These days I'm doing a six-week creativity class called "Creative Bootcamp", taught by Lisa Congdon, one of my favourite artists and instructors.
This week - the 2nd in the series - the assignment consisted of making our own coloured paper, then using it in a collage.
Painting the paper took a whole day! I used some full-size sheets of multimedia paper cut into four. That inexpensive paper took the washes really well -- I must replenish my supply.
And instead of being boring, covering sheets and sheets with those pretty watercolours was strangely satisfying. I loved the resulting textures. (If you click on the pictures you can see what I mean.)
After making the set, I had to choose only six colours for my project.
This is the "paper rainbow" that I produced:
These are the paints that I used (clockwise beginning with the violet):
- Amethyst Genuine (Daniel Smith)
- Prussian Blue (Holbein)
- Cobalt Teal Blue (Daniel Smith)*
- Cobalt Teal Blue - more dilute (Daniel Smith)*
- Prussian Blue with various additions to make dark green (Holbein etc.)*
- Viridian (Winsor & Newton)
- Sap Green (M. Graham) plus Aureolin (Winsor & Newton)*
- Aureolin (Winsor & Newton)
- Cadmium Yellow Deep (Da Vinci)*
- Cadmium Yellow Deep - less dilute (Da Vinci)*
- Brown Madder (Winsor & Newton)
- Cadmium Scarlet - one thin coat and one thick coat (Winsor & Newton)*
- Rose Madder (Holbein)*
- Rose Madder Genuine (Winsor & Newton)
- Off to the side: Payne's Grey (Maimeri)
Colours with an asterisk are the ones I used for the assignment.
Using only those papers, I made this collage:
As I wrote in my description in the course Gallery, next time I will spend more time planning the different layers, but for a first real collage painting, I am rather satisfied about how it came out. I believe I achieved a good composition and colour balance, which were the main items to look out for.
Now I look forward to the next lesson!
