Giving it another Go

My PC and my camera are now back on speaking terms so here's the new collage in it's entirety.  This one is my favorite so far.

Still on the Spring Theme

Spring continues to be my inspiration. The temps have finally begun to climb in northern Michigan. Today and yesterday we've seen 70°F and my windows have been open to let the breeze in through the window screens. Little green sprouts are appearing from the moist earth and my weeping cherry tree is budding. We're all praying to God we don't have a freeze and ruin everything.

I'm having issues with my PC and it's not recognizing my camera at the moment so I tried to scan this latest collage. Of course it was a little too large to completely fit on the scanner bed so this is the best I could do. You should still get the general idea. I've used homemade crystalline paper, painted brown wrapping paper, purchased papers, charcoal and this strange heavy duty paper I picked up somewhere. I can't for the life of me remember where, though. It's like really heavy interfacing. I've had to dye it, that is soak it in a colored solution overnite but I love the texture it adds. I've also added gestural marks with a water soluble crayon this time. The piece just called for it.

Birthing an Abstract Collage

I'm not quite ready to deliver yet but it won't be much longer. This is basically my process...try this one, try that one...no try another NO! NOT THAT! Ah, that works better. Yes, yes...okay.

There is method to my craziness. The rules of composition still apply and thankfully can guide me until I feel more confident to try something more daring. Know the rules before you break the rules. I love a good mix of texture, form and color and one of the things I'm enjoying most working on these collages is how easy it is to experiment with color, always something I can improve upon.

A Walk in the Wood ~ Springtime

homemade and purchased collage papers, charcoal, cut photographs

I just called this one done one last night and wanted to share. I can't seem to get my mind out of the woods. I can't walk in the wood IRL anymore but I can go in my mind's eye. I spent many hours growing up playing there. I especially loved it down by the creek. So many cool bugs and neat toadstools and the various types of moss that reminded me of tiny little forests of their own. One would expect fairies to come flying out at any moment.

This particular collage celebrates the time of year when the redwing black birds return. Also morel mushrooms and the wild leeks appear, always a welcome time. Just bring a good steak, some bleu cheese dressing and your fork and let the feast begin!

p.s. See if you can spot the morel mushrooms. As always they can be hard to find.

Distressed Leather Paper ~ demo

I've crumpled the wrapping paper and am preparing to apply two coats of walnut ink. I'm assuming any brown ink will work as well. Apply your ink to only one side. This is important.

Here the paper has dried after both coats of ink. IRL this side looks more flat brown than it appears in this image.

This is the flip side and the side you want to use. It looks a little batik-y.

This is the appearance after a coat of acrylic medium is applied. I've taken a crop off an earlier collage to show you the effect.

I was going to combine this demo with my last post but thought better of it. I dislike (usually) overly long blog posts and am guessing I may not be alone in this particular dislike.

Always on a quest for interesting and/or unique collage papers I'm finding brown wrapping paper excellent for various treatments. I've put together a short photo demo of my take on 'faux' distressed leather.

Crocus Collage

I just put the finishing touches on my latest collage and managed to take some decent photos even though it's so gloomy here. This one was an experiment. I got an idea in my head and decided to give it a whirl. I wanted the crocus to look delicate so I made some crystalline paper without color. This time I coated both sides of the tissue paper with gloss medium and it made it much sturdier. When the paper was completely dry I used a couple of stencils to add the poke-a-dots. I had started out by rolling on black acrylic paint over the entire surface of my paper aka substrate. Then I created my background with torn paper collage. For the blooms I painted each petal with white acrylic paint and gave them all a coat of gloss medium so I could add color with alcohol ink. I wanted the color layer underneath the surface. The crystalline paper was added after color was applied petal by petal and when that was dry I used sepia fluid acrylic to outline everything. I will say it looks great at a distance but appears kind of dirty up close due to the addition of the sepia acrylic. I do love the outlined look, though.