TREE COLLAGE IN PROCESS

 11 3/4" X 24 3/4"

gesso MDF panel

Remembering this blog is about process as well as the finished product I am going to be stepping along through this next piece as I prepare for my workshop in collage next month.

I absolutely LOVE collage, and I absolutely LOVE teaching workshops...and as I did when I taught public school I like to bring fresh things to each "lesson" or workshop.  I think I would go crazy if I taught each class the same way as the last...so...off I go on a journey to bring fresh to what I've taught before!

The top pic is STEP 1...I take a panel (in this case) and gesso it, and then take color that is left over on my pallet and cover it up.  At this stage it really doesn't matter the colors that much...I kinda know what is in nature (as this will be a tree piece)...and I just slap it on to cover all that WHITE!

STEP 2 is where I begin to add papers...I kinda know that I want some sky up top...and I begin to lay in the vertical papers for the background trees...

STEP 3...becomes about deciding where I want my "focal" area to be...When I am doing a stand of trees...more abstractly than some of my more realistic pieces I STILL think about an area that will bring the eye...a little more contrast...can you tell where the focal area is going to be?..

STEP 4 was about adding many more verticals and then playing with the idea of a good horizontal to break up the monotony a little (some pieces I want all vertical...but this one may have words in the form of stamps or some such thing...and I need a path...The focal area should be a little more obvious at this point...:)

I get really excited when I see a piece like this starting to take shape...starting to make a little more sense to me for what my intent was...which, by the way...sort of appeared after I'd worked at it a little bit...I knew it would be another tree piece...I knew the general way I wanted to go...but as I added the different papers and found some fun ones to sort of focus on that was FUN!!  

The thing I always tell my students when I am teaching a workshop is not to get married to a particular area at this stage as it can often change drastically before the end...If you marry too early I feel it stilts the creative process that should be flowing freely throughout!!  At least that is the way I think...:)  Til tomorrow...

HAPPY CREATING!!