Collage is Calling

I’ve been interested in collage for a few years now. So I tried it out 2 or 3 years ago and absolutely hated the process. I set it aside and went back to painting. But it is still calling to me. My color study of my Grandpa Memmott taking a bath with his tie still on, includes collage elements.

I was listening to The Practice by Seth Godin and he talks about being brave and being of service. I’ve listened to his book several times. The last time around, I realized that I wasn’t doing collage because it wasn’t perfect the first time I tried it. I thought, maybe the brave thing to do is to dig deep and stop listening to the perfectionist art professor in my head that didn’t let me into my second year of design school. Instead I decided to listen to Ms Frissel from the Magic School Bus and go ahead and make mistakes and get dirty and experiment cuz no one can withhold learning from you because they didn’t like your art. oh, wow, I didn’t realize that I would hit a nerve…

This week, I was suppose to be editing my picture book Paige and Webb so I could send it out to Beta Readers and start writing a query for the three publishing houses I think it is a fit for. But I had this urge to pull out my painted paper and recklessly cut and glue paper for one of the pictures in the book. So I did:

I enjoyed the process. I think it was because I started with the premise that I was just going to play with the papers and it was fine if I made mistakes. When I made a mistake, instead of throwing it out or trying to fix it, or beating myself up over the mistake, I told myself I was learning and it was going to be ok.

Here are some things I learned from making mistakes.

A light table is really helpful to cut shapes from your original drawing.

Next time, print a mirror image of your drawing so you can draw on the backside of the painted paper. (Or I guess I could flip the drawing over on my light table as well.

When you are using yellow, don’t start with the lightest color. If you want to come forward, you’ll need something lighter so it will bring the shape forward.

You can see through rice paper, but you need a light table to see through copy paper.

When you run out of time, collect the collage papers you have been using and paper clip them together in your sketchbook so when you have time again, it is all together right there.

I’ve been listening to Learn How to Paint Podcast and she has had a couple of collage artist on. Here are some things that I want to try in the future:

Keep a limited palette. Use only a few colors as you paint your papers so they will all be harmonious together. One artist uses just one palette for all his work. That way any paper he creates can be used for any painting.

When you start a piece or a series of pieces, choose out your colors by collecting your favorite papers. Only pick out your favorite papers for the project. She said when she starts a series, she touches every paper she has and either chooses it or puts it back before she starts working on the artwork. Then when she is in the artwork, her choices are limited and she has less decisions to make.

Keep a timer. Only allow yourself a 45 min window to complete the initial lay in of papers. Choose. Use. keep going. Then slow down and you start to put in the finishing touches.

I’ve been looking at the color study I did for my Grandpa Memmott’s Saints and Angels painting for months now.

I even did a lot of the painting. And today I took the next step: printing off the papers I would need to use to collage the back. I printed off an old map of Austin TX, as well as a photograph of a calendar from 1918, a painting that my favorite artist did in TX in 1917, and a page from the 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon. I taped them onto the painting and I love them. I still have some other elements to create or find, but I’m thinking this half painting, half collage style is where I want to go next.

Collage is calling me. I even have some plans for my next Saints and Angels painting that has my mom eating tomatoes with a salt shaker sitting in the middle of the tomato patch. My cousin sent me pictures of the mountains surrounding my mother’s childhood home for reference, but maybe I’ll use them as collage elements.