“When in Doubt” Mixed Media Art Tutorial

And we’ve made it to the last day of our Harry Potter inspired art projects!!! In this lesson, we’re going to create a mixed media, “When in Doubt, Go to the Library.”

You will need:

8×10 canvas or canvas panel
Acrylic paints in the colors of your choice
Construction paper in the colors of your choice
Mod Podge
Paint brushes and/or sponge brush
Scissors
Pencil
Black Micron artist pen or extra-fine Sharpie (black)
Sharpie Marker (white, water-based)
When In Doubt PDF

Step 1: Paint the background of your canvas in the color of your choice, then allow it to dry.

Step 2: Print out the PDF template for the stack of books and cut the different book shapes out. Since each book will have a different color, you’ll want to trace each book spine on a different piece of construction paper like this:

Step 3: Arrange the book cutouts at the center of your canvas, then glue them to your canvas with Mod Podge. Allow to dry.

Step 4: When canvas is completely dry, go ahead and outline the books with a black pen or marker so that each book stands out from the other!

Step 5: Draw and paint some details onto your books! I went ahead and painted the book pages, and if you’ll notice, I added a light coat of paint over one of the books so that it was the same color as my background. I’ll show you why in just a minute. 😉

Step 6: Write in the titles for your books! You could pretty much write the titles of any books you want, but I chose some books straight out of the list of Hogwarts Magic Textbooks: A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot, Hogwarts, A History, The Invisible Book of Invisibility, (now you can see why I painted over it. 😉 ), and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander.

Step 7: Print out the quote, “When in doubt, go to the library” (you can type it into a Word document and print it out from there) and Mod Podge it around your book stack. Lastly, outline each of the words in black pen or marker so that they pop!

There you have it! I don’t know about you, but now I want to go to the library and check out a new book!

And that’s it for our 5-Day Harry Potter art challenge! I hope you all have had fun with these lessons–I know I certainly had fun making them!

P.S. I’d love to see your completed pieces! Follow the Masterpiece Society on Instagram and when you post your pic, tag me so I can repost it! Don’t forget to use the hashtag #masterpiecesociety.