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!
