All were worked entirely with Mod Podge original. They were built up with around seven or more layers, then wet sanded with 400 grit sandpaper. I painted four more layers of Mod Podge then dry sanded. THEN I painted a coat of clear acrylic sealer, waited four hours, dry sanded (lightly) and painted another coat of acrylic. (I am not necessarily recommending this much work. In retrospect I think I would have preferred to use the clear acrylic sealer after the first wet sanding.)
Another year, a lot of planners. All are collaged on a hardcover, 3 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches. Drawn over with different colors of pen and gold marker. The eyes are painted with glow-in-the-dark nail polish -- hold it directly under a light and it glows for maybe 5 seconds, so for a better effect I need to get actual glowing paint. This has the least continuity from front to back, but I love it... it's weird. I made this cat-swan maybe two years ago; it was so precious to me I needed to wait until I had the right project. However I actually have used this image many times already, because I scanned it. The cat-butterfly on the back was a whim and I loved it so much I made another. A couple of arty, rich cyclopes sitting in a field of blue flowers at night. Obviously. The green monster is formed from a fur coat. I like how the robot is grinning. Every planner had a cat so I kind of needed another; I find the cat-butterfly morph so funny I threw it in. The patterns, hair and body are all from the same editorial which made it easy to create a cohesive theme. This came together the quickest, with the simplest composition, until I decided I wanted her to have a necklace and it was surprisingly hard to find something that "worked". All were worked entirely with Mod Podge original. They were built up with around seven or more layers, then wet sanded with 400 grit sandpaper. I painted four more layers of Mod Podge then dry sanded. THEN I painted a coat of clear acrylic sealer, waited four hours, dry sanded (lightly) and painted another coat of acrylic. (I am not necessarily recommending this much work. In retrospect I think I would have preferred to use the clear acrylic sealer after the first wet sanding.) For further insight into how I approach collage, try my Collage Degree post. What Will You Decorate?
"Hello paper, meet computer"Those of us who make art the old fashioned way are definitely not limited by our medium when digitizing the physical work is so easy. Hand drawn--collaged--painted-- it all can be transformed and improved upon with a scanner and free programs like Gimp and Inkscape. Airbrushing isn't just for butts, why not fix up our art? Compared to the dense collages I usually make, the simplicity of this piece was a refreshing change of pace. It contains only two images: a pile of gumballs from one magazine, and a model from another. I am perfectly happy with the paper version, but the wrinkles are annoying, the cut edges are obvious, and I accidentally rubbed off some of the print on her arm. Luckily the solution is (relatively) easy! Scan your piece I usually scan once at 1200 dpi, and another at 600 or 300. Though I rarely work from the super hi-res version, I like knowing I have it. (My scanner is not fancy; over four years ago I purchased a cheap all-in-one HP printer/scanner/copier from a big box store and the scanner part still does the job.) Clean up the image For me this means cutting away any background and making said background transparent. (When you save your piece, it has to be a .png or the background just becomes white again.) Airbrush, smudge, cut, etc. I feel the best way to learn photo editing is to experiment, click all of the buttons, search forums for answers to your questions, then experiment some more. There is no singular right or wrong way to do this! Save As-- never overwrite your original. This is what I do: Original scanned doc is opened in Gimp, automatically I SAVE AS "(doc name) Cleaned Up", or something along those lines. The original stays pristine so you always have it to go back to. I mess things up all the time, or don't like a certain effect, or want to change just a small thing later on... you can't do these things if you don't have your original reference piece. Export In Gimp, when you are done, you have to Export As, then save your finished whatever as a jpeg or png (there are other file extensions too). Click through the gallery below to see various interpretations of the same design. But why bother? Well, I like having a copy of my work that isn't susceptible to mold or fire, that isn't gone forever if it changes hands. When it comes to drawing I think I am much better on paper than in a drawing program, but when I want clean lines and crisp colors the drawing can be changed a hundred times on my computer. Digitizing my work means I can have it printed as stickers, or a poster, or on a shirt. Designs can be enhanced and imperfections fixed. Lastly, IT'S FUN!
This is not a new subject for me (see my custom graphics post) and I will be coming back to it again and again. It is an important part of the way I choose to make art, and almost all of my posts have examples of how these skills are utilized. Next installment will be about art that is too big for my scanner! My projects do not always go according to plan, in this case a collage I started on a small sketchbook as a gift. My piece was coming together very slowly; I wasn't very happy with my magazine choices and didn't feel 'the muse'. I was also having difficulty taking into account the receiver of this gift, because though our aesthetics differ I still wanted to make something I liked. After a few hours of struggling a lovely composition emerged: As the background, an eerie image taken from an article about in-vitro fertilization. At the bottom a line of symmetrical red rose petals fronted a full peony, out of which emerged a woman's hands which appeared to capture a plume of pink and green smoke. Glueing the elements down is where everything started to go wrong. This is a good lesson in not experimenting with art supplies you are inexperienced with. In my case, Mod Podge. Though it is a well known product in the world of crafters I had never really used it until an enthusiastic article caused me to question my aversion (I thought it was just a pricey glue). Regardless, my delicate collage was hardly the place to try a new technique without practicing. My work was falling apart before my eyes-- pieces were wrinkling and buckling, grit appeared out of nowhere, areas tore and the color was even rubbing off on small areas of the magazine print. It was frustrating enough getting the collage together, and then I ruined it with my hubris. I did attempt to "fix" it, but my efforts were exacerbating the issues... my composition's airiness had disappeared and the direction I went was down, down into the land of harsh outlines. It was with a grim bullheadedness I took to it with pale markers, then gold streaks, and finally the black pen. For me the greatest loss has been the smoke effect in her hands, (actually taken from an ad for Sherwin Williams in which paint has been poured into water and the resulting plumes photographed) and the sense of motion and upward thrust. In the end it isn't as though this launched me into a depression, I don't hate it, and I acknowledge that someone else might look at this collage and absolutely love it! But the original pride I felt for it is gone, and I haven't yet decided whether or not to cover it with an entirely new design. These things happen-- pages rip, you trim something a cut too far, you spill your glue or cat hairs become embedded in the most obvious area. The point is that in the grand scheme of disappointments this is hardly the iceberg to my Titanic. One bad day will not discourage me, and should not discourage you. All artists and creatives experience moments when we feel like we have "lost" our skill and making our ideas a reality fails. However, we learn from our mistakes, accept that not every day is a good day, and continue creating anyway because it is fun and we are awesome.
Making this reminded me of the Pippi Longstocking books, where she is so strong she can carry her horse around. This is a postcard.
Collage is my favourite way to customize and beautify everyday objects, usually notebooks, sketch books, folders, etc. And it is definitely worthwhile as an art form asking to be framed. But I prefer to decorate the mundane. I like to give my eyes get a treat every time I have to check a date in my planner.
|
Categories
All
Archives
April 2018
|