Exercise 3.4 Collage studies

The aim of this exercise is to extend skills at working with collage, with a focus on colour and composition.

The starting point for this exercise was to photograph a messy corner of a room or cupboard, rather than using a composed still life. This immediately caught my interest, and provoked a little scepticism and curiosity as to how it would work out, as it was not something that I had considered as a useful or worthy starting point for artwork before.

It wan't hard to find a messy corner - but which one should I choose? I settled on a corner of the garage that was piled high with various bags and baskets:

I decided to gather together whatever interesting papers I could find in order to see what would inspire me to use in my collage.

Part 1

First of all I set about producing three different collages from this source photo, one of which needed to be simple. I decided to interpret this 'simple' brief as a hand-torn collage, picking out the main colours that I observed in the photo in a horizontal stripe design:

Collage 1: Simple

The colours I observed included silver grey, cream, orange, pink, white, blue, beige and light brown, which I added to my collage starting at the top and continuing down the page, roughly in the order in which they appeared vertically in my photo.

The papers I used included rough and smooth textures, printed and plain, opaque and semi-transparent. to echo some of the textures I observed from the photo, as well as the colours I could see.

Next I tackled the 'unusual' colour combination. Picking out the key shapes in a selection of the objects I could see, such as the washing baskets, and the shopping bags, I combined natural/neutral tones, brights and monochromes in a composition which highlights the dominant forms in the composition:

Collage 2: Unusual

My third collage needed a complex colour combination, so I decided to use printed papers from a range of magazines, newspapers, brochures and leaflets with interesting colours, patterns and designs, Again, using the photo as a guide and working vertically, I aimed to pick up the key colours I observed and use the complexity of the colours visible in each strip of coloured paper taken from a magazine, newspaper, envelope, wrapping paper or brochure:

Collage 3: Complex

I tried to view each stripe as a whole to interpret the colour visible in the composition of the photo, but the colours within each stripe add a pleasing complexity.

Part 2

Of these, I decided to move forward with the Collage 3 from Part 1, in order to inform three new developments.

I assembled my monochromatic papers, and where necessary made more, using the photocopier to turn coloured papers into black and white where necessary, and reusing those papers that were already monochrome. Where people were featured I used their images right way up and upside down to see what effect this would have: would we still recognise them as people, or would they seem merely shapes?

Collage 1: Monochromatic study

For the single colour study I chose the colour blue as it appeared in about seven or eight of the colour stripes of the collage I was working from. In particular I wanted to reuse the brick effect (inside of security envelope) as it was such a strong colour and resembled the blue of the shopping bag in my initial photo. I then decided to try to use this paper in all my collages as a way of linking them:

Collage 2: Single colour study

I used the photocopier to help me deal with the tonal qualities of the coloured original, and help me select the right blues for the single colour version:

Photocopying to help see the tonal differences and guide the single colour version

In order to produce a multicoloured collage, I decided I would like to experiment further with the photocopier and the scalpel, so photocopied my complex collage and rearranged it. Firstly by cutting into tapering strips, then reforming into a rectangular formation, alternating the direction going across the piece:

Collage 3: Multi-coloured study: 1

I like the way this resembles a patchwork quilt and the way the photographs it is composed of lose their meaning when chopped up and reconstituted in this way.

I then wanted to bring this back a little, become a little more ordered and controlled, so, using another photocopy of the same collage, I cut it into more regular strips, of a similar width and experimented with positioning each one a little higher or a little lower, which produced a horizontal ripple effect from left to right across the collage:

Collage 3: Multi-coloured study: 2

Again, the way the images and words become abstract when used in this way interests me. I also like the way the colour palette ranges from light and fresh to rich and strong as it travels down the collage.

This is my series of collages, showing the development from the three first collages into the later pieces:

I found it interesting how different papers could look when photocopied and how this could exaggerate their tactile qualities. This brown paper, when photocopied, resembles the sheen on the surface of the dessert in the orange stripe in the earlier multicoloured collage, and so was used in the monochrome version:

Some practical things I have learnt:

• The photocopier/scanner was a really useful tool for this exercise, in helping to identify tonal qualities and highlight the textures of the papers.

• It is important to use the right kind of glue and sticking method: I found that PVA would buckle when it dried and end up rigid, whereas the glue sticks tended not to stick perfectly. Next time try using PVA again but dry between layers of greaseproof and under a heavy weight (as learnt in bookbinding techniques).

The most surprising thing I learnt from this exercise is that a really unattractive starting point (a pile of domestic clutter!) can lead to artworks that are interesting and pleasing to the eye.