How I Collage... and Why.
Welcome back to another BobBlast!
I prefer paintings that have a well-traveled storyline. I can feel the artist's involvement and appreciate the time it took to complete the finished painting.
For me, adding bits of collage paper throughout the whole painting process keeps me entertained and creatively involved. Like a kid playing in a sandbox... I glue paper pieces down, add paint, glue more paper pieces, scrape, scrumble and wipe away to reveal the surprises underneath.
After this initial blast of creative energy in the first few minutes, I stop and let the the whole thing dry. While it is drying, I take the time to study the painting so I can make any adjustments with color and paper - until the image conveys a clear message and matches the title... clearly.
By the way, I'm not too fond of collage paintings that have randomly placed "scrapes" and glued papers that have no connection to the overall piece - or to each other. They just look like what the artist did... glued down paper pieces with no solid intention other than hope something "creative" shows up.
And finally - the collage material I prefer is ordinary black ink Xerox copies of patterns and textures. Here is a link for copyright free patterns - www.graphicstock.com/images/p...
This is just one link - there are more!
There are quite a few good books available on collage techniques. I prefer to keep my materials simple, add intricate textured surprises and make a painting I have never seen me make before.
But wait! There's more! No holding back at this point. I like to use soft charcoal vine sticks to draw back into the painting - just because I like to draw. The dirtiest charcoal crumbling into the wet paint is just so wrong, but feels so right.
Keep it gooey!