COLOR!!! For Cut Paper Collage

 Join me on zoom for a Technique Takeaway, hosted by Winslow Art Center. 

To make strong images in cut paper collage, it's best to start with a HUGE palette of painted papers. This includes all the colors around the color wheel - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and everything in between - and a broad range of values - very light, very dark, and everything in between.

I've noticed that when painting papers for collage most of us default to the mid-range values. Lighter values are often omitted. To make light values, start with white, add a tiny bit of color, mix thoroughly, and then paint a sample. Acrylic paint generally dries a bit darker than it is wet, so mix it to look lighter than you want.

Finally, make sure you have a range of neutrals - beige and gray, colors that you would not assign to a spot around the color wheel - in a range of values, and muted colors, again in various values. If this sounds like a lot of work instead of a lot of fun, do something else. I find painting solid colors on paper very soothing and at the same time enlightening.

Friday, December 17th,5 - 6:30 EASTERN Time (2:00 - 3:30 Pacific)

Cut paper collage is a powerful tool for exploring some elements of composition. In Composition with Cut Paper Collage we will first focus on this broad palette.

Collage Challenge #2

Part 1: For this month, I have made you a group of papers to download on Flickr. Cut it up and make a collage (or try several!) Same rules apply: you may add one paint color and one other mark, such as a line or a pattern. Post your work on our Flickr group. It was so much fun to see how diverse the collages were even when they all used the same papers. For links to Flickr instructions, see Collage Challenge #1.

Here is the collage I made with the papers:

I added the orange paint at the top, and the black scribble at right.

For part 2 of the challenge, send me groups of collage papers (6 - 10) that are all in one main color. They can be patterned or textured, but they must read as one basic color. Send your collage papers to:

Jane Davies Studios

Collage Challenge #2

PO Box 45

Rupert, Vermont 05768

Again, I will choose a few winners and make a mostly-monochrome collage for each of them. See yesterday's post to see winning collages from the first challenge. Here are a few examples of groups of papers all in one main color:

GREEN

ORANGE

BLUE

RED

BLACK, WHITE, and GRAY

NEUTRALS: beige, brown, off-white, etc.

My color categories are:  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Turquoise, Pink, Neutrals (see above), and Black-and-White and Gray (see above).

I will gladly send YOU some of this bounty of collage papers: just send a self-addressed envelope with adequate postage (if in the US), or no postage (if outside the US) to Jane Davies Studios, Collage Paper Request, PO Box 45, Rupert, VT  05768.

Deadline for all of the above is the end of the month.

A Few Collage Papers

A little update on the Collage Challenge #1

I can't tell you how FUN it is to go to the post office and find my box full of envelopes full of collage papers! As I open them, I'm doing a preliminary sorting into GOOD VARIETY, and NOT SO GOOD VARIETY. Many of the envelops contain really beautiful papers, but not as much variety as others. For example, several of the papers are similar in color or value or pattern. I will definitely come up with a way to use all of them, though!

I scanned a few of the collections in the GOOD VARIETY category. Take a look.

I thought this one was particularly good. Variety in color, scale (of pattern), value...

I love how the two black and white patterns (upper right) are SO different because of the scale of pattern.

The bright circle piece on the right makes me want to paint like that, scan, and print out collage paper! Do you see two papers in this collection that are very similar?

This collection included an acrylic skin. Can you see which piece that is?

Love that big black and white!

cocktail napkin, donut bag, marbled paper....

Definitely some variety here!

Gorgeous collection here.

Keep the envelopes coming! The papers don't need to be large or beautiful; just go for variety. I hope you are having fun putting together these collections. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing.

Making Collage Papers - and Collage

Thanks for all your thought provoking comments on my last post.  I so much appreciate the discussion.  In the studio I've been trying out new ideas, new ways of working with my materials, and valuing the "busy work" time I spend there.  Here is a video of me making collage papers from my "scrap paper", and then  one way I've been approaching some new 4"x4" pieces.

Here are a few of the papers that came out of this session:

 Have fun making your own collage papers or re-purposing your scraps.  And here are a few of the 4"x4" collages I made using these and other papers:

Well, ho hum, but it's a start.

This is actually my favorite, so I started making more painterly marks on my collage papers.  See how that goes, and maybe I'll post the results.

 Update on Summer Workshops

There are NINE spaces left in my workshop at Omega this summer.  

Expressive Abstract Painting: The Power of Process

July 5 - 10

Read about it here.

Register here.

There are FOUR spaces left in my workshop at Dillman's Bay Resort in Wisconsin.

Abstract Painting: Working in Multiples

September 13 - 18 (four teaching days)

Read about it and register here.

Encaustic on Paper

I had another Wax Day the other week, with Jeri MacDonald (as soon as she gets her web site updated, I will post a link).  I love working with encaustic on paper.  This is 300# hot press watercolor paper, Arches, I believe.  We both work with encaustic medium, a few colors, oil stick or pigment stick, and a bit of oil paint. Here are a few of my 5"x5" pieces:

The pattern of circles on the left is incised with a stylus while the wax is warm.  Incised lines on the right, the dark ones, are rubbed with oil paint.

