Practice collage

My collage's theme was based on the 50's-70's. I wanted to incorporate black and white elements because TVs were still black and white up until 1967 and then I included tie-dye because of the 70's. Newspaper was a common thing back in this time period and so were VW bugs. The Beatles, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe were all popular stars and were partially what this time period was known for. To stick the newspaper to the paper I put gel underneath the newspaper then gel and a little water over top of it. After that I would rub the newspaper and press it down then I took it off and a thin layer would stay in most spots. The bare spots looked cool but I stuck the newspaper down this way mainly because lack of time. In all the bare spots I added water color which gave it a really cool torn and old look. After the background was finished I pasted one of The Beatles album cover over top and replaced two of the members with Elvis and Marilyn buy pasting them over top. Then I went around the edges of the picture and added some more newspaper and water color. To the left of that page is another part of the collage which I haven't finished. My plan for the right side is to add some newspaper and water color to the left of the newspaper. Then I will have the VW bug come out of the bottom right corner on top of the newspaper and water color shooting into the tie-dye. I really like how the left side turned out so I think the right will look great! I love this time period because of the music and lifestyle I have seen in it. My new records (one being a Beatles album) inspired this piece. I also love buggies because they are so cute (especially the old ones)! I did have some struggles with this piece though. The water color wasn't looking the way I wanted it to so I had to work with it for a while and the newspaper was hard to make stick with the method I used. Overall I really enjoyed learning how to make a meaningful collage.

Collage

I Take Risks

I had a vision to start off with but as I was working on my collage I started running low on time and had to make other plans. I was not sure how cut up mountains from a magazine and toothpick mountains would look together but it turned way better than expected. The grass was the most time consuming thing in the whole project because I had to take different pictures of grass from different magazines and cut them into different shapes then paste them together based on shape and shade. I had a lot of trouble finding enough grass so I decided I would just have to print out some grass and hope it looked as glossy and the other two areas of grass. The risk I took that did not work out so well was with the sky. I sprinkled sand and glitter over the blue sky hoping for a cool texture but all it ended up doing was clumping together and ruining the paint. Then I painted the the matte gel over top hoping to fade the sky some but the canvas was so ruff that it just came out as blotchy white smudges. In the end I just painted the blue sky back over it and placed cotton balls as clouds. 

I Communicate Through My Work

The assignment was to create a story through a collage so that is exactly what I did. I find the creativity of fantasies very intriguing so I wanted to use the fantasy element to tell my story. My piece does not have a lot of story line to it but I wanted the viewer to be able to use their imagination to create their own story. There is a light side with a tree and flowers and green grass and then there is a dark side with dark twisted trees and vines and black fog. The light side symbolizes the good in a fairytale and the dark side symbolizes the evil in a fairytale. 

I Reflect

I stepped back and analyzed my collage many times throughout the process of making it. I looked it over after every element I added. I think my idea was too detailed for the amount of time and effort I had to put into the project. I was planning on adding a house and many more trees and flowers but it was not practical so I worked with what I had. Many ideas I thought would work out didn't such as having an abundant amount of grass pictures, the flowers aren't my favorite, the original sky was ugly, and the background of the evil forest doesn't flow very well. The collage looks great though! The mountains are my favorite part because the magazine mountains give it a more realistic look but the toothpicks look more fairytale like.