Transformative Shapes in Collage - Class 8: 100 Days of Collage (Day 50 - 56)

1. Introduction: Are you ready for the next exciting installment of this fabulous adventure? Welcome to the studio. It's Frole here. I'm a mixed media artist, and I've been painting and exhibiting for over three decades. Now, I'm completely and utterly passionate about two things in life. First, it's creating my beautiful creative mixed media artworks, and number two is to empower you to develop your creativity and express who you are through mixed media techniques. Welcome to class eight, the transformative power of shapes in collage. In this class, we're going to use a multiple amount of different techniques to create with shapes within our art journal. Now, what I love about using an art journal is that it's personal. You can be really expressive. You can create the art that you really want to create without anybody's judgment or criticism. You don't have to sell it. You don't have to show anybody. You can really pour your heart out into those pages and be the creative person you've always wanted to be. It's incredibly personal, it's liberating, and it's a whole lot of fun. In this class, we'll explore shapes from different angles and experiment with composition techniques to stretch your creative boundaries. Whether you're drawn to abstract shapes or more organic designs, these prompts will encourage you to develop and create your artistic voice. We're going to start by using various geometric shapes and compose a visually harmonious and dynamic collage in day 50 geometric symphony. Then we'll be on to creating organic patterns using water spray with various inks in day 51 organic abstract design. And in this class, I show you one of my absolutely favorite ways to create the best collage paper. In day 52, we're taking on the challenge of a minimalistic collage. It's a challenge for me because I'm a self confessed maximist. So using only a few select shapes in a limited color will be embracing simplicity to convey a powerful visual meaning. It's going to be fantastic. Quite liberating, I'm thinking. We'll be designing a collage using repeating patterns and shapes for day 53 repetition and rhythm. Then we'll draw from the inspiration of the geometric shapes found in urban architecture and cityscapes. We'll be incorporating elements like windows and doors, building facades to create that beautiful and exciting energy of the city. I'm going to take you to one of my favorite places and show you where I took the photos to create these fabulous image transfers. Day 55, and we're going to be inspired by the master Matis. Be looking at the shapes Matis created in his collages, cutting out our own organic forms, and designing them into pleasing compositions. To finish off the class day 56 shapes in style and contrast, I love the last lesson. We get to use all of our favorite bits and pieces, papers, textures, and techniques from throughout the class, all goes onto this one page. And because it's in the art journal, it becomes a visual diary. You can look at elements that you've loved, techniques that you've learned, and you've got it there to look back on another day and remind yourself how good something worked and what do you want to try again. You'll be inspired by some new techniques, and you might even create something that you've never thought of trying before. Every project you undertake will reflect your own individual style and interpretation. This art class is about how you personally respond to the prompts. About developing your creativity, allowing you to really express yourself with a little bit of encouragement, some techniques, some art supplies, and a whole lot of fun. You can't get it wrong, and you can be as inventive and creative as you allow yourself to be. This class is for anyone wanting to develop their creativity through mixed media collage. Perfect for beginners because I will lead you step by step through every lesson, showing you the exact materials I use and how you can create similar results. Or if you're a more advanced art maker, you're going to thrive with the incentive to create unlimited to pull out of your artistic tool belt and really create with freedom of expression. There's so much to learn. There's so much fun to have. So let's gather our materials and let's make art. And 2. Material List: Class eight materialist, easy, easy. Now, you should have all of these fabulous materials already from the previous classes, and I don't think I've added anything else new. In fact, I don't think I'm using as much this time or as many different material products. So you could be happy about that. Don't forget, you don't have to use exactly what I'm using. You don't have to use the same colors or the brands or the exact products. I will give you an absolutely extensive list in your class notes so you can see the colors I'm using or the brands if you want to reproduce exactly the same results. I am, of course, using my absolutely favorite colors and materials. I have my beautiful golden paints. God bless America, I love these paints and I love these particular colors. We've got some warm tones, some metallics, but then I do bust out some beautiful blues and purples in these colors as well. We're using some interference paints in this class, and I did a technique I haven't tried before. I put the paint on the gel plate. Then I put a dark color over it to pull the print. Looks amazing. Can't wait to show you that turned out really, really well. I'm also busting out my med and paint, my 100 color bag. I love these paints. They're really buttery. They work well on the gel plate. The only problem with these paints is that the tubes are really small, but they come in the most beautiful assortment of palettes of colors. They're really easy to pull out and use on the gel plate. And we create a whole heap of jelly prints in a printing frenzy of course. So, yes, we are jelly printing, love jelly printing. I also have busted out the Dana Wakey spray inks. I do particularly like the acrylic ones the best. I've been trying quite a