I've been getting lots of queries lately about choosing and using collage fodder. Probably because right now there are so many art classes, both online and in-person, that use collage in one form or another. At this point in art history the art journal format is widely popular, and collage is very often the medium of choice, or at least in some way incorporated onto the pages of journals and sketchbooks.
It has been a while since I've taught classic adult art lessons in a classroom setting, but it occurred to me that a lot of what's missing from all the "how-tos" online, at workshop events, and at in-shop classes, are the basics. It's easy to find quick, hands-on techniques, but the basics, well, they take time to teach, time to learn, and are just not all that much fun for your $, £, and €. But, if you don't have a grasp of them, then all those techniques you've learned will leave you asking, "What's first? What's next? What's important? and Where do I begin?"
The truth is, you begin by beginning. Hands to the pencil, the scissors, the glue, and the paper. But what are you drawing on? What are you cutting out? What do you need to keep, and what do you throw away? Most people I've heard will tell you that you'll figure it out over time. Sure. That's true. And what one person values is another person's trash. But there's an art to every science and there's a science to every art. It helps to know that there are specific answers to your questions, and it helps if someone can answer them, so I'm going to lay it out in a Q and A format, using questions that I've received in my inbox over time. Relax, and put yourself in the frame of mind that there are helpful and unhelpful answers, not right or wrong, good or bad. I'm going for the "helpful" here, so read on...
Q: What should I collect for collage?
A: Anything and everything that strikes your fancy. If you're not sure what you like, that's OK. You'll develop specific tastes over time. Just collect a wide variety without keeping things you absolutely hate.
Q: What do you mean by "everything"?
A: Paper, mostly. Patterned papers, solid colored papers, papers with big, bold designs, medium sized designs, and small prints, in as many different colors and shades of neutrals that you can find. And images. Lots of images. And other decorative elements, usually 2-D, along with tissue papers, hand colored papers, and cut-outs and stenciled elements.
Q: Where do I find images?
A: Magazines, junk mail flyers, collage images for sale, collage images for free, pictures of people, pictures of objects, pictures of animals, of rocks, of trees, of flowers, of anything that makes you look twice.
Q: What do I do with all this stuff once I've collected it?
A: Sort it.
Q: Sort it how?
A: In my opinion, for collage, there's a helpful and an unhelpful way to sort things. Most people I know, even the more experienced, sort their papers by color, and their images by type of image. I find this unhelpful. Really, truly, unhelpful. There are people who swear by it, but I swear they'd be better served by a better method. The best way I know of to successfully sort papers and images for collage is by value. Size value and color value.
Q: What do you mean by "Size value and color value?"
A: The value of color is tint and shade. In a simplistic nutshell, it's light, medium and dark. Just go with that. Sort everything, your blacks, grays, and whites as well as your blues, yellows, reds, etc. into light shades, medium shades, and dark shades.
Q: I'm OK with the lights and darks, but I'm having a hard time sorting the "mediums".
A: This comes quickly with practice. It helps some people to sort the lights and the darks first, then to put all the undecideds into the "medium" pile, unless it's quickly seen that they are neither a light nor a dark. Just keep in mind, when you're working with only three values, light, medium and dark: Dark is VERY dark. Light is VERY light, and Medium is both darker light, and lighter dark.
Q: What is the value of size?
A: Large, medium and small. I have a descriptive post on ArtiphyTheHeart that illustrates the use of these three sizes of images. It would be helpful to take a look at it by clicking HERE.
Q: Now what?
A: Determine the size of your substrate or sketchbook/art journal page. Where ever the collage is going to end up. What do you think? Is it small? Medium? Or large? If it's small, then you don't have much option for using large images, and maybe not for medium, either. If it's medium, then you can certainly use medium images, and maybe small as well, depending on your layout. Probably not large...unless, could you use part of the image? Time for some creative thinking: Once in awhile, it's more exciting to use a portion of an image, than to use the whole thing. If your page is large, you can certainly use a large image, or possibly a medium image, or possibly a collection of small images. Move things around. See how they fit. What do you like? Just make a decision and go for it. Images are plentiful. You can always cut more and make another decsion later.
Q: How do I know what goes with what?
A: Most people have a sense for this. They know when they see something that harmonizes, and they know when they see something that clashes and looks awful. Develop your own sense by putting things (patterns, colors, images, images by subject matter--ie: dogs, cars, people, trees, etc.) side by side, and beside other things. Usually you'll know when something clicks, or when it's way off.
Q: But what if I'm not sure?
A: It's good for an artist to be comfortable with a little uncertainty. However, it's also good to have a handle on some classic elements of design. In a nutshell, and in a very incomplete and un-classic manner, I'll give you some hints.
