THE COLLAGE ARTIST -COLLECTOR

The Nauga, A Collage Made from Magazine Materials. 12x17"                              About 1960, © by Ruth Zachary

If you want to try collage only to see if you like it, you can start out with a piece of heavy board and water based White Glue, a small brush, scissors and a small collection of papers gathered from a magazine.

But if you like collage enough to try doing several, it could be important to try to find permanent materials, acrylic medium and pigments, acid free boards and papers, and also to find a good foundations like pre-coated canvas panels.

You may have a specific type of image you already have in mind. Your choices will ultimately define your style, but you might get a head start by thinking about what types of images you like.

Abstraction

                 Geometric composition

                  Organic composition

                  Combined composition

                 May include distortions of subjects, motif or of style

Realism- Subject matter is recognizable

                  Landscape

                  Architectural

                  Figurative Work

                  Interiors

                  Still Life

                  Wildlife      

                 Etc.

COLLECT  TYPES OF IMAGES or MATERIALS for Collage. (Note- these should be significantly altered before using in your collage, unless copyright free. Parts of ads, altered significantly and presented with other images are probably safe.)

Tip: Keep similar colors together in marked large envelopes for future use.

Suggestions:

          Animals, birds, butterflies, fish, insects, botanical drawings, mythical creatures

            Antique or Vintage Photos, posters, memorabilia, costumes, old drawings

            Antiquity references, from Egyptian art, Roman or Greek art, Celtic images, etc.

            Buttons, jewelry, coins, or keys, can tabs or photos of these

            Cards from card games, Tarot cards, Dominoes, Dice, Runes

            Cartoons, comics, humorous illustrations.

            Dictionary word definitions

            Drawings or parts of drawings

            Fabrics, textured and or printed

            Fairytale illustrations

            Floral wrapping paper or flowers from seed catalogs.

            Hand printed, painted or experimentally created papers

            Handwritten letters, recipe cards

            Illuminated letters or manuscript pages.

            Lace, paper doilies,

            Landscape elements, architectural scenes, oceans, lakes, skies, night, day.

            Large close up textures from magazine ads; hair, liquids, flowers, stone

            Maps

            Mechanical elements, watches, wheels, car parts

            Metallic wrapping papers or foil

          Newspaper clippings, photos, old ads, historic reports

            Objects and still life arrangements, baskets, chess pieces, dolls, manikins,

            Op- Art patterns

            Ornamental borders

            Pages from old or new books, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, poems

            People singles or group interactions

            Photographs, magazine images in color or black and white

            Printed wrapping papers

            Rorschach or Reversed shapes or imagery

            Rubber stamp printed papers

            Rubbing textures (pencil or crayon on paper over relief surfaces)

            Sheet music

            Solid colors in rice papers, tissue papers, textured papers, etc.

            Photos of Statuary, fountains, relief sculptures, furnishings

            Stickers

            Textures created with modeling paste or thick paper, sand, etc.

            Wrinkled tissue paper, rice paper

            Wall papers- embossed, shiny, metallic, textured and printed

            Words and Phrases, Impact sayings, quotes, typography,

NEXT TIME: BASIC COLLAGE METHODS AND TECHNIQUES.

Images and Writing are the Copyright © of Ruth Zachary.