Transcripts
1. Introduction: I like collaging because they can be so loose. I really like that it's going to be opposite process of my digital work because I'm just cutting paper and seeing where it goes. There's something about my hand using the scissors to cut a shape, that can be so satisfying. I'm able to physically move around the pieces in a real space and it's very refreshing. Hi, everyone. My name is Jing Wei and I am an Illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York. I spend most of my days creating work for various commission and sometimes for myself in my studio where I currently am. Today, we will be making a very loose and fast collage out of pre-printed papers and anything you have lying around. I chose to do a collage workshop because most of my days are spent in front of a computer and my client work tend to be very digital so I really appreciate the time and opportunities that I get to work with my hands and work with more tactile materials. I hope that by the end of the class, you will feel a little bit more relaxed and have found a sense of play with this technique and this medium. Because for me, it is really the foundation to a lot of loose art making that I think we all need more of in our lives. Just something to note; this class was recorded live and I got to interact with the audience as I was collaging. Okay, let's get started.
2. Why Creatives Should Collage: Hi, everyone. I'm Jack Pollock. I work on the content team at Skillshare, managing our Skillshare Original teachers, and I'm so excited to be alongside Jing Wei for this live session. Yes, tell us just a little bit about what we're going to be doing today with collages. Today, as you can see, we'll be making just a very casual quick collage. I thought this size paper will be pretty manageable for the time that we have today. I will be cutting out random shapes and trying to compose them on the page. I'll be cutting through every step that I do. I don't really have a topic in mind yet, so I think we're just going to all dive in together and see what happens. I'm going to keep it really loose. Love it. Just tell us, I think, a little bit about when you started creating collages. I think we've all done collages starting out in elementary school and beyond. But just tell us a little bit about your experience, and is it something that you currently do? Yes. When I have the time. I feel like because I draw a lot in my professional practice, I have trouble finding it fun to draw in my off time. I noticed several years ago when I was with a bunch of my friends, we were having an after-work drawing session, people were just diving in and drawing in their sketchbooks, and I realized that I was having a hard time doing that. I really wanted to find something that could provide that same looseness for me. I started cutting out paper and arranging them on the page. I realized that that was the equivalent of sketching for fun for me. It was very meditative. It was mindless in a way. I could just let my hands go. Ever since then, I've found the collaging medium could be something that can provide that form of relaxation and mindless drawing and art-making for me. That feels very different from my professional work but in a good way. Got you. So it's more about just the creative practice for you and less directly informing your illustration work. Does that sound right? Yeah, definitely. That's right. It does really compliments the work in a way because it's still my hand. It's still my color palette, and I still use a lot of the same sensibility that I would when I'm composing a commissioned image or a digital illustration. But it's just a lot looser, and the process is almost like reverse because I'm not planning it out at all. I'm just seeing what lands on the page. There's no pressure to have a finished product. Whereas with a lot of my digital work, I know exactly what it's going to look like right off the bat, and then I work toward that goal. But here it's just play, basically. What can students come to expect out of this class? What do you want people to take away? I guess at the end of this I just want people to become somewhat familiar with the technique that can provide a good foundation for them to, again, play and find that sense of play. Because I feel like there's a lot of pressure, even with hobbies. There can be a lot of pressure to be really good at it right away or to make a finished product something that's Instagramable, but I really just want people to feel comfortable landing wherever they land. For example, we're going to be making some mark-making on paper, and if that's as far as you get, if that's where you feel like you now want to have fun and stay in that area, that's completely fine. If you want to make an insanely detailed super finished collage, that's obviously amazing as well. But I think there are a lot of different steps here that can keep the process very loose. I just want people to be able to find something that they can do in their downtime and not put too much pressure on themselves in the process.