First, I'll tell you what I first learned, then told interior design students about rooms. It holds the same for pages of collage: Something dark, something light, something dull and something bright. You need all of these in a room or on a page to make it interesting. Dark and light are easy, but some people need ideas for dull and bright. On a page, bright can be shiny magazine paper and dull can be old ledger paper. Or gloss and matte. Keep your mind rolling on this one, and you'll get the idea.
And here's one more: Your focal point should either contrast or harmonize with your background. Not in-between. Not sort of go together, nor sort of not go together. Focal, by definition, stands out. So harmonize cannot in this instance, mean "blend-in".
Here's a contrast "for instance" that has nothing to do with black and white: Your background is made up of water, ocean, soft, pastel blues. Your focal is an earthy tree. That's contrast in subject matter, in shape, in color, and perhaps texture, also.
Now, a harmony "for instance": Once again, your background is made up of water, ocean, soft, pastel blues. Your focal is a soft, pastel pink whale. It's subtle, but do you see how it harmonizes and also stands out? In the first example, the tree was prominent because it contrasted in subject, in color, in shape, and in texture. But in this example of a focal that harmonizes, the whale is harmonius in value (pastel) and in subject (ocean), yet stands out because of its color, and possibly it's texture.
And here's another hint: Contrast simply equals opposite. Period. Light or dark, small or large, blue or orange, black or white, red or green, yellow or purple, strong or weak, female or male, east or west, high or low, land or sea. Getting the picture? There's a lot more to it than just black and white.
Harmony can be compared to seamlessness. Colors that melt into other colors, or that are paired so well together that you hardly notice that they're different, even if in reality, they're very different. Subject matter, that even when contrasting, cause the viewer to connect the dots, such as dog wearing a red collar, and a chair with a red collar on top of it. Or simply a dog with a dot of red, and a chair with a dot of red. Think this one further, and you'll really stretch your repertoire.
Harmony is the goal for your entire page, not necessarily for a specific set of elements within the page. While the focal can harmonize with the background, or all the colors can harmonize with each other, or all the shapes can harmonize, it isn't always necessary. But the page as a whole must harmonize. Think about it, experiment with shapes, images and colors, be patient, and it will click. A page of disparate elements can still harmonize, and harmonize with interest, as long as there's a balance to the page. Balancing elements can aid in harmony.
Q: So if my page harmonizes, I've done all that I need to do, right?
A: Maybe, maybe not. Your page must have rythm. Acutally all pages have rythm, but artistic rythm flows like an unobstructed stream. A fine-tuned artistic rythm has a direction, as opposed to multiple directions.
Q: What do you mean by direction?
A: Direction has to do with the movement of the eye on the page. When we refer to movement on a page, we're talking about the direction the eye naturally travels when taking it all in. Some people don't realize that you don't just stand and stare at picture. Your eye "reads" it, by traveling around it, even if you think you're just looking at all of it at once. There are many forms of movement, and I can't discuss them all, but here's a "for instance": Sometimes artists will arrange elements in a triangular pattern, two on either side of the bottom and one at the middle of the top. In this case, your eye will travel either from the bottom right or the bottom left, to the middle of the top of the page, and then back down to the opposite side of the bottom from where you began. Sometimes the movement of the page is circular, around the center, or spiralling from the center outward. There are other directions, too, but the important thing to remember is that there should be only one direction, not over, under, sideways down, around and back again. The eye doesn't like that. Artistic movement never confuses.
Another helpful thing to know about movement, is that it starts somewhere and ends somewhere. The starting point has a name. It's called the push and it's what propells your eye forward. It's great to know this because now you can talk to yourself about it when you look at your pages. If you see that there's something wrong with your page and the direction of its flow, you can decide if your push is effective or ineffective. If your push is a face in profile, make sure it's facing in the direction of the movement and not away from it. There are volumes written on direction and movement in art, and it is an area of study for all serious art and art history students. If you're interested in more, I highly recommend The Artist's Design: Probing The Hidden Order
Q: I don't have much time, and I'm really not all that serious about it. How can I get good at this really quickly?
A: What is quick? I have no idea how long it will take you. Some people seem to come by it naturally, others get it fast through learning, and others have a hard time grasping it. The good news is that most people get it sooner or later, and the less in a hurry you are, and the more relaxed you are, the quicker it seems to come. And when you say "not really serious", do you mean that it doesn't matter that much? Or that you don't care that much? Because if it doesn't matter and you don't care, then as I see it, there are two ways you can go. First, you can see it as valuable back knowledge, and learn it so that you have it in your mind and can refer to it later. I guarantee that if you plan to do anything artistic, it will be of use. Or, you can go where the passion is, and if it isn't here, then take up something else instead.
Q: Well, I'm not sure how interested I am because I'm just getting started, but I really think I want to make things. Is this a good place to start?
