Customer Reviews

Nature Inspired: Mixed-Media Techniques for Gathering, Sketching, Painting, Journaling, and Assemblage

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have a lot of mixed media books in my collection, but this book stands out because of its strong focus and concentration on nature and botanicals. The artist present various gathering and printing methods for collecting images and elements from the outdoors. She also provided cleaning and preserving methods especially for the bird nests and seashells. Excellent tips for taking nature photographs were also given.

Using the photographs as reference guides, the author presented step-by-step instructions for sketching, rendering and illustrating wildlife. She also presented in the book are various techniques for creating natural backgrounds on paper, canvas, muslin or any kind of non-transparent substrate.

With the prepared natural elements, painted images, some embellishments and several pieces of fabric or trimmings, she showed how they could be put together in a specific project such as a beautiful keepsake, a visual journal, a pendant or an assemblage.

At the end of the book is a gallery of her artwork that I find to be nicely done with the techniques shown in the previous chapters. Even though her style is different from mine, there are several ideas and techniques that I can adapt to suit my own style/design preferences. But the bottom line is that this book is well written, and the directions are clear enough for any nature lover who wants to create natural artwork.

Tracie's book is not only lovely to look at, full of beautiful photographs and gorgeous art projects, it really is inspiring. She shows many techniques and ideas, but the overall theme, to me anyway, is to appreciate the simple found objects in nature, and incorporate them into your artwork. She shows painting techiques, discusses photography, give you gathering ideas, bookmaking, even a pin cushion, all with the very strong theme of nature. Birds, butterflies, leaves and nests, how can you go wrong with those as subjects for your artwork. Read the book, then take a walk and come home to your studio and create! That's what I did.

Tracie has created a beautiful and inspiring book perfect for the artist who is ready to embrace nature as a muse! It is full of easy to follow directions for finding inspiration, a variety of techniques and methods that range from collecting and gathering objects to photography to drawing from nature. A must have for mixed media artists!!

My girls and have been play with how to express ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, our writing through different art mediums. I was drawn to this book because Tracie combines using nature (which is all around us and is free!!) with creative techniques such as painting, photography, distressing and journal. But the one idea we were really drawn to is painting on fabric. I pulled out some leftover vintage dishtowel fabric, it is slightly heavy and I like that. Using Tracie's technique we sketched an outline of a bird and then filled in with paint, layer by layer, slowly adding more and more detail. It was soooo easy and fun to paint on the fabric. I think Nature Inspired will help you find new ways to journal. I see a lot of potential for lots of ideas. I think next we will try making one of Tracie's necklaces from a painted fabric bird. Thank you Tracie xoxox Clarice @ [...]

As a beginning mixed media artist I found the well illustrated and photographed steps easy to follow and Tracie's fresh ideas very inspiring. Nature is all around us and Tracie shows us how to incorporate that beauty in permanent mixed media art pieces. Thank you Tracie for making it so easy!

This is a very well written and illustrative book to use for inspiration and reference when creating works of art from Nature keepsakes and pictures of special moments.

Love this book!!!

The book by Tracie is absolutely wonderful! The techniques and projects are well photographed and the directions are easy to understand. Tracie explains and shows this perfectly on each and every page. This is a fantastic book and one that I will use over and over again.

Tracie is so very talented as an artist and it really shines through in this beautiful book-there are so many tempting projects and the pictures are lovely. The layout of this book is really worth noting-its airy and clean. It really makes you want to sit down and create right this minute! If you love nature and birds and flowers and creative projects you must get this book!

If you love nature and want to incorporate it into your art, but don't know how, this book is a good way to start. It's not necessarily a book for beginners, but more for people who are already a little into mixed media and want to add the natural aspect to their work. I think at some points the book expects you to have a certain experience into working with art materials.

Huskamp gives good information on gathering natural elements and preserving them, but also on using photographs and drawings or turning photographs into drawings. She shows some fun and interesting techniques and the projects shown vary from single page pieces to journals to assemblage. She uses a lot of fabric in her work too. This is very much a Huskamp book, in that you have to like her work to like this book, or you should not get it. Some books show the works of other artists too, but this is not one of those.

The book is definitely worth while for nature loving artists and it's full of Huskamps beautiful art work, includig a gallery at the end. It's not the best mixed media book out there, but much better than some. This is not a book for those who want a general look into art making or mixed media, but I suppose the title already discloses that.

A nice book to add to your collection, but not an essential one. I liked it though.

Great book for inspiration and for learning. The book was just as described, slightly used but in great shape. Shipping was fast. I look forward to making some of the items in this book. I think the book is good for both beginners and seasoned crafters.