Friday, March 21, 2014

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!





6 comments:

  1. What a wonderful tutorial! Thanks for sharing!
    I love DLP too!

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  2. I liked your tutorial so much I shared the link with the members of the class I taught in January. I liked the idea of showing people how to fix things you weren't happy with, that can be a big one for beginners. It was great, thank you.

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  3. Love seeing your step by step. All that bright color is what we need while waiting for this spring I've been hearing is supposed to be here--LOL! ;)

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  4. I was really impressed with your tutorial. I need to remember that the ink smears and keep my hand out of its reach. Thanks for that lesson (grin). You did an excellent job, and I love the artwork you added along with your magazine images. Beautiful outcome.

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  5. Wonderful tutorial. I'm so impressed that you got a picture for each step! The way you use your drawing to pull the piece together is what really gets me...It was good before but the drawing makes it outstanding.
    And I love that you use the word wonky too. :)

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