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| Collaging is a practice that you can implement immediately to shift your work in unexpected ways. It may sound simple, but it can have surprisingly profound effects on the way you approach your painting moving forward. Adding collage work into your practice, will allow your "painting brain" to flow more easily and you can move past stuck with a bit more confidence.
Let's take a look at this Kurt Schwitters collage, below. What makes it "work"? Schwitters (1887-1948) was a German artist who worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, and painting.
The collage has a satisfying, limited harmonious palette, which allows me to pay attention to the contrasting values and strong composition.
My eye is first drawn to the interior white space between the three dark circles, a focal point, and then follows the light out to the right. I am caught here by the perfect circle and spend some time examining the design inside, a composition within a composition. At first I am not sure if this circle is a negative or positive shape and this is unexpected. |
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| My eye is then directed upward by the sharp angle to the left and I can begin to float upward and around the more open space above. Here details begin to emerge. Another circle, a perfect outline, is disrupted by some playful, gestural scribbles that add a bit of color and relief from the more rigid edges. The composition of the collage overall, is not too busy, and not too simple.
Now my eye is free to move around the entirety of the piece. I zoom in on the printed words, and a fine red arrow overlapping those first strong spheres. Overall, the collage presents an exciting, unified whole.
Try looking at one of your works with a sharp eye like this, and observe how it moves around. Does your eye get stuck anywhere? Is the composition too busy? Too simple? Does an angle or line direct you out of the picture plane? Is there an interesting distribution of darks and lights?
You can train your eye to answer these questions more readily, and collage is a great tool to start your training!
You can access my free Grayscale Collage lesson until April 23. |
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