Princess Feather Hat is what you get when you cross collage with a tweety bird and animate the whole sha-bang. Moving pictures that chirp!
I never know what is going to happen when I start a collage. Yes, I can say the same thing for a drawing or a painting, but collage is different. The sheer speed of change that occurs when making a collage is stunning — and exhilerating!
When I paint, it takes time to create the mouth, the eyes, the nose, the shape of the face, the tilt of the head. When placing bits of colored paper on a white ground, however, it is the same process but now I am moving at three times the speed of art! This form has got to be one of the most quickly moving art forms, as far as the creative process is concerned.
Have you tried it yourself?
Here’s a super easy project for you. Set up time is 20 minutes, creativity time is 40 minutes.
- Place four sheets of 8.5 x 11″ white card stock in front of you.
- With a fat brush about 1/2 inch wide, paint primary and secondary colors onto the two sheets.
- Use acrylic colors because they dry fast and because cleanup is easy.
- Let the paint dry — they should be dry enough to work with in 10 minutes.
- Cut up the sheets of painted paper with scissors or just rip ’em up into an assortment of shapes and sized.
- On a plain sheet of paper arrange the shapes into a face.
- Experiment by moving the shapes slightly to see how subtle changes make a big difference.
- Don’t bother to use glue in this creative phase — this is the part that brings me the most joy — arranging, experimenting and thinking.
- When you’re done composing, glue each shape into place. I like Yes paste because it doesn’t buckle the paper, but glue sticks will work too.
- Repeat!
Oh, this is fun!
