Paper Collage Basics: Working With Florals

1. Introduction: Hi, everyone. I'm Savina Monet gave a graphic designer and visual artists from Portland, Oregon. Today we're gonna be talking about the art of collage and how to compose your first clause using florals. I'm gonna go over some techniques you can use to create your very own for collage. We'll play with scale, will fill our pages for ALS. We also use flowers to create a surreal landscape. This could be really fun. I'll also go over different tools of the trade, how and where I find my material pasting techniques and, of course, out of put it all together, let's get started. 2. Collecting Paper Material + Flip Test: so first up in any clause is gonna have to be gathering your materials. This can be anything that inspires you. My favorite resource is are not National Geographic magazine's encyclopedia years or put fiction books that are really old. Books that has this, like crazy cover are on it anyway. They could be really funny, and it's manipulate them well enough, you might be able to make something very cool of it. So in gathering material, a lot of people say, Savina, I don't want to become a people order. How do I filter down the magazines and just keeping what I really want? And my answer for that is I'm not a paper boarding myself. But there is a great test I like to use called the blood test, So I will be demonstrating with one of my favorite national Geographics. This one is from May 1952 and what I'll do is when I pick something up. National Geographic is really cool because they'll have the topics on the cover, and so you kind of see it a quick I have. Maybe you need something with sea turtles. Portugal. That seems like a very colorful place then I would just open it up and do exactly what you think just kind of put through and really pay attention. Do you have images making a deal? Someone wearing colors were black. Why do you like I really love how? Visit that IHS. You guys cool some days out. Just take a whole day going through the magazines I just picked up and I will kind of trim the fat and cut out some of the really exciting pictures I think I could work with that way . I don't have a bunch of paper bulk all over my office, and I get to keep, you know, the cream of the crop. So definitely tried. Assad. Next time you're at library yard sales thrift stored was not anywhere that will sell second hand books. I'd always recommend using something that has been used before, because once it's great for the environment by doing those your recycling materials at me. Otherwise having landfill. And, of course, it is a bunch cheaper. So maybe a little bit later on, you'll start seeing specialty magazines that you'll want to hold on to, and those will be a little bit more costly. But by then you'll have your got steering you to where you want to come. Of course, other than paper material, you definitely leave your tools for the trade. And some of my favorites are a metallic roller. I would consider this way better than a plastic ruler because my first got started collage . I sure read my plastic up. I I use this a lot too great Straight lines or Teoh help you tear pages out of a magazine. And when I'm using that in conjunction with the Exacto knives, plastic ruler wouldn't always hold up. So speaking off the door is good to have a handy exactly Why do you tell life? This is not necessarily something you must have. But if you really want to get into details and they create more white space, Mr Figures or plants or animals, it is definitely handy. We also have trusty scissors, scissors or a great or setting off larger pieces of magazine. That cash one could have a wave so that he can focus on the more detail part for you with then use your exactly. Another big question I have is with pasty. So what do you dio you know you could use double sided tape. Some people think that's very helpful. The pros of this is that it will now work your paper. It will not fill your paper. Um, con is that double sided tape over time can wear down and prove you have to be so helpful, which is something to consider. If you plan on giving your closets a gift or even song it has your own. Then we go over into our wet technique. This will be primarily the world of blues. And so the 1st 1 that I have here is a pretty liquidy tacky glue. So this is old purpose. It dries clear, which is really good to double check, especially with buying a white blue. I love to use this for thicker material cardboard, maybe something that I found on a book cover because it will do a great job at keeping those pieces together. Ever. I do use mostly magazine clippings, and so this would be something that is a little too wet for me. It may work my paper. It may lead to killing, which are little white pieces of fiber that come off of your paper after you manipulated it a little bit too long. My top choice would have to be the handy dandy loosed. I love glue sticks because it's almost like a solid, but it glides on easily, as if it's a liquid. Cool thing about this, too, is that it's a photo safe glue stick so that needs it will not leave yellowing in your pieces as time goes on. Working with paper could be a really fun medium, but it is still a natural fibre. So we have to be aware that there may be some discoloration years after your pieces have been completed. This isn't something that you'll see short term 34 weeks. I'm talking 32 7 10 years down the line, especially if you keep your pieces here. A light. Solis Whether window a backdoor that will lead to further discoloration or bleaching from the sun. The best way I found to combat that is to frame her pieces and keep them away from a direct light source. For your class project, you'll be composing a floor collage completely from found scraps from your favorite magazines, books or whatever else you find lying around 3. Creating Surreal Landscapes: So another concept I'm going to talk about is creating a botanical landscape. These are my favorite because your imagination just go wild. You anything you can think of you can create. I found these really fun clippings