Adventures in Collage

Some time ago I was really struggling to do any art.  After doing a course where such accuracy and precision was required I became unable to simply flow and play and produce art that wasn't 'perfect' or highly accurate and realistic.  I needed a shift in my approach to art and was struggling to find a way to do so.  After looking at some blogs on children's art I was finally inspired to try a collage.  I must admit that the headspace that demanded accuracy followed me to collage and I was filled with questions.  What surface is the 'right' surface to do collage on?  What is the 'right' glue to stick it all together with?  Do I cut or tear the paper and does it matter?  What is the 'right' paper to use?

In the end this crazy thinking did my head in - as crazy thinking does and I decided that I'd just play and have fun as this didn't have to be perfect and it was my art so I could do it how I damn well pleased.  Doing things the 'right way' was banished. This is what I came up with.

A toucan. Why? I'd read a jungle book to my nephew a few days prior and remembered the toucan sitting in the tree (mixed with African jungle animals but we won't comment on accuracy), and thought it would have nice easy shapes to collage.

 I used a combination of magazine pages, a torn up old watercolour painting I did that was a dud, scrapbook paper, stamps and some weird fibrous paper I had purchased on whim from a trip to Oxlades in the City.  These were glued over a very rudimentary preliminary sketch.

You can see the fibrous paper in the white sections if you zoom in.  I used scrapbooking paper with music notes, works and paint splatters beneath this and quite like the effect.  For the substrate I used a piece of core board or foam board - the type that is often used for signage such as the hanging signs at the supermarket.  A hard plasticy coating on the outside and an inner layer of foam.  I had some to glue artist profiles to for exhibits and decided it would make a good sturdy base (and was cheap if I wrecked it!).  I used Atelier impasto gel as my adhesive as I had a tub and thought I'd give it a try.

I popped it into an IKEA frame and am quite happy with the result.  In fact I have a friend who is rather enraptured with it so I may have to do another.  It was great fun, broke me through my block and got me back painting.  So all in all it was a successful exercise.  Now I have a hankering to do a giraffe on a long skinny canvas I have.  Just not sure how it will go on a flexible canvas.