few different sprays, and you can get the dye spray inks, which tend to bleed when you glue them into your art journal. That's why I like the acrylic spray inks. And I've got my favorite izincs, metallic sprays, as well, because you've got to have a bit of bling, baby. A little bit of bronze shimmer makes everything beautiful. Now I've got the liquid text in the acrylic inks. Love these. We're doing one of my absolutely favorite techniques for creating collage, paper, cart weight, and we're busting out some bird wing copper. Love this color. In the FW pearl acid inks are my favorites, as well as the liquitex inks. These two, for me, are highly pigmented. They always work really well, and the colors are incredible. Got a few posca pen. Ought to have some posca pens on the gel plate and my favorite Idscent antique gold, the liquitex spray plate. Now, I pulled this out in the last class. I hope you got some because it's absolutely amazing. Yes, I know it's a little bit more expensive. But the can does last quite a while. Make sure you keep your nozzle clean, however. But what I like about it, it's an acrylic spray plate. So it's compatible with the other acrylic paints. It works really well on the gel plate, but also on the paint and paper as well. So many uses for the fabulous fray paint. We can put it through stencils. Of course, we have a stack stencils. I have a few of my other favorite brands of paint. I know you're going to have your own favorite brands. So make sure you pull all them out. Now, what else do we need? Hm. I think I'm going to need the art journal. Of course, I have my fabulous art journal. Now this is number two of three that I bought exactly the same to work through the hundred days of collage. It's holding up pretty well, it's 20 by 20 centimeters, and I'm pretty happy. It does end up quite thick and the end quite fat. But I don't mind it because it's a treasure trove of ideas of techniques, of textures, of papers, of the favorite bits that we did through the class. And I can look back through it next year and think, mm, I might try that one again. That's why I absolutely love using the art journal. Now, of course, we're busting out the deco foil. We have some of that from the last class with the beautiful mixed and relief paste, some digital collage papers, some image transfers, fabulous amount of jelly prints, textured paper. Don't forget the beautiful coz and I'm bringing in two of my favorite art books to discuss some different artists with you, give you some inspiration and show you that there's a big world of art expression and history and baby, anything is possible. I absolutely love discussing artists and especially the history of art because it goes to show you that whatever you're creating now has probably already been done, so don't be afraid to really go for it. I've even brought in some of my steam punk trinkets because, yes, in that class five, I did get a little crazy buying steam funk trinkets. So any chance I get now, I love to use them in my pages and some other beautiful ones. These are from taperology. Now remember all of the info is in your notes if you want to find some of these things that I'm using. Oh, and there's the scrap bag. Now, I'm hoping that you're putting all of your bits and pieces, your papers, texture, trinkets into a box where you can find them, so you can just pull them out now for the new class because, baby, we're ready to go, and I can't wait to show you what we're starting with. 3. Day 50: Geometric Symphony: Class eight transformative power of shapes in collagi Yay for us. And this is day 50. So we are now technically halfway through our hundred days of collage. How are you feeling? How's the journey going? I think it's such an incredible epic adventure. How's your art journal holding up? I've already finished one completely, and I'm on to the second one. They do get a little fat. Sometimes the mound becomes quite huge by the time I get to the end, but I really don't mind. I actually bought three art journals exactly the same style when I first started. I use the Dlusion creative art journal, the 20 by 20 centimeter, and I'm really loving it. I like the square shape, and it seems to hold up with all my loving. Don't forget you will find all the information in your notes if you want to find out exactly what I'm using. Today we are looking at geometric symmetry. Yay. And we're creating collage with geometric shapes, triangles, circles, squares, rectangles. What shapes do you personally like? What do you gravitate to? What do you like to put in your compositions or your collages? That's the question. Now, I tend to use a lot of circles. I love circles. Maybe it's the round, voluptuous shape. Or maybe it's the completeness. I like that, too. I think curves are very friendly. You know, sharp edges and angles can get a little sharp. It's but today I'm going to start with something completely different. See, I tricked you. Today I'm starting with triangles. I'm going to head in a completely different direction. I pulled out some black card stock and started cutting up some triangles, really, really easy. It's not too thick this card stock. It's quite lightweight, but I decided that's where I was going to start. It didn't take me very long to pull out my two centimeter hole punch and start creating circles in a frenzy. I know I just can't help myself, but I figured I could use them. If not in this collage, then the next one or the one after or the one after that. So no harm in creating shapes. Go on, make a bunch. And then you'll have some to add to your collages. Then I pulled out the even smaller hole punch and started punching holes with it's a lot of fun. It gets a little addictive, actually. You just want to stamp holes in everything as you go. But I have a variety now of different colors and textures, and that's what I love. So I pulled out my big gel plate. Now, I'm using the 20 by 16 inch gel elf plate. It's a new one that I acquired recently because it's such a big size. I absolutely love it. So I put that in your notes, as well. That's a new addition