I bought this small, lined journal at the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse for 50 cents, and am using it as a writing journal.
The cover had a corporate logo on it I didn't want to see, so I personalized it with my own art.
A rummage through my collage basket turned up the painted papers I used to create this simple design.
The blue piece of paper is from an old shorthand text, painted with acrylic paint. I love the texture that out-of-date textbooks create with shorthand, type and music notes. Thin layers of acrylic paint allow the text to show through, and provide their own brightness.
The papers were glued to the journal cover with Yes! Paste. When the glue dried, I painted on a layer of acrylic matte medium to protect the design.
Quick, simple art projects like this can buoy your spirits in the gray winter. Here are some tips for creating collage designs:
- Don't wait for the collage to be 100% perfect. Get it about 65% of the way there, and glue it down. When you step back, you'll see the beauty that caught your eye when you first selected your papers.
- Gather papers with a shared color palette. Here, the repeated scarlet swaths on the blue paper, and in the heart connect the papers and lead your eyes to dance happily around the composition.
- Pick a focal point, even something simple. Here, it's the little, red heart. You could write a word, select a small image, or pick some other bit of collage that's meaningful to you. Help it stand out by creating contrast around it -- light on a dark background, bright color against a white background, etc. Here, the white music sheeting and the blue background paper help the little red heart to stand out. Your artist's eye is likely to do this naturally.
- Above all, be experimental, and allow yourself to play!
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