3. Collage Materials: Before we get started, I would like to talk you through the various materials you'll need to get started. Let's see. We have paper, obviously. I have a few blank pages of paper which you will be drawing on and coloring in a bit. But I'm just starting with a blank page for now. This is going to be my canvas and it's just a very newest piece of, I think this is printmaking paper. I have a background in printmaking and I think that involves the collaging process a little bit as well. Because I was really used to working with printed papers and tactile things. So as you can see, a lot of these papers that I already have, I've collected for years from printmaking and also just from texture making in my spare time. So a lot of different kinds of papers and also tools for mark-making, I have these crazy color pencils. A lot of dry media, some textile. For the purposes of today's class, I won't be getting into too much wet media. But I do have examples of ink paper that I've done in the past, which I really liked the stark black and white contrast. If anybody wants to try this, then they can definitely feel free to go for it. When I am making this kind of paper I have also used wet media and I usually just use a brayer and go wet ink onto a palette and make like a relief print that way. So paper, things for mark making and then just any glue. So I have glue sticks, purple for nostalgia. I also have this neutral pH adhesive paper glue, which is what I use most of the time. I feel like this is definitely more archival, little bit more sturdy. So this is what I would prefer to use. I might use a combination of both today just to keep things a little bit cleaner. But that's definitely the type that I would prefer. I have scissors obviously. Then what else? This thing, if anybody has it, it's called a bone folder. So this is something that would be very good for, let's say we're gluing a piece of paper down and there's some ripples. It's really good for just scoring and keeping being flat on the page. So those are the basics.
4. DIY Textured Paper: Next, I want to show you how you can make your own textured and colorful paper. I like to use newsprint because it is a very soft and malleable paper. Maybe we can get some good ASMR here right now. I'm just going to make it manageable for the screen. Like I said, normally I like having an even coating if I'm doing a dense color like this. That's where I will come in with the brayer. But then today I think we can just use whatever we have on hand. Jane, what does the brayer help with? The brayer just helps to apply an even coating of color. That sort of a tool that I learned to become very comfortable with in my print-making days because I would just apply color with brayers of various sizes and that's what I would use to ink the boards that I would then print with. Got you. One day I just realized I could just be making colorful sheets without any photo or images on it and then that would be interesting in itself. I think something like this. I know we don't have a whole lot of time for the paper-making portion of it but you can obviously use anything you want, dry media, wet media. It's very similar to how the results of just making colored paper. I also have construction paper on hand, let's see. Those are obviously very thin and evenly coated pages. I like to have it in the mix because sometimes it's nice to have a very flat block of color juxtaposed against more textured paper. I think that creates an interesting effect. But if you don't have the time or the tool to be making your own paper, then obviously, construction paper is. Awesome. I think that's a good first step to start with if you're interested in playing around in that area. Then we can probably just dive right in and start cutting out some shapes.
5. Cutting Shapes: Now, let's get started cutting our shapes then making the collage. I think that it's very common to draw upon autobiographical moments, like moments in a day, things that you're familiar with, and that's, usually, how I start the content of my collages as well. I think about imagery that's been swirling around my head. Sometimes it'll be something that I've seen in real life, or it'll be maybe even a fantasy. Like I've been really missing swimming during this time, so I find myself really missing large bodies of water, landscape, traveling, imagery that I escape to from time to time. That's what I have in mind right now as I'm making this. I really like to make a lot of abstract landscapes because it's just such a nice foundation that can go anywhere, and it can look like a lot of different things, and it can be easy to stylize or make realistic. I feel like that's a pretty good place to start for me. Tell me a little bit about the shapes that you're creating. Are you sort creating random shapes at this stage, or do you have an image in mind? I'm usually such a planner, so I'm really surprised I didn't plan an image ahead of time for this, but no, I'm actually just cutting. I'm mindlessly cutting out shapes. Obviously, I am used to drawing a lot, so some of these shapes are in my mental library. Like I cut out this plant before and this plant, so yeah, it's like variations on my aesthetic, I guess. Some of these are natural from dimensional plants. I see a rock here. Yeah. Do you have something in mind, or are they totally abstract? Totally