to the notes because I haven't used it before. And I'm using the Liquitex acrylic spray paint. Now, this spray paint I brought into the lessons in the last class, and I do hope that you're journeying on with me consecutively through the lessons and the classes because they do keep compounding on each other and I use similar materials in the next one or techniques. I like to repeat them again, as well. Spraying on the gel plate. Have you tried it? Oh, man. You just have to. This is an acrylic spray paint compatible with acrylic paints. So, yes, we can use it very successfully on the gel plate. Now, I've pulled out Elizabeth St. Hal's stencil here. Yes, I'll put that in the notes if you want to find that. It's really fun. It's triangle shapes. See, I started with triangles. I'm very proud of myself. For starting with a completely different shape. They look fabulous on the gel pan. I gave it a quick spray over to cover all of the plate. Now, you do have to let each layer dry. Don't forget that part. Let the beautiful, iridescent antique gold dry and then put the next layers on. So the next layer, I put down my black triangle pieces, and I'm running over them with golden, transparent red iron oxide, fabulous color. It's a transparent color. Beautiful. Straight over the top of my card stock pieces. Now, you do have to be a little careful that you don't knock them around or lift them up when you're rolling over them, especially if they're not very heavy. These weren't very heavy, but we're creating a multi layered gel print. It doesn't matter if they move. All get bumped around. It's all in the fun. And they look absolutely fabulous when I took them off the plate. Now, you do have to wait for this paint to dry. I added some posca pens just to outline the triangle shaped bits. Actually, it was on the inside of the triangle shaped bits. It was just a bit of fun. I thought I'd try it with another color, see if it shows up in the print. Have a bit of fun. Try some different mixed media elements into your prints and see how it goes. We've used AposkaPenz before in our material list, so hopefully you have some. They're really easy. They're very direct, and they work quite well on the gel plate. Then I put some more of the black triangle shapes on the plate and ran over it with quinaqudone, red violet, beautiful color. Love this color. Actually, I think it's one of my favorites. The triangle pieces just made another layer on the plate, and when I pulled them off, look how fabulous it's looking. I love it. I love doing the multi layers on the plates because it's so interesting. The only drag is waiting for each layer to dry, but I do have my little fan, my little helper on the table, and that works really well with the drying stage of each layer. Then I put the final layer of tighten buff on the plate, completely covered the beautiful big jelly plate, and I put separate pieces on. I quite often just put one big sheet of wet string tissue on the plate and pull it Today, I was thinking, What about we put different shapes, hello. That's the theme and different sizes of papers. And then when I look at them, I'll have different sections of the print. Not a bad idea, pretty fun, really. So I put down a printmaking paper, not my usual paper, but it is one that I had in the cupboard, and I do like using up art materials and supplies that we have in the cupboard. So look at how beautiful the prints looked when I pulled them off the plate. I absolutely love them. They turned out so well. They actually turned out better than expected. And I do like the way I had the smaller pieces of paper on the bigger gel plate because it just made the shapes or more interesting. Of course, you can't do this technique just once. I decided I was going to do it again. This time, I thought I might use my black triangle pieces of card stock on the gel plate first and spray them with the paint because I decided I wanted some gold triangles to go with my black triangles, which would add really well to my prints. So on the gel plate, they went and a spray the spray paint, which turned out fabulous because the black triangles got painted in gold, and they left fabulous marks and shades on the paint. Doing it this way was really interesting because more of the gel plate was painted with the spray paint, and it'll be really interesting to see how this pulls up. Will it pull up as easy? I do like the spray of the texture that's on the gel plate from the paint. It really is a whole lot of fun. And a little experimental. So once that layer of the spray paint was dry, I decided to use this stencil again with the red violet color. So I'm using all the same colours. I'm just trying them in different combinations. This time, I'm putting little shapes inside bigger shapes of the triangles on the gel plate, having a little plate, moving them around, and continuing my layers in a different process. I put the transparent red iron oxide on some sections of the gplint. I didn't cover it entirely because I wanted to have different shapes and sections where the titanm buff would show through. So I just rolled on different parts of the gel plate with the beautiful color. And then I put the titan buff on all over the gel plate, and again, I put the separate paper pieces on the plate. I liked it the first time. Pretty sure I'm gonna love it just as much this time. It'll be interesting to see how different the prints pull up with putting the bigger shapes with little triangles in them or putting the little triangles on, and then the bigger shapes around them. I've used all the same colours, but it's how the shapes are going to be layered that's going to make a difference in the prints. They pulled up beautiful and they're looking fabulous. And yes, there really is a difference with the different layering compositions of the colors. Have a look and see this one is where the stencil went down first with the little triangles, and then the bigger triangles went over the top. That one is the first print, definitely. So is that one? And then you can see, this is the second print, where