Collaging is a fun art activity for all ages. It's easy to do from home with limited resources.
One of our teachers, Katana Lippart, has written a how-to for collage and some extra tips to keep in mind. Why don't you try your hand at this activity today?
1. When beginning to create a collage series, I would suggest to pull out all of your
materials in the beginning. For this example, I chose to work with vintage photographs;
found graph paper sheets; scrap papers (yellow, black, tan); images/ text from books; and cataloging cards. This helps for you, as the artist, to visualize how the series will progress over time without losing sight of your vision for the project or running out of
materials prematurely.
I custom created the folio (bottom right of photograph) for this collage series, but if you are interested in binding the loose sheets, stay tuned for binding tutorials on FBAC’s blog. I also pulled out my glue, pencil, x-acto knife, scissors, sharpie, bonefolder, and masking tape. Never feel like you * have to use everything that you have set out, but always set up your workstation to create the best flow during your artistic process!
2. Now that you’ve set up your workstation, begin by grabbing your first base sheet (this is what you will glue down your pieces to). After that, I go through the central imagery
material that I have first: the vintage photographs. Knowing that I want for these to be
the focus in each of the collage compositions, I start to look through my other material to see what would best compliment the photographs. Generally speaking, each collage of the series will have a similar feel because the materials used are very similar. I choose
to use each component in each of the collages to create a unified feel, but I pay attention to mixing things up.
Play around with composition, colors, scale of images vs. scrap papers, and the difference between positive/ negative space relationships between each collage. As you play around with the components within your collage, refrain from gluing anything down until you are satisfied with your collage. Below are images of how I approached playing around before gluing down components-
When you are satisfied with your design, carefully lift the pieces and glue. Be mindful of the order to ensure that once everything is glued, it looks the way that you initially intended.
If the collage has a number of components, sometimes I will take a quick snapshot to reference the order. Begin by gluing the background pieces first, then build up to the smaller or most forefront images
3. Now that you have begun your process, continue to develop collages. You will soon find that you find a rhythm of working. Hopefully that will also help for your collages to feel cohesive. For this series, I created fourteen collages in three studio sessions. I found
that some days I would create two, others, I would create six or seven! You will find the
best way for you to work, but the best thing is that collage takes on the time and effort
that you are willing to put into it. Below are more images of some of the other collage works in this series
Take your time, and have fun!
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