abstract. But I'm seeing this as a body of water, maybe these as continuations of that body of water. I might change these, but obviously, this is evoking something outdoors. I agree with you. I'm definitely really missing nature. Glad I got to experience a little bit of that over the summer, but it wasn't nearly enough. Yeah, I think this is me trying to create a peaceful space or a peaceful image for myself. Yeah. What do you think about in terms of the sizing? Is that something that you're thinking through here of the different shapes? Oh, yeah. I think that's a great question. I usually like to have a variety of sizes of shapes because I think that that just creates a more dynamic composition. I really like to start out with bigger pieces, actually, and then fill the page so that it immediately just feels like it's coming to life, and then I'll start to make little adjustments here and there. For example, I started out with this large piece. Currently, these two little pieces don't feel like they really have a place here, but then I'm starting out with these small and medium-sized pieces, and now I'm starting to see it come together. I think the placement phase of things is always really interesting. I just feel like the image really changes when you start to see different pieces interacting with one another, and a lot of the time, that's where the surprise comes from, and that's what I really like about collaging. Is that it a little bit unpredictable, very loose, and sometimes that's the prize element. It's what makes it really enjoyable when it comes together at the end. I know you have a very flat, you mentioned printmaking, aesthetic. Do you ever use, though, a magazine or books? Do you use for your collages a different kind of material? That's a really great question. I never do. I don't know why, maybe I just don't have that many magazines lying around, now that I think about it, but all the ones that I have, I don't want to cut up because they're special. I don't know. But I would love to try it. I think that would definitely bring a different aesthetic to be really intriguing. I have friends who really like to collage with magazines and pre-existing images, and I think the results are really interesting. We've got a question here from Nathan. When making paper textures, what's the best way to not smear the textures? For example, that page of [inaudible] drawn earlier. Oh, yeah. I guess the best way is just to not touch it. Yeah, I think I was coloring it at an angle like this. I think that's pretty much just don't rest your hands on it, don't touch it, and that's what I like about transferring paper with the brayer and ink because, let's say this is the palette, you roll the ink on and then you put the paper down, and then you, maybe even flatten it with a bone folder or furnish it in some way, and then once you peel it, it's exactly what it is. You don't touch it, and then you let it dry. I think just touching the paper as little as possible is probably the best way. Joy asks, what do you think about using pattern papers? Oh, I love that idea. I think that's really great. As you can see here, this little scribble resembles a bit of a pattern. I really like the juxtaposition between something that's very organic and a very geometric shape. I think that you can find that a lot in my work as well. A pattern serves that rigid geometric element that I think could be cool when put up against something that's a little bit more smooth or loose. So, yeah. I'm all for it. Definitely give it a shot.
6. Arranging Your Collage: Next, we can rethink around and recompose the shapes until we are happy with our composition. For my compositions, I'm definitely mindful of leaving some negative space and I think that the negative space can become activated depending on what shapes are around it so I think that that's definitely something that I'm aware of. For example, I'm not trying to place this piece right over this larger darker piece because I think that there's something happening in this negative space that creates a shape of its own that can be very interesting in itself. I definitely think that being aware of negative spaces is important. Yeah, it's almost like another piece of paper that you're working with. This is a very relaxed person. The cut got very wide there. Well, let's see how that looks. Let's go with it. We'll give him a little hair. I see him swimming through this lake, maybe. Maybe we've got red rock behind us. Yeah. Let's see. We think maybe the hair needs to be a little bit more substantial. This is looking like a casual floating position to me. Sometimes I like to just prematurely glue a little piece together so I can see what that element is. In this case, it is this strange little naked person. It's like the exact same shade of my hand, you can't even see that, okay here. Then that becomes one piece to me and I can move him or her or them around. That's looking like something. I feel like this needs to be more substantial so Iet's find a bigger green piece. Oh man, time is just flying. We've got another question, Jane. What kind of paint do you use to make these noisy textured papers? Noisy texture is a perfect way of describing it. This was really specific and this is definitely not the only medium to be using, but because of my printmaking work, I was using oil-based printmaking ink. I would mix them with a bit