the bigger triangles went down first, and the little ones went over the top. Which ones do you like better? I don't know, man. I think they both turned out great. I absolutely love the spray paint. You can see much more spray paint when I put the biggest triangles down and then sprayed the whole plate and the triangles. And I love the texture, and it pulls up without a problem. I love this spray paint. It's definitely one of my favorites. Does cost a little bit more than ordinary enamel paint from maybe the hardware store, but it is an acrylic base, low odor, and it's compatible with other acrylic paints. So I guess that's what we're paying for. Anyway, loving, loving the prints. This one turned out beautiful. That's a second print. Have a look at this texture here. Love this. Now that's from the second layer of putting the paint on, spraying it, maybe with a little bit of water, and it creates that texture, and then there's the stencil there. With the triangles, I'm loving these prints. They actually turned out better than expected, which is really nice, right, especially for our first lesson. So I've got all of these beautiful prints. I also have the circles. If I so desire to use circles, I have them. And the little ones, as well, look how cute, these are absolutely beautiful. I also have gold triangles to use and the black triangles to use. I know I have so many options. I'm a little excited. And, of course, have a look at the whole punch pieces of paper. I was using my digital collage papers, stamping out these ones with the whole punch. Pretty nice colors. They're working really well. And then this one I hole punch a jelly print. Telling you, possibilities are endless. Endless. I love it. Oh, that one's an art deco piece of paper. That works well. So these are really interesting shapes in themselves. I might even use that, but I'm not sure. I'm a little bit excited by my triangles today. So I think I might be definitely leaning towards the triangles. In one or more of the prints and some of the extra pieces as well. So I'll go and get the art journal, which is clearly not going to fit all of these prints in it. And let's see what beautiful collage we're going to make. Okay, well, it's not going to be so easy choosing because my space is rather small and I have so many beautiful prints. I think I really like the second ones even more than the first ones. This is one of the second ones. You can see all of the spray paint, and then the colors are inside the bigger triangles. I'm loving that. I think I love that even more than these first ones, although this one does look great. You can see the big shape there with the little shapes, and you can see some of the posca pens, and I do like the texture where the paint has beaded up on the gel plate. That's pretty cool. I think all of these colors worked well, and I'm loving the spray paint. I know I've said that a few times already, and I'm a little excited. But I'm thinking I like these ones the best. These are the second prints. Can I put both of them in? I do like them the best. And then I'm thinking well, I like that section a lot. And I love this section where I've got all of that texture, maybe some of that. And then perhaps I know they're gonna look the same, but I just have to have them. I'm thinking I have to have them. Oh, I could put that one. That one works really well with that color as well. Instead of them both being the same. Okay. Maybe I'll keep that for another lesson, which we can do, right? Because the last lesson of every class, we use some from the previous lessons. Okay, I'm going to do that. I'm gonna keep this one. 'cause it's one of my favorites. And I'm going to put this one on here and this one on here. 'Cause I use the same colors for both the prints. They're going to really sit nicely together. I want that section in there because I'm loving that. Give that a trim. Put that on. I can see my Posca pen in there, and you can see all of the multiple layers. This has got the small little triangles in the red violet. And this has got the negative shape of the same stencil. Loving it. What about we put some Oh, yes. Let's get dramatic. Okay. Let's put some of the black. Um, shapes on there. What about the gold? No, we're kind of losing the gold in amongst the gold paint, maybe not the gold. Definitely the black. What about if we hole punch a black? Triangle? Yes. You see how much fun this is? I love it. I love it. I really doesn't take much for me to get excited. But I'm loving that. That looks fabulous. Yes, we're definitely doing that. All the way along? Oops. Yes, all the way along. Loving that. I'm going to put that somewhere. Oh, but it's gonna take up too much space. Maybe your whole punch a smaller one. Okay, it's just too exciting. Oh, that looks good. Look at that. Right putting that on, that might be a bit big. What about this one? How many holes can we get in it? One To. Oh, that looks cute. Righto. Let's do something with that. Maybe one of the gold ones. 'cause we can't leave out the beautiful gold ones, you know, we have to put circles on them, too. Looks like cheese now. All right, maybe, baby, not convinced about the gold one because it might just be getting lost. But definitely the black ones. Somewhere on there, I'm going to stick that on there like that. Not sure if I'm putting something on that one. I haven't decided, but we're definitely going with that. Do we want to circle on there? Oh, now we're getting tricky. Alright, we'll look at that option with the circles on that side. Triangles on that side. I'll stick the backgrounds down and then we'll decide. And Right, so I'm definitely going with the little triangle shapes on this side. I just have to decide where I want them. I haven't decided yet, but I'll put them down temporary. And I think I'll do two black and one gold in these fabulous triangle shapes with my whole punch. Just stick that there. Put this one on here somewhere. What about that? Do we like that there? No, let's turn that round and put it like that. Mm, maybe like that. See, at least while the matte