish up my Mixed Media pieces

A little action shot as I was finishing up a piece yesterday with my mentor group

got me thinking about sharing a few of my favorite finishing tips.

My favorite "go to" tool is my Stabillo water soluble black pencil.  It marks on almost any surface, you can erase it with a damp cloth and you can sharpen it to a very pointy tip for detail work.  It only comes in a few colors...black, orange, brown, white and my most used black which I buy in the 12 pack I use them so much.  These pencils also allow you to draw a varied thick and thin line as well as adding water to portions of it to get a water color effect or erase part of the line altogether.

All the detail lines in these piece are with a Stabillo pencil...they smudge really beautifully.

Next on the hit list are Stabillo Woody's.  They are fat, easy grip, multi media, water color pencils that come in 18 colors.  They work in the same way as the Stabillo pencil above only thicker and more colors.  The set also comes with a sharpener and a brush to add water to your marks.  You can have so much fun marking with this pencil...the question will be when to stop!

Another great marking tool to add as a finishing touch are my favorite Gallery soft oil pastels.  I have several sets of oil pastels, though this is the set I most often go to as it has a great color selection and several really bright colors that I can't get by without.  

Since oil pastels are made with non-drying oils they will never dry like paint will. This means they are vulnerable to being smudged as well as collecting dust. To remedy this you can spray a few coats of something like Sennelier Oil Pastel Fixative to protect your art from dust and smudges.

Just about any tool with a point or sharp edge from the kitchen drawer or workshop peg board can work for scratching in on a painting.  I have a set of nail punch tools in my paint bag to have handy when I want to scratch into my paint.  The list is endless here of what you can use...this is where I started.

Even though I'm not a glittery, flashy artist...I do find I like a little bling every now and again and its the perfect thing for finishing off a piece...gold leaf.  Used in moderation it can be the perfect ending.  You may want to start off with a kit that includes the gold leaf, adhesive and top coat and make sure you have a soft makeup brush for smoothing it down.  Its pretty easy to work with, though can be a bit delicate and fly away...you will love the finished results.

In the series below I used 3 of the finishing tools I've mentioned here...

can you see what they are?

  

One last finishing tip I have for you is paint...drips.  It is so much fun you will have to make yourself stop and not get carried away.  Of course this is not only for finishing a piece...you can drip and cover up all the way through a piece...but it really does work well to add drips to finish things up.

This is the perfect finishing blog to finish up the week and get me moving on finishing up a few pieces I've been working on..  

There are many more tools that can be used in mixed media and abstract art 

to finish up your work...these are just a few of my favorites...

and I'm always exploring for more. 

I hope this gives you a few ideas for your own work...

have fun with it!