Collage of a Boy with a Kitten

Sometimes I will start a collage with the background thinking I know exactly how I want it to look but after finishing the background I'm unhappy with it.  It has happened several times.  In this collage, I wanted a dark blue sky with the ground and greenery at the bottom but after doing it that way, I could see that background was too busy.  If I had left it, it would have competed for the attention of the viewer.  I wanted the boy and cat to be the focal point, not the background.  So I had to redo the background using black instead.  Although I wasn't originally envisioning such a dark background, the black did work better.

A Charcoal Drawing of a Little Blond Girl

The charcoal drawings of children help me stay limber and focused.  It's too easy to forget how to draw if you don't do it every day.  It is like any other muscle.  If you don't use it, it gets flabby and weak.  Children, in particular, are so important to me because I illustrate children's books and there is very little out there on drawing children.  Books on drawing focus on the adult face.  So I have to practice all the time.  Never let up.  Keep the practice.

My Grandson and His Sidewalk Chalk Art Show

Sidewalk Chalk inspired me to create this collage.  My grandson was about 8 at the time and was drawing on my patio while I took photos.  I love this pose.  It is so like him.

I started with quite a few photos and had to Frankenstein them together to get the hands just right.  In most of the photos, his hands were blurred.  Then I drew the sketch out on paper and began searching for the collage pieces to glue on.

The process took me a week, working on and off for several hours.

My final video is sped up so that the hours of work only last about 8 minutes.

Recycling Grocery Store Circulars into Paper Bowls

With the amount of trash that comes through this home, I get really upset that so much is not recycled.  So I keep trying to find ways to recycle rubbish.  These grocery store circulars come in the mail every week and are just discarded.  I have no idea how many trees are going to the landfill but I just can't stand it.  

Here is my way of reusing at least part of the newsprint that cycles through my home.  You will need only white school glue and occasionally a paper clip. 

 

First, tear the pages into uniform pieces that can be rolled.

Second, take a knitting needle and roll the pieces into straws.  Then flatten them.

Third, begin rolling the flattened straws into a disc.  When you come to the end of one straw, insert another into the end and continue. 

Fourth, when the disc is the desired diameter for the bottom of your bowl, begin pulling up the edges as you go around creating the sides of the bowl.  Continue until the bowl is the desired height, then glue the end down.

To finish these, I painted the bowl with another coat of white glue to seal it.  You can paint it with acrylic paint if desired but it isn't necessary.  The bowl is ready to use for fruits, breads, onions, potatoes, or any dry storage.

A Collage of My Brother on Dad’s Shoulder

Finding these older silent 8 mm movies my mom and dad shot in the 50s and 60s has been a real charge.  I have made several portraits using them as references and this is just one.

I started by taking a still photo from the movie.  Then drew the composition onto paper and began the collage process.  

Halfway through the collage I discovered I drew dad's mouth wrong and had to adjust it.  The drawing part of each project is so very important. 

How I Sew These Cloth Dolls by Hand

Among the many crafts I am constantly working on, are these little dolls.  I found using a sewing machine at night in front of the TV was just to loud and intrusive but sewing by hand wasn't.  So I began sewing these little dolls for gifts.  They turned out so cute I've put them in my Etsy shop. 

I'd love to know what you think about the little dolls, ballerina dolls, fox dolls, bunny dolls, gnomes, and mouse dolls.

A Charming Sightseer from an Old Photo

This collage is different from the others.  I usually have a color photo to work with but this one is using a reference in black and white.  Also, there is a car in the collage and usually don't like to have mechanical things in my collages of children. 

As I always do, I did the background first and then used tracing paper to trace over my main subject.  Then I collage her face and clothes directly onto the tracing paper.  Why not?  It's all paper after all.  I found this one fun because of all the different elements that I don't usually include.  I hope you find it so also.

Inspired by All the Farmer’s Markets I Have Seen

I must have started this collage 2 years ago from a photo reference I created by mashing together 6 different photos.  I wanted a farmer's market scene that would be intriguing and draw the audience in but I kept getting distracted by other projects.  Each time I came back to this it seemed something was wrong or off about it and I'd soon lose interest.  I don't know why I didn't throw it away and start over but I liked the concept too much to trash it. 

This last time I came back to it, I saw what was bothering me.  The face of the main focal point character was distorted.  I had to redraw his nose and lower his eyes and it made all the difference.  Then I decided the sky was too dark.  It was a light blue I put in but even that little bit distracted from the focal point and also made it too dark and busy to be interesting.  So I glued white and light grey pieces over the sky and light, light green over the trees in the background.  That helped a lot.  Then I traced all the background characters onto tracing paper so that I could collage them independently of the background and then glue them into place.  It made quite a difference.

Finally, I got to work on the main character in the middle and decided on a red shirt.  This helped to draw the eye to him as the focal point of the picture.

Do you think my choices were correct?