of an oil. So with printmaking, they're are different. their are oils with varying viscosities, and I think I was using a double 0 or a zero three to mix with the ink to make it a little bit looser and then that will translate to the page. Either it'll be thicker, more dense texture, or it might just be a lighter layer. But, I think that you can also definitely use water-based printmaking ink block printing inks, which I think are pretty readily available everywhere at all art store's and for that, you would just have to be careful to transfer it really quickly because it is water-based, it dries up very quickly. Similar technique, just mix it with a little bit of medium and to loosen it up, roll it onto the plexiglass or palette, and then just put your paper over it and peel it off. You can even see the brayer marks where I rolled onto the plexiglass palette. I just didn't roll it all the way to the edge and so where it transferred, it's just where that shape was created. I really like that too because then you can have something going on where it's not a completely full and flat colored piece, otherwise, they would probably look very similar to construction paper, but I think this creates an edge in a shape within the paper itself. Which can then also bring some negative space with a negative space. That adds another element of interest, I think. Coming together. This is clearly a self-portrait situation. [inaudible] I love the figure that we now have here on the left. How many of your illustrations actually involve figures? Just thinking about your illustration. A lot actually. It's interesting because I think that figures is what I default to even though when I first started out, I was really scared to draw figures because I just wasn't sure that they'll look good. Because you can draw them in so many different ways and it took me a really long time to start to find lightens the shape, the body shape that worked for me and worked for my illustration. I do draw a lot of figures in my work also because a lot of the prompts that I need to be communicating require figures to illustrate that. But I would say this is different from my commercial digital figures because it's a little bit more blobby and just a little bit looser, which I like. Feels a little bit more anonymous, what's this effect. Looking for a blue. One thing I also run into is collaging and gluing papers of varying thicknesses on top of one another so I don't know if you can see, but this paper is pretty thick and it's almost like a stocky board type of paper and then this one is newsprint, it's very thin. In the past I have accidentally glued thinner paper on top of a thicker paper and then you end up seeing the ridge of the paper underneath, which I think could be a cool effect but it's had some unintended effects in the part. So that's something that could be interesting to keep in mind, play with. These days, I think I tend to definitely do thicker on top of thin just so that it doesn't create that under ridge because I feel like that can be a little bit distracting if it's non-intentional. Do you make collages for client work or only for personal practice? Very rarely have I made a collage that's required work. Maybe twice that happened. Mostly it's personal. It's really hard to find the right assignment that collage would be appropriate for, I think. That's probably why it hasn't happened to you much. There have definitely been instances where I've had a couple of editorial assignments that were pretty loose and I think there were just open to any medium that I wanted to try. Which was really cool because I couldn't really see that happening with an advertising project or a packaging project because those rely on a specific look and I feel like clients usually are expecting a certain aesthetic when they're hiring you for a project like that. When you're done, do you ever feel like you have a sense of completion, like this is the final composition or do you often tinker and play around? What does that look like? I think I could probably tinker forever, but I think it starts to feel done, I guess, when I run out of room and then also when everything just starts to feel a little bit more balanced. Now you can see I'm starting to pair down pre-existing shapes just to refine the pieces a little bit because I have the foundation here for the most part and now I'm just trying to keep things a little bit more refined. If you really like how rough I can keep the shapes here. But then there are some, I don't know, inexplicable just feeling that I got when I see things start to come together. I guess that's just when you rely on your instinct like this part needs to be a little bit smaller or that needs to be a little bit rounder. Once I get into this phase, I know that I'm pretty much almost done. I think this could be a flower. Will you always go through and lay everything out and then you're happy with that work and then glue or do you ever glue as you're going along? I do both definitely, but generally, I like to lay it out. Then sometimes when I get into the gluing process, things will shift around a little bit, so sometimes I'll take a photo of what it looks like and just to make sure that I know where all the pieces can fit. That's a good idea. Yeah. I think this case we can keep it pretty loose.Yeah, I think I'm probably ready to start gluing some stuff down.
