Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Collage - The Art of Making an Image From Other Objects







Images from Google Images



The Sept meeting of WACG will have a chance for everyone to give collage a try. Supplies will be provided. I did a short write up I did that I will hand out at the meeting. The meeting is free and open to the public.



Saturday, Sept 17 at 10:15 at the B&C Art Museum in Myrtle Beach (near Springmaid Beach Resort & Pier) Bring your creativity and enthusiasm and give collage a try.



There will also be a special election for a new president. I have taken the position of Show Director for the Guild and cannot hold both jobs.



Collage - The Art of Making an image from other objects.


Collages became popular in the 60’s as a montage of relatedimages used to tell a story or capture an event or emotion. Now days they can still be used that same waybut are also used to create either detailed images or abstract images.


The objects can be just about anything: paper, fabric,buttons, coins, metals, plastics, found objects, made objects… It can be a single medium such as all paperor a mix of many types of objects.


The objects can be flat, such as paper or fabric; or 3-Dsuch as metals, bottle caps, pom-poms, beads, strings, yarn… The final image can be relatively flat like apainting, or very dimensional as a sculpture. You can create a collage on a table top, or a headboard or a plate – theonly limit is your imagination and creativity. Pieces can be torn or cut to size – a way to use parts of unfinished andunwanted paintings. Get out hidden gemsfrom your junk drawer.

You can add paints or mediums or glitter or sand or sticksor just about anything else to a collage or to the objects or to its base as well.


The base can be anything: paper, wood, metal,cardboard… It helps if the base isstrong enough to hold the objects and can be framed or displayed in somemanner. How you attach the objects tothe base depends upon the materials involved. Matt medium is a popular choice for paper, fabric and small objects. You can use glue or hot glue or anappropriate adhesive. Metals can bewelded. Fabric can be sewn. The attachment can be hidden or can be partof the design.


However you choose the objects, the base and the manner ofattachment, remember that the principles of design and composition stillapply. Even abstract images require somestructure. An instrumental song still has structure even though it does nothave words, the same goes for an abstract image – it should follow thestructure of composition and design as well as any representational image.


Collage gives you many freedoms to use in its creation. If you have haven’t played with it for awhile, start small and work up from there – the sky is the limit.


Artist Jackie Stacharowski 2011










































Sample Collage Project




The WACG will have a mini-workshop Sat 9/17 at 10:15 am at the B&C Art Museum.  We will be exploring Collage.  So I did a sample project.  I used a round of cardboard just because I had one.  I used papers we had made at other meeting workshops from the sand-painting and shaving cream painting projects. 

I sketched out the black eyed Susan to make sure I liked how it was arranged on the board.  Then I cut up some bluish gray papers and used acrylic matt medium to glue it on with.  Since the cardboard had the usual ugly edges, I wrapped the papers over the edge and glued them on the back to make a nice looking side

I then used my yellows and oranges and pinks to put in the petals.  I tried to keep track of the values I was using to give some dimension to the image.

I then used some browns to make the center and added a highlight. 

I found smaller pieces were easier to play with than larger ones, but I did not get too small.  I like the look of the piecing.

I have not yet done it, but I plan on putting a couple of coats of the matt medium over the whole image to seal it and give it a even sheen.

The color paper I used was 90lb watercolor paper.  But you can use anything:  papers you created, ones purchased, torn out of magazines...  It does not have to be just paper, you can use string, metals, glass, beads, sand etc.

I did a general write up to distribute at the meeting.  I will post of copy of that too.

Artist Jackie