Create Better Mixed Media Drawings Using Mistakes

Your mixed media drawings will easily accommodate flaws.  Any drawing actually.

Well I’ve been daydreaming about having a successful blog, working with no commute and being portable enough to work from anywhere.  I am daydreaming of traveling to famous places and drawing on site, having several streams of income, of a tree house with a bedroom and a skylight.  What is your daydream?

Edit: 5/10/23

Here we are 7 years later and I am still tinkering on this blog.  In the sense that it hasn’t died, it is successful.  I am indeed working with no commute and portable enough to work from anywhere.  Several streams of income is on the horizon and my testimony is that calling those things that be not as though they were absolutely works.  I am the proof.

“God speaks His intention, but it has to be mixed with faith.  You have to call those things that be not as though they were.  The Spirit is always going to be talking you up.  Always going to be telling things through you and to you that are beyond your ability.  If I pray over you, I am going to prophesy that you are healed.  I am going to prophesy that you’re out of debt.  Of course I am going to say that because it was never God’s will for you to be in debt.  God is a good God and He has plans, strategies and purposes for you.  But it has to do with you agreeing with Him.  The only way to do that is to be ignited from within and have the Spirit upon and speak.  So.  While you still have breath, I would go ahead and prophesy!” -Kevin Zadai

Edit: 1/25/25 

Ten years later and we’re STILL blogging!  Although my progress is still slow, I am grateful for any progress.

These two sketchbook pages are mixed media drawings.  Both are doodles that developed.  Each drawing includes mistakes in them that were ignored until the drawing became something that I liked.  Afterwards, the mistakes are easy to ignore.

Mistakes can add Expressive Depth to Your Drawings

The imperfections are the proof that a person was involved in the making of it.  It is a beautiful addition to anything hand made.  Of course skill is important and even while expertise is critical, tiny flaws are appreciated.  Even where mastery is impeccable, one or two small defects show evidence that the item is created by human hands.

Intentional Marks and Smudges Can Give Your Art Depth.

Incorporate accidental marks and smudges into your artwork intentionally by creating backgrounds in advance.  Skip ahead a few pages (or 50) and make marks and smudges to a page that isn’t trying to be anything yet.  You could use patterns or letters.  Maybe that page could be used to clean or swatch some pens.  Use a batch of watercolor to make splatters or anything that you can draw over later.  Then later, draw right on top of your smudges as if they are not there.

Learn to use all the marks even those that do not please you, because it will happen each time.  Just go with it.  Leave it there or find a way to send it to the background or cover it, or use it to go in a different direction.

Imperfections are Charming Especially in Mixed Media Art

The errors are clues that a person created it; and that fact makes it even more lovely.  There is unique beauty in drawings that have a mark of humanity.  The art created by the robots is excellent but sterile.

The Importance of Playfulness and Spontaneity in the Creative Process

The sketchbook playground is definitely an idea that frees you to just enjoy yourself.  If you are upset when unexpected things happen in your drawing, then you cannot enjoy yourself.  When you are enjoying yourself, you are learning the most completely and fully.  Use your sketchbook to collect mistakes and discover what colors and marks go well together.  Most of all, don’t forget to have fun.

Conclusion:

We learned that mixed media drawings are special because they celebrate imperfections. When you use unfamiliar materials and techniques, sometimes surprises happen.  Those unexpected drips, smudges, and accidental marks make the art even more interesting and beautiful.  If you want to learn more about mixed media art, collages, ink and colored pencil drawings, sign up for the newsletter.  You’ll get tips to make your own art, and previews of the newest art first.

Supplies Used to Make These Drawings:

The artwork in this post was made with watercolor, ink, markers, digital stickers, and God given gifts of seeing things that others don’t.

• A gift of an intense love of colors, combinations of colors, and patterns.
• A gift of hypersensitivity to sounds, textures, and light levels.
• A gift of seeing clearly slight differences in color and tone and also feeling vibrations and tones in others.