This one is probably not finished, well, definitely not finished. Not sure where it will go next.

The color in these that looks like Qinacridone Gold (an acrylic color) is Alizarin Orange.  I have it in encaustic paint and oil paint.

Advance Copy

I finally got my advance copy of Adventures in Mixed Media, and I am happy to report that it looks terrific. Nice color reproduction; the book design is awesome; I'm always impressed with the work of my photographers, John Polak and George Bouret. The official release date is April 26, but you can pre-order the book from Amazon if you like. I will bring copies to Art Unraveled in August, and Art and Soul in September to make them available as well. Here are a few sneak previews.

Making a simple pamphlet-stitch book:
Remember these paper bags?
I did a chapter that includes making these shrines from foam core. The gorgeous one on the right is Carol Owen's; she is the inspiration for this project.
This chapter on Fusion, Fabric, and Fiber opens with a photo of Sue Bleiweiss's fabulous tea pot:
A couple of my own fusion fabric pieces:
There is a chapter on Mixed Media Dolls. The doll in the upper right of the left page is by Ingrid Dijkers.
And here is some eye candy from the chapter on books and boxes: paper mosaic with paper gems and glue gems. All the sparkle and glitz you could stand.
Thanks for visiting! Don't forget to check out the Sketchbook Challenge blog.

Tools, Not Rules

Next Friday, the 28th, I am teaching my Art Basics workshop for the first time. It will be at Studio Place Arts in Barre, VT, and I am way excited about it. We're calling it "Creative Beginnings: Unlocking the Secrets of Color", just to have a fun title, but it is really about the basic building blocks of painting/collage: color, composition, and I'll cover materials as well - paper, paint, mediums. The class is almost full, but we may be able to squeeze in a couple more students, so if you are interested and can get there next Friday, call Studio Place Arts.


Yes, we will begin by making color wheels, and then various sorts of color gradations, just to see what to paints do, and to anchor the rest of the discussion and establish a vocabulary for the composition studies. My theme here is "Tools, Not Rules"; the color wheel and gradations, and the elements of composition are tools, just as your brushes, your eyes, and your palette are tools. They do not constitute a set of rules that must be followed in order to make good art.

Here are a couple of composition samples:
We'll be working "off the grid", doing lots of sketches and playing with variations.

OK, on to the next topic: the Sketchbook Challenge! I have found that I am reluctant to draw in my sketchbook because I don't want to "waste" the fine printmaking paper I used to make the book. Plus, I am just starting to draw, so my drawings are pretty basic. "Not worthy" of the fine paper or putting in a hand-bound book. See? So why not paint in my sketchbook? BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE TO PAINT IN A BOOK! Who knew? I prefer to paint on a sheet of paper. But today I seem to have broken through this little self-made obstacle. I just started doing color study/painting/collages in the book, and guess what: I feel freer doing these as "studies" in the sketchbook than I do when working on paper. Here are a couple of pages, and I'll do a post on the Sketchbook blog in the next couple of days.
Thanks for visiting!

In Stages

I've been asked by several of you if I could show a few of my pieces in stages of development, and that last post was something like that. The Sketchbook Challenge has got me thinking about process, and spending more time in the development of an idea. I don't ordinarily post pix of pieces in stages because I never know where a piece is going or if it is even going to make it. I don't want to interrupt the process to go scan something (I generally scan my pieces in at least two parts and then put them together in Photoshop). But since sketchbooks and therefore idea development are going public for the Sketchbook Challenge, here is a shot at showing a piece in progress. First, my fountain pen sketches in my tiny (4.5"x6") sketchbook. Then "Stage One" of a composition. And just for good measure, a photo of some of my sketchbooks.

In case you are wondering, here is how I did the "Stage One": 11"x11" watercolor paper; couple coats of gesso; lay down color (Naples Yellow); make big shapes (Jenkins Green and Quin. Gold) and press or draw texture into them; a layer of clear medium - can't remember what; scrape some Pthalo Turquoise over the green, let some green show through. Stop, think, scan, Photoshop, post a blog about it.... If this goes anywhere, I'll post the next stage.

color studies

Happy Post-Thanksgiving Weekend! This coming year I will be offering a new workshop on Art Basics. Color, composition, and materials will be the main focus, and it is intended for students who are new to art-making, those who have been away from art for a long time and would like a refresher on basics, or anyone who wants to gain a little more confidence in the use of color and composition. The working title is "Creative Beginnings: Unlocking the Secrets of Color", but I may think of something more concise once I start teaching it. So.... I am having a WAY fun time developing exercises that demonstrate the power of color and how it can be used effectively in composition. For each of the collage-paintings above, I focused on one primary color, but incorporated bits of collage and patterned paper for interest. These basically monochrome paintings offer the opportunity to explore the nuances of a single color, and see how much variation you can get out of it. I've incorporated many of the techniques I teach in Scribble Collage in these pieces, as I will in the workshop. Stay tuned for 2011 workshop dates!