Mixing Your Media by Enhancing Digital Prints

December 14, 2018

Many artists including Wanda Lock and Deborah Bakos experiment with mixed media, using digital prints as the foundation to create some of their art pieces. Discover easy ways you can incorporate digital prints into your own mixed media experiments.

If you missed the article Mastering Mixed Media: Four Artists’ Thoughts on Experimentation be sure to have a look – you’ll find lots of inspiration to try mixing it up for yourself!


wandalockart.com Instagram @wanda_lock	deborahbakos.com Instagram @deborah_bakos_art

Try enhancing digital prints for yourself!

Both Wanda and Deborah use digital prints in their mixed media works, modifying their prints with a wide variety of paints, mediums, drawing materials, and finishes. There are countless ways of that you can apply this in your own art practice. Here’s a quick look at what you could try:

Deborah Bakos

From the Ground Up

Transform your digital prints with mediums to add textures and effects, or use them as a ground to draw, paint, sculpt, or letter on top of the print. With mediums, you can make a print look like an impasto painting, or make it glow in the dark; or you can build up your painting with additional marks to transform the piece even further.

Chop & Reassemble!

Take the parts of your print that you like the most, and recreate it into something else. Find a fun new surface, and mix and match your pieces to achieve a different meaning in the work. Since the opportunities for play are limitless, you can combine different images, materials, and more to arrive at a whole new look.

Wanda Lock

Practice, Practice, Practice!

Not sure what to do with your piece? No problem! Digital printing offers you the ability to create alternative artworks using the same image as a starting point. Now you have endless opportunities to find the perfect look, or even create a series inspired by one image.

Source Your Surface

Whatever your medium, you better believe there’s a surface for that! Print your pieces on canvas, etching paper, watercolour paper, or gorgeous metallic reflective paper. The choice is yours! Pro tip: order your print on unfinished canvas if you’re looking to go beyond the jpeg with acrylic or oil.

Search Within and Without

As we learned from our four interviewees, experimentation is about being loose, having fun, and exploring the depths of your own artistic practice. Take inspiration from artists who’ve walked the path before you, and then print, cut, tear, splatter, paint, sculpt your way to a piece that resonates with you.

Check out these resources for more mixed media & beyond the jpeg learning.