Shards of Obsidian

Mixed Media Collage

1. Paint randomly on a sheet of paper as shown on right.   Old paintings on paper can also be used.

2. Tear up the paper into pieces of any size and shape.

3. "Glue" pieces onto painting surface using acrylic medium and allow to dry.  More medium can be applied to "fix" painted pieces.  The brightly colored areas in Shards of Obsidian are the torn paper pieces set in the textured blue background.

4. Paint around the collaged pieces.  Gesso and other texturing mediums can be used to surround the pieces with texture as in examples  below.   This creates a nice contrast of smooth and textured surfaces on the painting. 

5. Semi dry gesso can be smeared with the back of a palette knife to create a rough surface as seen in examples 1 & 3.;  or drawn into with anything that will create lines as in example 2.   The tip of a paint brush (non bristle end)  works well for this,