What Is Mixed Media?
A Playground for the Wild-Hearted Creative
Mixed media is the art of layering materials, techniques, and ideas, melding different forms into one expressive whole. It invites experimentation, breaks rules, and rewards those brave enough to follow their creative instincts.
Imagine: paint dripped over vintage paper, thread sewn through watercolor, a photograph scarred with charcoal lines. Mixed media doesn’t just blur boundaries, it erases them entirely.
It’s not about mastering one tool. It’s about becoming fluent in a visual language of contrasts: soft and sharp, found and handmade, raw and refined.
Common Mixed Media Techniques
(And What They Invite You to Explore)
Assemblage
A sculptural form of collage, using three-dimensional objects, wires, keys, toy parts, wood scraps, and bones.
Invites you to play with shadow, shape, and meaning through found materials.
Altered Books
Transforming old books into new artworks through cutting, painting, sewing, burning, or folding.
Perfect for storytelling, emotional release, and reclaiming forgotten voices.
Collage
From the French coller (“to glue”), collage involves layering paper, photos, fabric, and text into one image.
Embraces symbolism, memory, and the rhythm of arrangement.
Image Transfers
Lifting ink from a printed image using gel medium or solvent to embed it onto another surface.
Creates ghostly, fragmented images, ideal for dreamscapes and conceptual work.
Subtractive Techniques
Scratch, carve, sand, or burn into dried paint, paper, or clay.
Useful for expressing emotion, memory, and tension, what’s revealed beneath the surface.
Stitching or Thread Work
Adding embroidery, string, or sewn collage into your visual piece.
Weaves themes of repair, fragility, and the handmade into your journal pages.
Resist Techniques
Using wax, tape, or masking fluid to block certain areas from paint.
Teaches patience and planning while creating powerful visual contrasts.
What Counts as a Medium?
A medium is any material used to make art. When you use more than one, you're working in mixed media.
Here are just a few materials you might combine:
Acrylic, watercolor, ink, and gouache
Pencil, charcoal, pastel
Fabric, thread, lace
Vintage book pages, music sheets, receipts
Metal, clay, wire
Stamps, stencils, stickers
Natural materials, eaves, bark, bones, beeswax
The possibilities are endless and deeply personal.
Why Mixed Media Matters
Mixed media is not about perfection. It's about showing up.
For the story you haven’t told yet
For the part of you that doesn’t fit neatly into one category
For the wild, brave, curious self that needs space to speak
It’s about freedom. About trusting the process more than the outcome.
And when done with intention, it can become a sacred practice, a dialogue between your inner world and the outer one.