7. Glueing Things Down: Finally, we can glue everything down and finish our collage. Like I said, for the purposes of this demo, I'm going to just use the glue stick to keep things less messy. But normally I would use this glue and it's very liquid as you can see. I would just normally use a sheet of white paper next to me. Let's see. Looks like I throw a piece of paper. I just put a glob down and I would just use my fingers and keep a wet paper towel or a wet sponge next to me so that I can keep it clean. But that to me is maybe the best way. I would love to hear if anybody else has a less junky way of applying glue. But that to me is just the easiest way to get to all of the edges, because I think it's really important to just have a really even layer and to get all of the edges so that nothing pops up. But today, let's try the glue stick because I don't think it needs to be super archival. Like I said before, I really like you glue smaller pieces together first. I know that this needs to be this shape. I'm just going to glue this yellow circle on top first, then create the flower and then just have that be the whole shape that I glue down eventually. Is there's a reason why you like starting with the smaller pieces? I think it just makes things a little bit more manageable. For example, I have pieces from previous collaging sessions that just then become little object. Then I can move those around. Here this is only one piece, but this was still trying to figure out how to work him into an image. But for example, if I was to glue him down somewhere, I will probably glue little face first before I glue the entire piece. It just helps me visualize everything a little bit better. I'm so curious to see everyone collages when they are done. This piece is just a little bit too small for the glue stick, I think. I'm just going to dab a little bit on my finger. I do have a paper towel next to me. Easy-peasy. Just little tricky, you're going to have to move for a second. You mentioned it can be helpful to photograph or take a picture of the layout and then you have that reference. Do you find yourself doing that? Yes, definitely. I can't use my phone right now unfortunately. I'm going to take a mental snapshot. I can take a screenshot here. That's too many things to worry about. Now I'm just doing a combination of the glue which was actually a new thing for me. I just think edges are the most important thing. It always seem to pop up like you're buttering the bread. Yeah. You got to get the edges. This piece is just going to be the companion piece to this guy. I want to make sure that the bottom line is up. Here you can see I've misaligned this. I think I'm just going to cut both of the pieces a little bit to keep that smooth edge. That's a good tip. You talked about the importance of layering and can you remind me was it, you want a layer thicker on top or thicker on bottom? Thicker on top, because if you layer it on the bottom, then that thickness it'll show. It's almost like you can see a little bit of the leaf. I say thicker on top unless you like that edge that shows underneath. Got you. Can you continue to layer and just have layers upon layers or there is any set back to doing that? That's a great question. I've never encountered any problems with over-layering. I'm sure that can happen. But now I usually don't do more than to or three layers on top of one another. Got you. Now I'm just full on using the archival glue because I find that the glue stick dries out a little bit too quickly for me to be able to really evenly apply it everywhere. Also I like that with the archival glue even when it dries, it's still tacky. It's not like you can still work with it even after it becomes clear. I usually like to put a little bit of a board or paper down underneath so that it doesn't get glue all over my Canvas. Here is where I could probably use some help with this burnishing. Because if you can see there are some of these little ripples that are starting to come up. I see that there are some ripples here that aren't disappearing, which means that I did not put enough glue in those areas. You can start to lift. Definitely not an exact science. What's the right amount of glue that you're looking for here. I like to use a very thin layer because otherwise it can spill out on the sides or create little glue pocket. For me the thinner the better as long it's go evenly coated. As you can see it's pretty thin right now. You don't really see any disruptions in the texture of the paper. Yeah. Now I can put this back on. I'm not feeling pretty good. I'm going to use the sheet again. Daniel wants to know. What do you do if you have to reposition your paper and have glue stick on your page. That is a great question. Wow. I don't know if there's a good way around that. In the past I have peeled off pieces of paper that I didn't mean to put down or it didn't end up looking good. But I think you just have to put another piece of paper in that old piece of paper's place. Because unless you're okay with the glue just hanging out there. I think that that's probably the best way to cover it up, if that's what she's asking. Like what happens when you make a mistake or change your mind. Yeah. That's right. Thank you. Yeah, I will just swap it out with another piece. A lot of the time they think that I'm