Mixed Media – A combination of two or more media in an illustration.

My House is Singing: proof-sheet

My House is Singing: Cover; Margaret Chodos-Irvine, illustrator, Betsy R. Rosenthal, author; Harcourt 2004

Margaret Chodos-Irvine: My House is Singing

To create her illustrations, Margaret Chodos-Irvine transferred color from one surface to another, building the images up gradually from flat layers of color. For her linoleum block prints (linocuts), she cut the image into sheets of battleship linoleum, rolled ink onto the surface, and printed the image onto paper using an etching press.

Images with multiple colors use multiple blocks, each printed with a separate run through the press. Her mixed media relief prints evolved from a desire to maximize color, texture and shape. These methods include a nontraditional combination of printmaking techniques.

A wide variety of materials are used to create layers of color and pattern and, similar to linocut, each block is printed by rolling ink onto its surface, then the ink is transferred onto paper using a press. Anything she could ink up and run through her press became a likely candidate for an element in one of her prints. Some of her mixed media prints also involved other printmaking techniques, such as Chine-collé, collography, and monotyping. She always looked for new things to experiment with in her printing.