medium is still wet, you can move the shapes around and decide how you like them. Definitely gonna put a gold one on there, because that's just fun. And the circle shapes from the hole punch, you can see the colors coming through that, like that. And maybe we'll tilt that a little more. I like the way that's plain and then that's textured. I know. It's so much fun. Pretty simple and a whole lot of fun. Can of spray paint, some paint, a gel paint and some card stock. It's not rocket science, baby, but it does look good. I do like the layers of the paint and the textures, and that's a whole lot of fun adding those triangle bits on top. Right. This side, I'm thinking we need a circle on this side. Absolutely. So which one do we want? I'm really liking this little bit of my dance move shape on this one. But then I really do like the deco art deco pattern as well. And I think the black would really pop on this side, and it would connect with the black on that side. Or I can do something completely controversial and add a little turquoise into it. Nah. Okay. Nah. I think we just go with the art deco pattern on that side, brings the black over there, and then I'm done, baby, because I'm loving these shapes. Who would have known that I would have so much pleasure today with triangles. Our beautiful circle shape there in our art deco pattern, loving it, bringing the black in on this side. That looks fabulous. We'll let the pages dry. I'll give you a close up, and we're already on to the next lesson. It's going to be so much fun. 4. Day 51: Organic Abstract Design: Day 51 organic abstract design. I'm rather partial to organic abstract patterns. I love creating experimental mark making, especially on the gel plate. This is going to be a lot of fun. So our task today is to use the organic patterns of water spray to create a splattered background. You could use watercolor paints, fluid acrylics or spray inks or even try using a straw to blow patterns and create different textured patterns. Now, the first thing I did was pull out my beautiful new big gel plate. And I really wanted to make some gold coso paper. I love this coso paper, and I really wanted in gold to add it to my collage. So I'm thinking, what about we lay the coso paper on the gel plate and spray it with my yes absolutely fabulous and favorite spray paint. Right across the beautiful paper, and all of those holes in this handmade textured paper is going to allow the spray paint to create that organic pattern on the plate, and look how fabulous it looks. I'm so excited. It worked amazingly. I love it. The spray paint grips to the gel plate, and it comes off really easy. It's so good. So our first layer is down. Now, remember, it has to dry. And then I decide to head into the blues and turquois with a little bit of purple. So I pulled out cobalt blue, Cerlem blue and ultramarine violet, golden colors absolutely beautiful. I put different sections on the plate with the colors because I want to create a few different layers. Then I'm using my water spray, which is absolutely one of my ultimate favorite ways of creating organic textured patterns on the plate, gave it a spray. Doesn't it look amazing. And, yes, it has to dry. All of these colors are going to work really well together. Now, my plate is pretty new. So the paint beads up really, really easily. If yours is an older plate, it might not beat up so quick or so fast. You can dab at it with a tissue or if you like me and you put on too much water, you you can also dab with a tissue and move some of that excess. It creates a fabulous pattern doing this. I really do love it. Then I'm putting on some acrylic spray inks. It kind of beads on the plate, but it does create another texture and a little bit of splatter of color on the plate, as well. You can see it in the finished print. It really does contribute because if you're putting it on first and then putting other colors over the top, remember, when you pull that print, whatever goes down first is going to be on top of the paper. So I'm wanting to make something a little different with this print, and I put on some interference, blue, and some interference violet. The interference colors look terribly creamy like nothing when they first go on, and they really need to sit over darker colors to shine with their beautiful effervescent colors. So what I did was wait for the interference layer to dry completely, and then I rolled on some dioc purple because that dark dark purple color on top of the interference colors will make them shine. They're going to look amazing. I'm loving the multiple layers and the textures in this print. I think I'm going to pull the whole thing with the wet strength tissue because of all of the beautiful layers that are going onto the plate. I ended up with a combination of the purple and with some of the lo blue as well, made sure the plate was nice and thick and covered before I put my wet strength tissue down. Now, you do have to wait for this to dry completely so that you can pull up all those layers off the gel plate. And when it's dry, I pulled the print. Look how good it came up, and it came up really easy, all of the fabulous colors and all of the textures and layers and patterns right down to the fabulous spray paint. In the beautiful organic mark. The print looked absolutely fabulous. I was so happy with how the interference colors worked out underneath the fabulous purple yet. So, of course, I wanted to create some more, and I decided to do one of my favorite ways to create collage paper is to put out the tissue on my table, throw on the inks and spray them with water. You can't get any more organic than this. This is one of the best ways of creating organic marks. Now, I have showed you this technique before. But I just wanted to remind you because I love it so much. Today, I'm using my absolute favorite colors. I'm using the muted violet and the muted pink of the Liquitex acrylic inks, along with the FW pearlescent ink in bird wing copper. I mean look at it. Just look at it. The colours are beautiful and rich and lush. The