A Collage of My Dad and Brother at the Lake

It was a beautiful party for my mother's 90th birthday.  I agonized over what to get her.  What do you get someone who has everything... except dad?  So I created this collage using the old footage of my dad and baby brother at the lake in the 1960s.

Step 1.  I started by isolating just the frame of the footage I wanted.  That wasn't easy.  The footage was originally shot in 8mm and then an uncle had projected it onto a screen and setting up a VHS camcorder, shot footage of the movie playing against the screen.  The VHS tape doesn't freeze nicely like a digital video would but I did the best I could.

Step 2.  Then I drew the picture and tweaked it as best I could to get a likeness before covering the background with blues for the water.  To keep the likeness of my dad and brother, I traced them onto tracing paper.

Step 3.  I then began to layer colored paper onto the tracking paper, working to get just the right light and shadow areas.  It doesn't matter if you use orange for a face color if the values are in the right place.

Step 4.  After gluing the tracing paper down against the water, I added words and pictures that I thought would add to the composition.

All done.  

Time for a Collage of the Beach, Sandcastles

Step 1.  I start with a good photo reference.  In this case, I used several photos I took myself at Monterey, Carmel, and Pismo Beaches in California.  I sort of mashed them together into one drawing and began cutting and tearing paper.  

Step 2.  I like to start at the top and work my way down.  The sky first, then the water.

Step 3.  The children had to be traced onto tracing paper to save the shapes because the water and sand pieces will cover the lines.  Then I glued the collage pieces directly onto the tracing paper to make the children.

Step 4.  I left the background land jutting out into the water for last.

Step 5.  Then I search through my little drawings, faces, and words for just the right pieces to fit into my composition.  And I'm done.

A Collage of a Charming Boy I Call Blue Boy

While my computer was being fixed in the shop, I did several from photo references I saved on the iPad.  I thought this boy had a charming face.

I started with a light background then worked on the boy's face.  In order to keep the lines I used tracing paper and traced out the face.  Then I glued the facial pieces onto the tracing paper.  That way I could move it around as needed.  When the face was all finished I glued it down onto the background.

The last step was to add a few words and pictures.

A Pool Party in Collage

What an ordeal it has been being without a computer.  I had to go 18th century and do everything by hand.  I wrote articles by hand, kept notes by hand, did my art by hand.  It was refreshing in a way, but I still felt I was lacking something fundamental.

When my computer returned there would have been singing and dancing in the street but a lot of things were different.  Sure it was faster and better upgraded, but the upgraded operating system meant some of my old software was not incompatible.  I was faced with the decision of spending the money to upgrade the software systems I used all the time like Photoshop and InDesign, or downgrading my computer operating system.  I'm trying trial versions and we will see if it lasts.

In the meantime, here is one of the collages I worked on while I was roughing it.  I call it Pool Party.  As the temperatures rose outside to 104, I was cool inside working on collaging blue water and yellow innertubes for this little collage.  I like the finished product and hope you like it too.

A Girl Looking Up Collage With Background

Sometimes, while I'm making illustrations for my children's books, I do one or two designs that I think will make a wonderful stand-alone collage painting, suitable for framing and hanging on the wall.  This little girl is one of those.  I thought she turned out charming.  To finish this one for framing, I had to cut her out of the paper she was on and glue her against a new background.

The challenge is creating a suitable background for the composition I already have.  She is wearing a green dress in middle values.  My original idea was to put her against a blue background imitating the sky but the blues I chose were also of middle values and once I placed her against it, I could see it didn't work at all.  She got lost in all the middle values and I wanted her to stand out.

So I threw away the blue background and started again using values of white, cream, and soft light grey.  As you can see, these lighter values worked much better and she stands out against them.  She is again the focal point of the picture.  I love the triangle that her face and leg form in the composition.  It adds dynamic action where no action is going on.

As I usually do in my collages, I added words and images that "hide" in the composition until you look closer.  There is a duck, a white freesia, a ballerina, some postage stamps, a couple of drawings of a little girl in black and white.  These all work to enhance the composition of the collage.

Let me know what you think.

Homeless Boy in a Sea of Prosperity Collage

Homelessness is a real problem in this country.  I think art should influence society and make statements and change things.  This piece is my attempt at making people more aware of homelessness and the fact that children are homeless too.  

My collages have become more than paintings to me.  They are a challenge to create but also allow for more than just a pretty picture.  The collage technique allows me to add words and pictures into the composition that tell more of the story.  This makes me feel like I am a storyteller as well as a painter. 

First I add the background tones then put related words and pictures on top. They have to match the overall tone and color of the background pieces.  Then when you step back, they fade into the overall composition.

Second, I add the foreground details like the subject and the secondary composition.  In this case, I did the little boy and his shirt, leaving the background legs for last.

My pictures in collage are for sale in my Etsy shop at https://dancingpaintbrushco.com

Speed Painting a White Peony in Watercolor

It's an interesting thing about white flowers.  They tend to reflect other colors, all the colors around them.  Their shadows are blue, indigo, and violet.  They have reflections of the yellow center in each petal as well as greens and pinks from all around.  They are a veritable rainbow of color.