putting it in the right place and then it's way too far to the left or right, and then I just have to live with it. But you know what, that's also part of the process, just keeping things smooth. I'm just wiping my hands off with this little damp paper towel. Then what about the colors that you've used? Tell us a little bit about your color palette. I generally like to thinking value more than color. I want to make sure that there's enough value contrast with every image first and foremost. Then I use that to inform my color. I also think in terms of warms and cools, keeping a nice balance between everything in general. But I do generally tend to gravitate toward, I feel this is pretty common. I like to gravitate toward a variation of a primary color palettes. You've got your yellow, blue, and red and I just like to shift that a little bit and then introduce colors that are in-between all of those. But I always have some red or pink, some cool blue or green like somewhere in that cooler darker family and then some bright pops of yellow just to balance things out. Nothing too complicated. But I think that once you have that as a foundation and you start to play around and keeping in mind that the value is also extremely important on the image. It'll work I think. Can you tell just real quick. Because we can only spend a whole live session talking about value and color. Oh my God. But what is that value versus color? If you imagine if you were to turn this entire image black and white in a grayscale format instead of full color, would you be able to differentiate the various shapes or would they all be the same gray? I think that's probably the best way I can describe value. If you want to be able to have the image be readable even when it's at a greater scale form. That's a bravo. Got a bunch of questions. How do you know when it's finished, which is the million dollar question? You're leading your heart. You can probably come up with some constraints there too, right? You could say I'm going to do 14 different pieces of paper or something like that. That would be really fun is to give yourself some restriction because this is so open. For me it's just a gut feeling which is super not helpful. But I think it's really just when all of the shapes are interacting in a nice balanced way for me on the page. I think you always know when you've overdone it. We've got the primary pieces down, glue down this little cloud. No, it's the same color as the background paper. The thicker pieces of paper are definitely easier to apply glue on. Just a little bit sturdier. Here's an instance where I put too much glue and I'm just going to have to shift it over like that. I think originally I wanted to speak out. You are shifting it over so you don't have that glue exposed. Yeah, so I don't have that glue exposed and also I don't have a tangent with this pink part hitting the edge of the leaf. Just another thing to be could be very aware of. That's something that I was just drilled into me at art school I feel like. I think the whole like keeping things organized and making sure that glue doesn't get everywhere. That's probably just like practice of being a little bit more detail oriented. There is a little wobble here though. I have to do some real time backtracking. I just did exactly what that question was and I just killed it. I'm just going to re-glue it a little bit to fix that part because it just wasn't laying down flat. Now that looks a lot better. I'm going to glue the whole thing. These two pieces can go up to the side until the end. We're almost there. Would you recommend is it easier if you have larger shape? Does the actual size matter at all and making it a little bit easier to glue. In terms of my gluing technique, which as you can see, it's messy and all over the place. I actually think smaller shape on thicker paper is the easiest. Because it's just easier to control it's not going to flop around. Pretty good. This looks underneath. If I had a little bit more time, I could definitely noodle a little bit more and add maybe even tinier details around this size, I would say because I think that's the more of a spectrum of paper sizes, the more interesting and dynamic the composition will be. But for now, I think I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.
8. Final Thoughts: That's it for today. Thanks so much for joining me and I hope that you had fun and maybe even created something that you really liked along the way. I'm hoping that this can be just another form of quick sketching that you will find that you can enjoy in your off time or just take a little bit of time out of your day to try. For me it is just nice to be able to do something a little bit more mindless that is different than my commercial and professional work. I hope that this can be just as relaxing and meditative for you as I have found it [inaudible] I hope that you can find that you can do this for five minutes a day or a couple of hours if you really get into it. You can really be anything you want. Please share what you created in the project gallery. I would be very curious to see it. I'm sure they are all wonderful and beautiful and I would love to see them. Thank again for tuning in. For more information about me, feel free to check out my profile and my filter class.
Jing Wei, Illustrator