more you spray them with the water spray, the more they run and bleed. If you don't spray them so much, you'll have more confined areas of splattered pattern. But of course, I usually drown everything, and I put a lot of water on because I like the flowing marks that this particular technique makes. The colors are absolutely glorious. Dried up really beautiful. Now, don't forget you have to have a plastic sheet down on your table. I like to use the $2 plastic tablecloth from the dollar shop. Put it on my table first because then when you peel up that print, it comes off super easy. Make sure it's entirely dry. Before you try pulling it up, otherwise, it will tear to pieces, and don't forget the plastic. Otherwise, you won't get it back off your table. So now I have these beautiful four sheets of glorious colour. It is really one of my favorite techniques, and it's so super easy. Even if you've got the ends of bottles of the inks, I love to use up the last remnants of colour in bottles of ink and paints. You can do it with the paints, as well. Or you can even use watercolors or spray inks. Oh, man, it's endless what you can do. You simply throw it on the white tissue, spray it with water, ta ta ra. It's incredible makes amazing collage paper. Now, while I was having an absolutely fabulous time spraying the white tissue, I noticed that some of my spray inks were a little stuck. The spraying bit wouldn't come out. Oh, man, that so annoys me. But it did give me another idea. I poured out a piece of printmaking paper, and I undid the spray inks, and then I decided to put the marks on the paper directly, because they weren't spraying out anyway. Hit it with my little handblower and went, Hello, Look at these fabulous organic marks. Absolutely, beautiful. Now, I have done this before on the gel plate with alcohol inks, puffed them around, spread them out. They do make a fabulous texture. Look how they blow out. They're absolutely glorious. Sprayed it with some of the inks, and I had a fabulous time. The texture's beautiful and organic. We love our abstract marks, and there's another idea for you to try, especially if your sprayings are sticking and they're not spraying out. There's other ways to get them onto the paper. Now, if you don't have one of these, absolutely fabulous. Little I don't know what they're called. I bought it a really long time ago. I've used it for the alcohol inks. And it's absolutely fabulous. You can just use a straw. Of course, super easy. Blow it through a straw and make all of the beautiful abstract marks. Can't wait to see what you're going to do. There's so many possibilities. It's just endless. Right. So now I've got all of these beautiful papers. What am I going to put in my clase? Look how glorious this one turned out. I've got some of the metallic on there and look at all these marks. It's so much fun. Of course, I'm loving my gold coso paper. I'm definitely going to have to use some of that. This beautiful print is so glorious in all of its textured layers. Have a look at the beautiful interference paint. You can see it now, and the textures of the sprays work really well. And, of course, the glorious gold marks. Have to put that in the collage. And then I had oodles. Of this beautiful colored tissue. It's quite cunchy. Now, you can use ordinary doll store tissue for this particular technique. I think I used wet strength tissue, but you don't need to. You can use recycled tissue, the tissue that comes around your packaging when you buy something. With Christmas coming, you need to keep all of the tissue that comes wrapped around those presents because this is a perfect technique to use up all that recycled tissue. I do it all the time. It's fantastic. I also like to use the tissue from the dollar store. That works really well. So I'm going to use some of probably all of these because they're beautiful and I just want them all. So I'll go and pull out Art journal and see how many of these pieces of paper I can stick on the page. Now, I definitely want some of all of these papers because they're so beautiful. On my pages. And then what am I going to use for a focal point? Hmm. Not sure. And which sections of the paper do I want? Well, they're all pretty beautiful, I don't think it's really gonna matter too much. It's just going to be more about how much of the paper I want to put on. Do I want to cover the whole page? Well, let's just start with that idea. And then see how we go. Perfect background. And it makes so much at once. It's so exciting. So I'm loving, loving these colors. That would make a beautiful background. And then what about if you put some of the gold. Actually, I could cut a circle out of my gold and put that on and then find something for a focal point that's gonna work. And then what about this sign? We could definitely use some of this print. Man, this prints beautiful. I'm thinking this section here. Oh, man, these interference paint. That worked really well. That was the first time I've tried that. I think that was a rather brilliant idea. Put the interference paint down, and then let it dry and put the dark paint over it so that when you pull it and flip it up, you can see the stunning interference colors. Yes, I will be doing that again at some stage. So I'm going to roughly put the print on that somewhere like that. And maybe, baby, I could Oh, use a section of this for my focal point, but what kind of shape am I going to use? Mm, I think it's gonna need to be an organic shape, don't you think? Because of all the organic lines, it can't just be a circle. No, I'll have to cut something out of this that's going to have more of a mm, organic shape to go with the beautiful patterned paper. Maybe, baby, something. Completely random like this. I think this is a good place to start, although I will probably have to trim it down some more. Otherwise, it's going to cover all of my beautiful print, and we can't have that now, can we? So we'll start with that. We've kept all the best pieces in it. But, man, we're gonna have to trim that down for sure. Right, oh. So I'll