Most of Russ Ball’s drawings, though done on paper, are rendered in “mixed media.” By mixed media he combines ink, graphite, colored pencil, watercolor, acrylic, bleach and oil pastel to get the desired effect. Ball also includes different hand made papers, fabrics and sometimes pressed flowers and leaves; all of which make it difficult to define the media used by any other term than mixed. Russ Ball defines these paper pieces as drawings, though they often use paint, as opposed to his paintings which are done in acrylic or oil on panels or canvas.

“Paper seems to offer a more “graphic” quality to the image than work done on canvas or panel. Colored “handmade” papers can be drawn into with bleach and have qualities inherent in themselves that add texture and richness to the drawing far beyond the rendered image.”