Abstract Mixed Media Collage

1. Introduction: Hi, I'm Elizabeth, and welcome to my class Abstract Mixed Media collage. I have been having so much fun exploring different ways to combine collage and mixed media approaches into single artworks, both in my sketchbook and in some larger pieces, as well as in some mini projects that I've been working on. And I really wanted to create a class that shared that excitement with you. Also help you see some ways that you can elevate the idea of cutting and pasting to create collages by working back into them with different mixed media approaches. For the mixed media piece, you can use any type of materials that you have on hand. I have been really, really excited about the possibilities of going back into my abstract collages with colored pencil because you can play with bold color, you can play with value. You can create whatever colors under the sun you want to as you mix your colored pencils together. You can have fun with different marks and make exciting patterns and textures, and then you can take that even further by adding in some ink details. You could even paint back into your abstract collages. There's really no limit to how you can go about approaching the project for this class. This class is intended for creatives of all skill levels who kind of want to see what ways we can elevate collage and kind of shake up and get some excitement going in your creative practice through some very low stakes, stress free, fun approaches to art making. I hope you'll join me in class as we explore ways to approach abstract collage and mixed media approaches. Let's send it over to the next lesson to talk a little bit more in detail about our class project. See you there. 2. Class Project: The project that we're going to create for class is really fun. You can decide to do it in whatever scale you want to. I'm working rather small because that's kind of where I'm feeling comfortable these days and kind of what I have time for. So scale of artwork really kind of depends on the materials that you have on hand and the time that you have to work on this. But the great thing about collage is, it's very easy to pick up and put down if you need to work on your project in small spurts of time. So you're going to want to have some collage materials on hand. I'm using just construction paper to create my geometric abstract collage, focusing on the scraps of paper that I have on hand. So that's a big piece is we really want to play with scraps. You can either have those scraps on hand or you can create those scraps, and it's really fun to do both. I do a lot of projects both in my own art making, as well as in my teaching. Person where we do collage because it's one of my favorite things to do. So I keep all those scraps and then find new ways to incorporate the scraps into my projects in the future. So a big part of this class is giving new life to scrap construction paper, but you can use any kind of paper that you have on hand or creating scraps to get inspired by kind of the unique color combinations of that leftover material, as well as some of the unique and interesting shapes that you end up with when you cut out other things. Then after we create our collage, we are going to be working back into it with colored pencil. You can use any art materials you want to have on hand. So there's no limitation other than what your paper can handle and what you have access to. But colored pencils are what I'm going to be demonstrating in this class. Let's head over to the next lesson to talk a little bit more about what materials you're going to want to have on hand for class. See you there. 3. Materials: So the materials for class are relatively simple. We're doing collage and we're working back into it, so we need to have some paper. For this class, we're using paper scraps. I teach a lot of different classes to a lot of different ages from kiddos to adults, and I am notorious for collecting the scraps when it's something involving collage and just hanging onto them. You can't hang on to everything always, but these are some pretty fabulous scraps that can be different color inspirations, different, artistic inspirations, and we're going for abstract collage as our foundation. So scraps like this are fabulous. But if you don't have scrap paper, you can make it. So let's say you need to make scraphs. So the fun part of that is that you're going to grab any color paper that you have. It could be patterned, it could be solid. It could be found papers. It really, truly doesn't matter. I love the bold graphic nature of construction paper or any kinds of paper that are like construction paper so that you have that fun boldness to play with, and then you have the solid flat color because we're going to work back into it and create pattern and line and mark and value, and it's going to be really awesome. So you just kind of start cutting and taking interesting shapes out of it. This can be very therapeutic and enjoyable. I highly recommend it. And the scraps can be big, they can be small. You can just kind of cut some strips, whatever you want. By around with different ways that you can take that paper and change it. So now I have a ton more scraps that I can incorporate into my piece as well. So either collect some scraps. If you have some kiddos at home and they're going to do some art projects, save their scraps or make some of your own. Just have a paper cutting session in front of your favorite show where you're listening to some great music and go to town cutting up a bunch of different colors of paper. If you're making your scraps, don't edit yourself for color. Just grab random colors and just start cutting because part of the fun of it is digging through your scraps and looking for interesting shapes, as well as interesting color combinations. If you start editing the process too soon, in the scrap making stage, then that can really limit you later on. Not that that's a bad thing, but I really encourage you to play and just create a lot of different colored pieces of paper scraps to go with if you need to make some scraps for yourself. And then we're going to obviously need scissors because we can cut these down even further. We're going to be collaging, so we're going to be gluing them, so we need some glue sticks around. And then I'm going to work small. I love to do this on white paper and I love to do it on black paper. This is black mixed media paper that I have on hand from some other projects that I was doing. This is just white drawing paper, but you can use watercolor. You can use mixed media, you can use anything. You just want it to be a heavy enough weight that you can collage onto it without it tearing. But pretty much any drawing paper weight up will work great. And then I love having a scrap of copy paper. So this is my glue mess area. So this is where I'm going to be sticking the glue on my scraps so that my table doesn't get covered in