As mentioned in my last post, I've been enjoying making small collages in my small journal. Limited parameters ...rules as it were... help my brain SO. MUCH. during my creative process, be it subject matter, materials, colour palette, series of 3 or 5 or 7, I pretty much always limit my options in some way. Here's what I've come up with in the last bit for these small collages:
Mini Collage Recipe
- Pick TWO colours. Complementary or harmonious (analogous or monochrome). Doesn't matter. But just two. Sometimes black is one of those colours (aka not a colour)
- Make some brush strokes. You can follow a specific design composition (cruciform, diagonal, unbalanced etc) or just let the paint lead you. Big swathes or tiny splotches.
- While those are drying, choose a dozen, preferably less, pieces of collage in a similar palette. These can be anything from torn bits from other collages, magazine imagery, your own painted collage papers. I like to add in some tissue paper for their transparency options. But whatever feels right. Don't over think it!
- Once your paint is dry, arrange some collage pieces however they feel to you at the moment. Sometimes, I try and be really minimal leaving lots of white space. Other times I cover the entire piece of paper. I try to get a pleasing arrangement but I still really try not to over work/think. These are meant to be fairly quick. Minutes vs hours. Glue down your final arrangement.
- Grab a black marker, paint pen, Stabilo or graphite pencil, oil pastel and make some marks.
That's it!
Have fun and I'd love to see what you come up with. Tag me @jenwordenmakerofthings on instagram!
