Collage Tutorial: magazine scraps

Documented Life Project 2014-

Planner, Week 12 challenge:

The prompt is to

"Cut up a magazine, add to page,"

Above, I used bits of floral patterns cut from

photos of clothing.  I extended the

patterns onto the book text background

by drawing additional 

bits of the motif in Sharpie pen.

Here is a tutorial on my process...

I found an advertisement with a promising looking 

flower and some oval shapes.  I also decided to

use a page of book text for background.

I cut out some of the oval shapes with scissors.

Then drew a black outline around the flower

with a black Sharpie pen.  Be sure to let it 

dry completely before cutting out.  The glossy 

paper tends to make the ink smear easily.

I saved the text for later use...

I chose to put my collage on the

watercolor paper tip-in on the right of

the spread, and applied a gray watercolor

wash to the paper. I chose gray because of the

decorative gray tape (you can see on the left)

that had been used when preparing 

my planner.  The use of a variety of tapes

was pretty random, and has been a fun

and interesting additional challenge each week.

Sometimes it affects my pages, and sometimes

I just kind of ignore it.  I used yellow watercolor

with a bit of orange and brown on the 

book text page because of the yellow 

 and golden magazine cut outs.

A strip of yellow fabric on my work surface

caught my eye, so I decided to use that also.

The brownish-golden shapes seem too dark

for my taste...

so I decided to try using a bit of scrapbook paper,

and drawing a wonky circle on it.  I tried applying

yellow watercolor, but the surface was a bit too glossy

for it to work well, so I dabbed it with a napkin and

used an orange marker to add some color.

Some more scrapbook paper with 

polka dots and stripes brightened things up

a bit, and after moving things around on the

page, I decided to glue them down in a 

staggered configuration on the page.

The darker magazine ovals went behind

the other shapes for an 'outline' effect.

I added magazine letters to spell out

'Color Therapy.'  Almost done!

Next, I want to add drawing, to 

help blend the collage elements

with the background.

I drew leaves, branches of berries,

and added more 'wonky' outlines around

the scrapbook circles.  I drew an outline

and shadows beneath the letters. I always

put the shadow on the right and below...

I formed that habit in high school when we

had a unit on lettering and calligraphy!

Finally, I added a bit more black watercolor,

very lightly so it would be gray, where I had

drawn the diagonal lines for shadows, 

and along the strip of fabric on the right.

I painted leaves along the left margin to 

echo the pattern of the tape, and added

yellow highlighter to the berries.

I usually try to have repetition of shapes

and color in my collages, and have an

odd number of shapes as well. (but not always!)

I think asymmetrical is more interesting.

I am thoroughly enjoying my

Documented Life planner...

not that I live that interesting a life,

but it reminds me to enjoy and

take note of day-to-day things,

and be grateful for them.

Visit Art to the 5th blog

for more inspiration!

♥  ♥  ♥

Note~

I built my own planner from various types 

of paper, punching holes into the pages

as you would for a ring binder, and

binding them together with book rings.

Each week of the year had a page for 

the dates of the week on the left side of 

the spread, on which you could

journal about your daily life and activities.

In addition, a second page on the right side

of the spread had a 'tip-in' created by

taping on an additional page that would

flip open for additional art work or journaling.

As the weeks went by, the journal become

fatter and fatter, so that I ended up

having to purchase bigger book rings.

But I was delighted with the results!