A: I think you can start anywhere. And you can go anywhere, and go back to where you start again. With art, it's all good. But I will say this: Mechanically speaking, there are basically two kinds of arts: Product arts, and process arts. Product arts have to do with a specific goal in mind, such as, "I'm going to make a Dia de los Muertos shrine with a skeleton and a bunch of colorful flowers and desgins." With product art you have at least a somewhat clear idea of what your finished product will look like, and you move toward your goal. Photorealistic drawing is also product art, so don't think that "product" is synonymous with "for sale". It isn't. It's about the creation of a something as your primary goal, as in producing what you've pictured, hence the word "product". As such, product art takes pleasure in finishing the piece. Even if there is immense pleasure in making it, there is much pleasure in the act of finishing and/or completing.
Product artists work on one piece at a time, or in assembly line fashion. They sometimes work on one component of many pieces at at time, then assemble the pieces. Even in photorealistic drawing, an artist will concentrate on one part of the drawing at a time. Even if skipping around. In other words, the eyes and the mouth are not drawn at the exact same time. This is a factor of the way product artists think, not a factor of how many hands they have.
Process art is the opposite. Process artists don't know what the finished piece will turn out to be, or at the very best, their idea is vague. Whatever ideas come as the artist progresses, these can change, stay the same, morph into something else entirely, and even go back to where they were to begin with. The execution is very fluid and malleable. There is a less definable sense of when a piece is finished. What seems finished to someone else may not seem finished to you, or vice-versa. Even you may think a piece is finished when it isn't, and the key is that it matters much less about finishing than about doing. The process generates pleasure, and even if the final piece gives pleasure, the pleasure of finishing is less than the pleasure of the process. It is normal for process artists to experience "let-down" after completing a work of art. A smidgen of depression or sadness that the baby has left the cradle. To combat this, many process artists work on more than one piece at a time. A collage artist usually has multiple pieces in play at once, and may even go from one to the next, and then back to the first. At the very least, there is usually one other started, but still unfinished project in the works when the artist completes a piece.
There is cross-over, but ususally an artist will prefer one way or the other--process or product. It is very good for artists to develop both process and product, even knowing that in the end they will probably prefer one over the other. It is especially helpful for collage artists to practice photorealistic drawing, and for photorealistic artists to develop a strong sense of collage. Collage teaches composition as well as providing hands-on experience with elements of product art. Photorealistic drawing teaches accuracy by training the eye to see what's actually there, bypassing the natural filters that the human eye creates. Collage artists that can see like artists will be more highly skilled and more at ease than those who haven't yet developed their artist's eye. The latter will have a harder time deciding on images and feeling comfortable with their choices, while the former will see quickly what works and what doesn't.
Q: I've heard many people say that drawing is the basis of all visual art. Do you believe this? Can I collage even if I can't draw?
A: Yes. I'm positive that drawing is the basis for all visual art because drawing is bascially sight, which equals vision. And you can draw, so of course you can collage.
Just because you may not like what you draw, doesn't mean that you can't draw. And just because drawing is the basis for all art, that doesn't mean that you can't develop it along the way, or even alongside any artistic endeavor you may choose to pursue. In fact, the more you look at art, elements of art, tools of art, etc. and come to understand them, the more easily you'll pick up drawing. Cutting things out carefully and meticulously with scissors, for instance, exercises the same muscles and hand-eye coordination as a pencil on paper. You must accurately follow a line by training your hand not to jump ahead of what your eye sees, nor allow your eyes to move ahead of where your hand is. This is the essence of drawing. Sight and touch. Maneuvering corners, sometimes with a light touch, sometimes with a heavy touch, sometimes slower, sometimes faster.
Wrapping it all up, let me just add that collage is one of the most versitle and satisfying mediums of expression. By using a combination of other people's images and your own imagination, you enter into dialogue with other artists and photographers, some long gone from the face of this earth. You develop your imagination by re-writing stories, not replacing them. If you use all your own images and items, you miss out on the dialogue, but you can tap into an even deeper sense of your own vision and imagination.
As children, our art was rich in composition but unrefined in detail. As we get older, as we necessarily learn to refine the details of the elements of our art, we temporarily forget our sense of composition. Temporarily. Collage and other layout oriented arts help to pull the disparate elements back together. But now they're refined, even if still child-like.
And collage is for everyone. It can be concentrated in solitude and still proliferate in community. What you work on when alone will be different from collage you create in a room with other artists, and both will be equally valuable. You will find that the more you collage, the more that is new. At first you may think you've done it all or that you're repeating yourself. But the further you pursue this art form, the more limitless you'll find it to be. And collage can't help but benefit whatever other art you pursue. Above all, have fun.
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