Who doesn’t love to cut, tear, paste and repeat? This week I got messy and had some interesting results.
First published April 24, 2024: This week’s Artventure takes place in my new Mix Media sketch journal. (First two pages complete: 60 to go.) I love starting a new sketch journal… all those white pages just waiting for color and texture.
I have been following Cat Rains (@catrains.artist) on Instagram for quite awhile. Her collages are always teeming with energy. So when she offered a Collage Kickstart class for free, I knew it was time to get out the scissors and glue. The tutorials are spread out over five days, which works well for me, since — especially this week — my time can be limited. The time in between lessons gives you an opportunity to gather materials and make as much collage “fodder” as you have time for. I made about 20 sheets this week.
Cat stresses the value of using what you have around the house, and I took that challenge seriously. I used spackling compound instead of modeling paste, and rice paper instead of tissue paper. Both worked out well for this project, although Cat’s secret use of tissue paper really requires you to use tissue paper to get the effect you might desire.
I chose Yellow Ochre and Scarlet Red as my two paint colors, plus black, gold, silver and white. Here are some of the papers I made for the “fodder.”
I used some of my favorite stencils, as well as a number of brushes which give a nice texture to the papers. The handmade paper took the stencils well, but I found that paper too thick for this particular project. I am sure it will get used elsewhere, tho!
I really liked the gold and silver on the rice paper. They looked luxurious to me.
The fifth day was when we put the papers to use in collages. Here are my two pages before I added some extra “Cindy” touches:
I used pages from an old “Ladies Home Journal” for some of my fodder, and I found that the words showed through more than I wanted them to. I think that is because my paint was not opaque enough. So I added some of my own flavor with the black lines and dots here and there. These are the finished pages:
The Collage Kickstart class is a great intro to Cat’s Collage Joy class. Hope you enjoy it and learn as much as I did about papers, textures and composition.
Thanks again to Cat Rains for this FREE tutorial.
Have great Artventures this week…