glue. And then after we do the collage portion, we're going to work back into it with colored pencils. If you don't have colored pencils, you can use ballpoint pen, you can use Sharpies, you can use really any drawing supplies that you have on hand. You could even paint back into it with acrylic paint. But for my examples, I'm going to be pulling a couple of different colors of colored pencils that speak to me after I've created my collage and I know what color scheme I'm working with. I tend to go for colors that connect. With the collage so that there's a color relationship happening there. So for example, this one that I made, it's on black paper. I worked with mostly cool colors with some pops of red in there. Color pencil wise, I only used four. I used five. I used a light pink, I used white. I used a magenta, and I use an ultramarine blue. The colors that you use can be very minimal as far as the color pencil goes. This example I used a bit more. Let's see, I have white. I have light pink. I have a very dark red. I have yellow ochre and a brighter yellow. I've got some orange in there. I've got violet. Maybe some other ones. I don't know. This one has a little bit more going on. So as much colored pencils as you want to corporate into it, and then I'm going to show you these are two of the ways that I'm going to show you to create your piece. But these are the basic materials that we are going to need for class. Go ahead and gather up some scraps, make some scraps, have some fun doing that, get all your materials together, and I'll meet you in the next lesson to start our first college. See you soon. 4. Collage: So what I did was I went through my scrap pile, and I pulled out colors and scrap shapes that just kind of got me excited and that I felt aesthetically would look good together. And for this one, I wanted to work on a black background. So I was really going for colors that were going to pop off that background. And now, bit by bit, I'm just building up my collage and kind of deciding what goes where as each new piece goes down. I often love to work in this intuitive manner where I just kind of go with my gut reaction and kind of figure it out as I go along. I'm being very intentional in setting up my composition and working with the limitation of the scraps that I've chosen. Now along the way, you can absolutely modify your scraps, tweak them. There I was doing a little bit of trimming to the spiral that was left over from cutting out some circles for a different project so that I can really make that scrap, do what I wanted it to do visually on the paper. Then I always have a scrap of copy paper laying next door so that I can have that be where I apply the glue to the papers that I'm gluing down and then my work table stays clean. And I can make sure that I can get really good glue coverage on the scraps that I'm going down and that my piece is going to be nice and stable. I decided to use even the scraps that I was making in the process of this. So that's where these extra kind of half circle blue pieces come from. They're the scraps that I cut off the original kind of spiraling lighter blue piece. So it's really fun to just continue to get inspired by your scraps, keep building up the piece little by little, and making decisions as you go. I really want to keep this one fairly simple, knowing I was going back into it with mixed media details. And then the last step I like to do for the collage portion is to trim up the edges so that everything stays within the picture plane that I've established. But you wouldn't have to do that. You can absolutely have them hang off the edges or even glue this mini collage onto a bigger background and really play with breaking out of the sides of the paper. And then for the final step, I'm just kind of looking to see if there's any other scraps that I want to incorporate at this stage, to really kind of make this step of the project feel resolved and finished, and then I will get ready to move on to the colored pencil section. So have some fun playing with your scrap pieces, really kind of explore the possibilities, move your collage around, spin it around, change the orientation of your scrap pieces and have some fun creating this step of your project. I'll see you in the next lesson where we add the colored pencil details. 5. Colored Pencil: Now that my collage is done, I want to go back in and add some different elements of colored pencil to really elevate the collage portion and kind of help unify the piece and add some nice contrast and some more interesting details. So here I'm just kind of pulling colors that reflect different elements of the collage colors I've already used, but playing around with different values, too, because I have a really dark black background. I've got pretty bold colors here. So I'm kind of playing with a mix of lighter colored pencils and then some darker ones, too, just to kind of push the value variety in my piece. And a lot of this can be planned in advance if you wanted to kind sketch it out. You absolutely could. You could make this as planned and structured as you wanted to. I really prefer to kind of just be in the moment and let all of the elements kind of come together as I go. I do have certain motifs and design elements and marks that I really love returning to in my projects, but I'm also kind of really pushing myself to come up with new ways to work back into my pieces so that I'm continuing to grow, too. So in this piece, I feel like I'm doing things that aren't part of my general go to, but I'm also making this on a day when I'm in a place where I'm feeling comfortable with pushing myself and experimenting. And the great thing about doing something small like this is that there isn't a lot of pressure. Like, granted, it would be very challenging to recreate this and start over. Also, the possibility of how far I can take it in working on it and continuing to challenge myself is very exciting. I'm just kind of going back in. I really intentionally worked a lot with structuring the layering of the collage pieces, and was very mindful about what overlapped where and how things intersected. And I want to have different elements of the collage continue on that. So for this plummy purple piece. I've got a pattern that I'm creating with some half circles. I could keep going over the pieces that are on top and kind of let the marks ride as their own layer. But here I chose to have them stay where only the paper was. So wherever that same color paper was, that is where that pattern went and then kind of building it up from there. So each decision is all about kind of helping bring the piece closer to a resolution. And knowing when a piece is done can be very challenging, but at the same time, if you just kind of keep taking pauses to look at what you're doing and make very mindful choices about what you add next, I think you'll naturally just kind of know when a piece is done. But here I'm