make some decisions on which section I can't live without because the page is too small and it's not all going to fit on. So I'm going to cut some more of that. I'm going to cut a shape out of there, stick the backgrounds down, and then we'll see if we need anything else. Thank you. What I love about both of these papers is how easy they are to glue down as a background. They go on super easy. They stick down fast, and they look absolutely beautiful. Now, I've cut my fabulous circle, which I'm definitely going to put there, and I'm still thinking of maybe a little tiny something for the center. But I cut this down some more, and I'm just not feeling it. I I don't know what kind of shape I want, but I don't want that. So I think I might use that another day. It's not working for me today. But I loving the colors. I like the blue and the turquoise and definitely the purple. And it makes me think of a new stencil that I got recently in a dragon fly shape. So I'm going to go and pull out that stencil, and then I'm thinking, I'd like to put it on with some beautiful deco foil. I know, right. We have to bust it out. We have used the deco foil in previous classes. I absolutely love it. You put the mixed and paste on, and then you put the deco foil on. And it's really super easy, and I'm loving this idea because this kind of reminds me of a watery effect, which hello, it's supposed to. It's our organic watery textured patterns, so it's supposed to look watery. I'm thinking a dragonfly. On this side, I'm not sure. I want to add something to my beautiful gold circle. Look how glorious that looks. This Coso paper, you can actually spray it, paint it, use inks with any of the art supplies and mediums that we've been using. It paints up really. Well, it looks fabulous. I'm loving it, and that is now on. What am I going to put there? I'm going to go and have a little rummage. I might even look in my scrap bag maybe or find something from the class box. Hope you've got your class box off trinkets and bits and pieces that we've used in previous classes. Oh, maybe a key or a lock. Got some of those leftover from the steam punk class or maybe one of the Yes, I'm going to have a look with it. And I'm gonna let that and find my stentu. Now, I did have quite a few options with my trinket because when we were doing the steam punk class, which was in class five, I did get carried away buying all sorts of little trinkets. But I knew I would want to use them down the track. I'm happy that I did. That's my excuse, anyway. I've got this cute little clock face that's going to sit very happily in the center of my beautiful gold coso paper, little bit of PVA, and we're done. Now, you want to make sure you give it a good dolop of PVA. It does dry perfectly clear, which is good because we want to make sure we've got a good amount on there, just like that, tra, tra, maybe wipe off the excess. Leave it to dry. It's going to look beautiful. Now, for this side, I'm going with my dragonfly idea. Here's the stencil that I bought recently. I'm thinking this one's a good size. And what I found using the deco foil is the mixed and relief paste is the best. That's what I've personally found. I tried the tacky when dry, but it wasn't tacky enough when it was dry and it didn't stick. Well, I always come back to this one. It's the one I prefer the most. I've squeezed some onto a palette and I'm going to run it through the stencil. And then oh, man, in a few hours, we have to wait for this to dry completely. It's white when it's wet, perfectly clear when it's dry. And then we can put on the beautiful deco foil. I'm thinking something in a metallic blue and silver. I hope I've got some still left, but that's what I'm thinking straight over the dragonfly, easy peasy. Now, if you're using mixed and paste on any of your stencils, make sure you rush off to the laundry and give it a wash because otherwise it's going to stay sticky forever, and nobody wants that. Whoopsis little Opsis there, baby wipe can fix it. Easy, peasy. It's looking beautiful. The colors going to be great. Can't wait for it to dry. So my dragonfly has dried. Look how fabulous it is. Now, you can tell it's completely dry because you can't see it. It's totally clear, white when it's wet, clear when it's dry. It's ready to go with the deco foil. This page is looking beautiful. It's dried up really well, all nice and clear with all the glue that I stuck on there, and I'm loving the colors, loving the texture. Did you like my little Chinese bulb that I used for my circle maker? My son brought me, though, home from China one day when he was visiting. Now, I was originally thinking of this color, which I think it's called watercolor, something. I can't remember. Transfer, sheets, deco, foil. It's a pretty good brand. I really like it. But I'm thinking now that it's going to blend in too much with the background. So I think I'll go with the bronze. I'm not sure what this one's called either. I can't actually see where the colors are written. Actually, that's fantastic. I just worked out where the colors are. They're written on the back with the bar code, but I've got them in different packets, so No idea. I will find out the name of the color if you like, and I'll put it in your notes. This one's particularly beautiful. This is a kind of pewter, I'm thinking, and I think that the color will shine beautifully against the blue and the aqua turquoise. And I think the other color would have blended in too much. So, beautiful sheet. Look at that. Glorious, glorious. Metallic. I love them. And they're really affordable. I love using the deco foil. Silverside down, easy, peasy lemon squeezy. Now, you can just use your fingers, especially when it's something as small as a dragonfly. If I'm using bigger areas, I do like to use, like, a dry cloth because it saves your fingertips. But when it's this small, I don't think it matters so much. Give it a good rub. Make sure it's dry. Yes, I've done it before when it hasn't been completely dry and it got stuck. And that was no fun. So make sure it's completely dry, totally