Collage, Colour and Texture in Painting: Mixed media techniques for artists

by Mike Bernard, Robin Capon

In this ground-breaking art book, leading artist Mike Bernard reveals every aspect of working with collage, paint and other mixed-media approaches. Everything from the initial inspiration for a painting through to design, colour, surface qualities and finishing touches is covered. With detailed information and advice on collage techniques, the book demonstrates how you can develop original results by starting with paper collage and then working freely with paint and other materials.

The book includes numerous illustrations covering every step of the working process, as well as a wide selection of subject matter, location sketches, watercolour studies and striking finished paintings. Mike Bernard's work is known for exciting textures, strong colour and the effects of light; all combined into original semi-abstract images of landscapes, still life and figure compositions. His techniques, particularly paper collage, are important ones for all artists looking to expand their repertoire.

Genres: Art

140 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 12, 2016

Reviews

[Sue Habib · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this artist's work. But the book was written for someone above my skill level.

[GJF · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful if you know what you're looking at

Although Mike Bernard is certainly a talented commercial artist, you won’t learn much from this book without a trained eye that can immediately identify tissue paper, oil pastel marks, and other media. In this respect, Soraya French's Expressive Painting in Mixed Media is much more informative. Bernard uses a brayer, but he only briefly toward the end of the book discusses how to use it. For a clearer discussion of how to use tools and media to get the desired effect, look at Dawn Emerson's Pastel Innovations, a multimedia guide that covers much more than the title suggests. Bernard's forte is his skilled use of acrylic ink (washes, glazes, mark making) and his ability to use abstraction to enliven a landscape. Compare his paintings with photos of the site. Very instructive. That said, much of his work is eye candy that fails to capture the feel of a site. But eye candy sells. Buy the Kindle version so you can enlarge the pictures. The text purports to explain his method but is vague and repetitive. He thinks in terms of simple flat shapes (rectangles, trapezoids, triangles). Most of his collage materials are easily available. Many of his compositions consist of a sky plunging down into a scene and water or a path thrusting up to almost meet it. He uses frontal views whenever possible and clearly has no use for mathematical perspective. The magic--and the challenge--is in the mark making, which is impressive and difficult to duplicate. If your chops are limited in this regard, take a look at Claudia Nice's Creative Textures and Alphonso Dunn's Pen and Ink Drawing.

[Linda Price-Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant, just what I needed for some inspiration. With the added bonus that some of his compositions are based on local scenes familiar to me. He offers some great advice such as trying to balance freedom with control; no planning at all can result in a happy mess and over-planning can see the joy of the work evaporate. Highly recommended.