playing with repeating colors. I'm plating with repeated elements. So kind of elements that are similar. So there's a lot of different line work happening, even if there is some variety within the line because variety is also very good and just kind of seeing what this piece feels like it needs as I continue to move forward with the colored pencil sections. And really, like I said, focusing on the layers and how do I carry through different design elements on the layers to really kind of push the idea of this stacked collage piece that I've created initially. And I really love putting value back in. So that's kind of something newer that I'm doing in my pieces is kind of adding the values and the gradients and different ways that I can play with. How can I manipulate the colored pencil so that I get a lot of bold areas, but that I also kind of have dustings of color, too. Because the other really fun piece to approaching art like this is that layering the colored pencils on top of the paper is one thing. But we're layering colors of colored pencils on top of different colors paper. The colors that you choose for the mixed media element, if you're using something like a colored pencil where there's going to be some transparency, then you have to think about how is this color going to look on top of that color? You absolutely could test this out ahead of time on some similar color paper scraps if you wanted to. You would do a whole brainstorming session where you played up around with what colors do what on top of other colors and kind of testing it out. It would be incredibly fun to create kind of a whole library of resources as you think about color combinations of things watercolor or colored pencil, you know, transparent mediums on top of other colors because it changes everything, and it gets so fun and exciting to kind of see how far it goes. I did want to go in with the white absolutely to kind of figure out what can I add with white so that I continue to kind of build up more layers. And so really play around with different ways that you can apply your mixed media drawing materials so that you kind of add some more interest and design fun and some unique characteristics to your abstract mixed media collage. And don't be afraid. Just go for it. When you're going back in like this, you can't erase. Be bold, be committed, and if something goes awry, then you'll figure out how to turn it into a happy accident, I promise. Have fun. No matter what happens, have fun working back into your abstract collages and seeing how far you can push them when you turn a collage into a mixed media collage. One thing you can do is if you get colored pencil from, like, one section into another section where you don't want it, you can take an exacto knife and just kind of very gently scrape away the colored pencil wax. And chances are the construction paper is going to be thick enough where to lose a little bit of that fiber where the colored pencil is on it, it's going to be just fine. I'm so incredibly happy with how my abstract Mixed Media collage turned out, and I can't wait to see what yours looks like. So let's hand it over to the last lesson of class to wrap things up. See you soon. No. 6. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for joining me in abstract mixed media collage. I hope you had so much fun getting inspired by the scraps that you had on hand or the scraps that you've created to create the collage foundation of your project, and that I hope you continue to have fun as you layered in colored pencil application in a variety of different ways. I know I sure had fun creating this class, and I'm very excited to keep incorporating this sort of artistic approach into my creative practice. I would love to see how your abstract collages turned out. So please head on over to the Projects and resources section of class and upload images of your project to the student gallery, and don't forget to stick around and take advantage of looking at the projects of other students and circling back to see what new projects get uploaded. It is incredibly inspiring to see what color combinations, what types of scraps, and what colored pencil application or other mixed media application folks explore in their own art making. There's nothing more exciting than seeing the art of others. So I really hope you'll take advantage of the student gallery to share your work as well as to celebrate the work of others. Addition to uploading your project to the student Callery, I would really appreciate it if you took the time to leave a review. I love leaving student reviews as a student myself on Skill Share because it gives me a chance to kind of think back through the process of taking the class, the application of that to creating the class project, and how I might incorporate what I've learned in the future. It also allows me an opportunity, which I hope you'll to give the teacher feedback on what I really enjoyed about the class, some suggestions I might have for ways to tweak the class or for future classes, and just ways to connect with each other in a really great way as we share not only our experiences and classes with the teacher, but also with students who might be considering to take the class on the Skillshare platform. After you are done with that, I would love it if you click the Follow button below so that we can stay connected. I have lots of great classes already up on skill share, but I have so many more that are in the works currently and coming in the future. So I don't want you to miss a single minute of creative inspiration and artistic exploration with me. So if you click the Follow button, you will get notified every time I upload something new to the platform. We can also connect outside of Skill Share. You can head on over to my Instagram to follow along on that journey. And if you share your projects on Instagram, please be sure to tag me at Elizabeth Underscore Welfare. I love celebrating what my students are up to. I love connecting on and off the platform, and I love continuing to share this artistic journey with my students. So it would be really amazing to stay connected on Skill Share, on Instagram, and over on my YouTube channel. My YouTube channel is an extension of my art studio. I share everything that's happening both in my role creatively and artistically, from art adventures that I go on, sketchbooks out in the wild, different artistic practices that I'm exploring, demonstrations, ways that I'm applying things that I teach in my own artistic so I really hope that you'll connect with me on Skillshare Instagram and over on YouTube as I continue to grow all three of these platforms in my mission to connect with as many creatives in the world as possible. Thank you so much for taking this class and spending this time with me. I really enjoyed having you along for the ride, and I can't wait to see what you created and stay connected in the future. So until next time,