i got a tip from my friend daniela recently that changed the way i look at collage art. start with a grid. that's the tip, it's that simple and it has totally opened a door for me. collage is an interesting style of art—most of what i see (and really like) is these seemingly random or unusual combinations of shapes, torn paper, fabric scraps, images, fibers, type, ephemera...yet it all gels perfectly. i have tried and have not been able to achieve a result that i like.then i drew a grid with a trusty #2 pencil and suddenly collage felt more accessible to me!
start with whatever size paper or fabric or wood you want for your foundation. begin the grid by drawing a large shape for your focal point of the collage. i like my focal point to be slightly off-center. then keep splitting the remaining areas around the focal point into small and medium shapes until you have a grid you like. it's easiest to work with squares and rectangles when drawing your grid. you can always add layers once you start collaging to blend the shapes together differently or add more organic curves.
this collage is about 5"x8"—i started by cutting up a couple pages from thea schrack's san francisco postcard book. i arranged bits of scrapbook and collage papers in the same colors and trimmed them to fit the grid. i distressed the edges a little with ink, accented the central image with gold leaf pen, and coated the collage with heavy gel medium.
here are just some of my favorite collage artists who work with paper and other mediums too...they have visions that i wish i had!
• lorraine
• marie
• nordseetine
• gayle
• kelly
• bockel
• kersten
• sharon
• kris
and last, but never least! these great posts were submitted to me for this issue...
• francine has a terrific tutorial for making store-bought cards way more special.
• folkheart press shares a touching article about family kite-flying...and here is a link to instructions on how to make a mini-kite from 8.5x11 paper.
• on marco's blog, he took a break from tech talk and gathered some great info on origami - some amazing construction from a single sheet of paper—there's also a download of an origami rose that is do-able, i think!
thanks for clickin' away with me! until next time....keep it simple!