One day I took my paints to the local county fair to paint on location.  I went into the Pavillion with all the garden displays and chose a beautiful white gardenia to paint.  Was I ever sorry.  It took forever to paint because it wasn't just white.  It had lots of other colors very subtly splashed in.  It was disappointing to me to spend so much time on one white flower.  Now I know.  Now I prepare for the many colors I will need.

It's a good exercise to paint something white.  Try it and see all the variations of color.

Painting Watercolor Botanicals, House Finch and Apricots

This will be the last of the botanical watercolors for a while.  I feel a yearn to work on some collages and some children's books.

The botanicals have a great history and it was fun for me to research how far back they go.  Drawings of plants and flowers have adorned nature journals and medicinal journals for centuries.  Da Vinci did some, and so did Durer but they go back even farther than the Renaissance.  It wasn't until printing in color became accurate that herbalists began to grow in numbers and the benefits of herbal remedies began to soar.  Now, most botanical herbal books have photos but I still prefer the artist's rendition in watercolor.  

A botanical usually contains the plant in flower, leaves, and fruit, as well as any birds that may frequent the plant.  They usually have the root also but I didn't see it necessary for apricots to have the roots.

How and What I Make into Collage

In the video above, I have shared several of the collages I have made and my process.

I love to work with good quality photo references but many of them I mash together to make my own composition.  You could almost say, I collage them.

Then I draw the design in pencil on heavy paper.  When it is perfect I can begin gathering paper to collage on top.

The paper comes from old wall calendars, circulars that come in the mail, old catalogs, magazines, and even some political flyers.  Anything that has nice quality paper with a semi-gloss surface.  Then I cut or tear the paper to fit my mood and design.  Torn edges can be distracting so I only use them for backgrounds, not faces or main subject matter.

These papers are glued in place using Rubber Cement, not white glue.  White glue would buckle and warp the paper as it dried, and you need the paper to lay flat when dry.  

Rubber cement and magazine paper for that matter, are not archival quality and will yellow and discolor with age.  These collages, therefore, are not going to stand the test of time, but the digital image will last indefinitely.  This is why I like to use this method for children's book illustrations.  No one cares what happens to the originals but the book will last on and on.

I hope you enjoy my video of the many collages I chose to talk about.

Painting Watercolor Botanicals, Goldfinch Cherries

Botanicals are not new.  People have been painting and drawing them for thousands of years.  The earliest surviving botanical work dates back to 500 AD and that was a copy of even earlier work.   Botanicals are basically paintings of plants in all the parts to help identify and classify the plant.  They usually contain the leaves, stems or branches, bark, blossoms or flowers, fruit or seeds, and even the roots.  This makes them for scientific purposes more than art, but people have loved them as works of art for the longest time.  

It isn't known when the first was taken from the pages of the herbal journal or medicinal pages and framed for the wall, but it has been popular ever since.  Right now we are seeing a resurgence of popularity not just here in the US but all around the world.  With that popularity have come many societies to promote and support the art form.  In the US is the American Society of Botanical Artists, in the UK the Society of Botanical Artists, in Australia, the Botanical Art Society of Australia, and in South Africa, the Botanical Artists Association of South Africa, to name a few.

I've only recently joined the ranks of botanical artists when a customer requested two special ones painted for her.  I immediately searched for just the right photo references and then "mashed" them together so my customer could choose which she preferred.  She loved them all so much that she ordered four instead of the original two.  Since then I've been having fun painting even more botanicals. 

Old Widow in Collage

I originally did this collage for an illustration for The FairyTale Alphabet Book, Fairy Tales and Folk Tales from Around the world.  But afterwards, I decided that she would make a nice fine art piece so she needed to be finished.

Step 1.

I always start by finding some nice photo references.  This one I found as a royalty-free photo on Morgue Files.  

Step 2.

I always sketch in the illustration in pencil on medium weight paper.  In this case, the paper is 80-pound cover stock 18" x 22".  Once I have the pencil drawing the way I want it I can begin gathering collage paper.

Step 3.

I gather colored paper from old magazines, old wall calendars, outdated catalogs, circulars that come in the mail and sometimes political flyers.  The paper has to be a nice weight and semi-glossy.  That eliminates a lot of the large magazines common today which are using thin flimsy paper for their interior pages.  However, I find even those magazines have nice glossy covers that work well.  I cut and tear these papers and sort them according to value and hue.

Step 4.

Using rubber cement to keep the papers from buckling when dry, I glue the papers to my drawing.  The hard part is finding just the right value for the shadows and highlights.  I usually use only cut paper for the face because that white fringy torn edge distracts from the facial features.

Step 5.

After the main subject, I create an appropriate background in collage.  I find torn paper for the background works well because the white fringy torn edge doesn't matter as much on the background.

Now it is ready to hang and display.  You should try it.  It really is a lot of fun even if it is time-consuming.  I think it incorporates my love of puzzles as well as painting.