from two different at Geo magazines. What I did here is I tore the paper hours with my hands is also another alternative to cutting out with scissors an Exacto knife. I like the way it gives it that ragged feel. And you also see that when you ripped the opposite, he creates this kind of white border. I appreciate you transparency of it. And I really like the paper texture that it gives. Do it, This guy. So a kid exploring in the meadow and cut out his arm to kind of give a little bit more deaths. I'm just gonna add this fuel. They're into that ones. So you could see ago saying before the texture of the paper rib kind of blends the two together, and now it looks like this kid is a giant reaching into different yields of flowers when I see is a little bit right here. So I might go ahead and make that texture again just by tearing Nice. Then I have this image world garden in England so pretty and I will just add that right behind it and already right there we created our surreal for a landscape using free usis. I played with scale using a large boy and for flowers which kind of makes the illusion that he is this giant kids frolicking around in the meadows, which I mean, I just sounds awesome, right? You would dream that up. And so if I wanted to blue this down when I usually like to do especially with a simple piece like this is that can you just hold on to it and I grab my glue and then I'll glue it in place. So refer down. And the reason I like to do this is because it helps me keep my composition Sometimes, uh, your collage ing you can get kind of confusing, and you might forget, you know, that I have this piece here that I have this piece of bare. But for something simple like this, it is a lot easier. Yeah, I just I like to focus on gluing the edges of the art use that way you're not oversaturated your people with glue, so there is less likely of a chance warping, you hear? It also makes it a little bit more pliable. Case you read steak and you just wanted to make a quick adjustment down way. Have it another fun example of a surreal landscape or filling up huge with florals. Are these guys so again, we have our 40 feels that looks fine because it looks like rows of orange and the yellow. This is a giant road, a dungeon bush that is turning into a tree. Um, the guy probably had it forever, you see. And I have this great cup this black and white Mountain living just makes a perfect contrast against these colors. So we are working with, like, colors here in the red, yellow, The warms are all very warm, and they contrast well against the cool of the black and white known. So, you know, I'm gonna hide this guy. He's sitting in the distance, the open air, one of this upside down just to give it more of a surreal fuel. Now it looks like the flowers are growing upside down. Looks like we have a whole sky of these beautiful red for the done dreams. And just a simple is that you have your next collage again here. I think this do these guys You hear this, I You're finally I since this was an easier closet, Just kind of consistent of three blocks. I don't feel bad. This is read on your travel four by six collage. Be great on a postcard. It could be great matted even to this white background. I think that'd be perfect. And so again did hear this. I was just silver. And with that bad boy back on there you have the large sense. 4. Playing with Scale: So my next collage is going to be all about playing with scale. And this is definitely when my favorite waas You might have seen it before with shapes, different animals. But we are going to be stringing this nearly decapitated woman and really turning into a flower child. So I grabbed this image from an encyclopedia of perennials and this was from an old issue of Harper's Bazaar and all I'm gonna dio is who? That one right on top and already we're playing with this huge flower little legs. Now it looks like some kind of flower person makes it really fun. The whites is a little too similar to the white of the flower for me. So for something like this, I would definitely look at a more colorful backing right here. I have this beautiful cripples will just slide her over Just a ranger again. Oh, my goodness. I love it. Just like that. You have this amazing flower woman. How cool is that? This is definitely a technique you look at using when creating your own cautious. Okay. And I'm just gonna you there, beautiful like you. Okay? My last example of scale. This one's really fine. So I found this large image of these Leader Cosmo's from a very sure, but it was also found in the encyclopedia for perennials. And I found this fun photo of a bunch of kids splashing around in that geo magazine and kind of just playing with policeman's allowing toe look like they were playing in this field of flowers. But the flowers are humongous. They're bigger than any flower I've ever seen. So I kind of like the way it looks in this bunch here. But I don't like that this image wholly covers the other image. So I'm gonna do is I'm gonna play with wearing a little bit this guy out and then, like, an economy entirely, I just want to cut out enough so that I can slide this image under through Kind of see what I'm talking about. No. Hey, we're doing something like this. We're kind of playing around seeing no Looks like stepping out behind Clark, you know, I'm going Teoh. Still the same thing with this flower here. Truth here. Notice harm angling the blaze. You always want to work with the shark. Please. Our when I was kind of looking at other pedals. Do you have that big bar raising big over here? But they don't want to. I had any of these kids a little bit more. You see you rearing and kind of something like that. Looks like more just like that. These kids look like they're playing in the giant field of giant flowers. 5. Wrap Up: feel free to expand outside of those techniques, from these are mostly supposed to just be used as a jumping off point. And the fun thing about collage is that you can create anything that you could dream out. So I am very, very excited to see what you come up with. And thank you for watching my class.