Collage Papers

I've been experimenting/struggling with doing collage in a non-objective way. That is, with good values, eye travel, overall design but nothing you could identify. I've painted tissue paper with various colors and methods of application. Yesterday I made more collage papers using liquid watercolors and a mouth atomizer. [see http://www.ccpvideos.com/page/CCP/PROD/MM1d if you need more information.] I used ordinary tissue paper (not archival but sealed by acrylic matte medium which is) which I placed on a cut-open kitchen trash bag. I did this in the driveway because I didn't know how much overspray I would get so I wanted to be outside. It was a cool and dry day yesterday which helped motivate me. After a sheet of tissue was sprayed, I moved it on the plastic to the porch to dry which happened quickly so I could then reuse the plastic. The plastic keeps the tissue from falling apart when it's wet.

I sprayed a lot of papers and learned a lot. I could make paper of various shades just by spraying lighter in an area. I could mix colors directly on the tissue just by spraying a second color when the first was still wet. If I crumpled the paper then spread it out with the wrinkles still in and sprayed from a low angle, I could get interesting patterns. If I then turned the paper around and sprayed again with another color at a low angle I could get areas of the two colors intermixed. I found that many of the liquids could be sprayed right out of their little bottles or diluted in a small disposable cut. Others are kinda thick and needed diluting from the beginning. Acrylic inks would work well with this technique, too, although I guess I'd have to be more diligent in cleaning the sprayer and with the wc.s. Or I guess I could mix up a fairly strong mixture with tube paint and water and spray. Of course, I could have gone out and bought little spray bottles for each color but the atomizer is probably cheaper than a single bottle!

Here's a photo of a few of my dry tissue spread out on a white table. When I glue (using the acrylic matte medium) one color over another, they become quite transparent so I get a layering affect.

Now to get down to the business of creating these collages. That's the hard part for me, to do something with no reference but maybe a value sketch, but I find those hard to do for this, too. I'll keep you posted!