clear. Are you ready? Are you ready? Turn up. Tan up. Oh, man, that's beautiful. I'm so glad I went with that color. And look at this. I could use this as a collage in something else. It's a perfect dragonfly. Right. There she is. Beautiful. I love it. Look at the way it shines in the light. Absolutely fabulous. It makes me happy. I love bling. So there's a beautiful dragonfly. Really happy with these colors and textures. I love both these pages. They're beautiful. They're opulent. They're shiny. I'll give you a close up, and then we're on to minimalistic shapes. Now, Oh, man, I might have a problem with the next lesson because I'm a maximist. I love it all out there on the pages. Lots of color, texture, lots of bling. Look at that fabulous shine. So the next lesson, we're going to have to constrain ourselves with minimal shapes. I'm sure it's gonna be a lot of fun. 5. Day 52: Minimalist Shapes: Day 52 minimalist shapes. Design a minimalist collage using only a few select shapes in a limited color palette. Embrace simplicity by using basic shapes to convey a powerful visual message. Focus on clean lines, precise placement, and negative space to create a composition that speaks volumes with minimal elements. Now, I might have mentioned at the end of the previous lesson that this could be a struggle for me. Because I'm a self confessed maximist. I like everything out there on the canvas or in the collage or even with paint. I'm pouring it on now. So minimalist shapes and minimal design is a bit of a challenge to leave it alone. That's the challenge. So I've pulled out my favorite art book. It's called the Art Book. Yes, I know. But what it is is an alphabetical, detailed descriptions of artists through history. So it's really fascinating, great to see. And because it's all alphabeticalized, you can find people you're looking for or styles in amongst everything else. So we've got this absolutely fabulous, minimal painting here right next to that kind of figurative work. I love this book. I'll put the link in the notes if you want to find it. So if we look at this one, we can see the shapes are different sizes. There's different shapes. They're not really full on geometric. They are kind of more organic. I'm liking this one. It's got a few little bit extra bits down the bottom. And I think this is a good place to start. I could do this. I. Some of them not so much. This one here with the squares, when you do a little bit of a reading of what the artist has done and said, it's really quite fascinating. The artist has used a simple mathematic calculation. The sides of each square and the distance between them are half the size of the preceding square. Oh, man, that's way too much thinking and way too much mass. But this artist was calculating the size and the shape and the placement on the pitch of plane to make them very mathematical and very geometric. What do you think? Can you see the tension in the artwork? This is Van Dosburg from 1931. Hm. Interesting, I'm thinking I couldn't actually be that geometric. I'm definitely more of an organic shape lover. This one's got more organic shape. Patrick Hen, when was this painted in 1963? And this artist is using delicate precision in order to create harmony of form and color. That's kind of more where my head space goes all about harmony and form and color and more organic shape. Now, these are actual paintings, but it's the same for collage. These could be cutout shapes. They could be pieces of paper. They could be jelly bread, even. So looking at these artworks, I'm hoping it's going to inspire you and me with our minimalist collage today, let's have a look at a few more. Franz Kline. You got to love France Klein, 1951. His paintings were a little more expressive in the brush jokes, but extremely minimal. Look at the neutral color of the background with black, strong, bold lines and marks very France Klein. I don't think I could leave all that space. I'd like to, but I really don't think I could. Klein was inspired by the techniques of graphic illustration and the massive sections of partly constructed or demolished girders, Railways, scaffolding, and bridges of New York. So that's where he's getting his shapes and lines and construction feel to his paintings. Pretty interesting. But I think if I was doing a bridge, I'd probably do the whole bridge. But it's a matter of breaking it down into key elements of what you really just want to say in a few words, basically, with a few elements. Have a look at this one here. I mean, could you do this? I couldn't do this. This painting here is all about the pure colors in the lines on the sign. What about the metal bit? Where is the focal point? I couldn't leave a canvas that bare. It says Louis had developed in this work a new way of painting by rejecting shape and light in favor of pure color. Well, that's really minimal. As the fabric of the canvas is literally soaked in paint, that'd be I couldn't do it. It'd be too much of a challenge for me. I would need a focal point. But I want to show you these paintings to inspire you that anything's possible. Don't get hung up on what you're creating and get like, Oh, it's not right or it's not like so and so or it's not like this because when you look at books like this and look at the history of art, you're going to realize that everything's already been done, and it's all possible to do again in a different way and in your way. What's the next one? Oh, I like Malkovich. He's using geometric shapes on the picture plane here. Pretty nice. I do like this painting. This was 1915. I mean, that's a while. And we could actually reconstruct that collage really easy by putting pieces of paper across overlapping the shapes. We could be inspired by Malkovich in our minimalistic collage, liking that idea. Let's remember that idea. Oh, Mondrian. I do love Pierre Mondrian, absolutely very famous for these lines and these straight edges and these squares and these simple compositions. He liked to use certain sections of the paintings in little elements of colour not a whole lot. Very designer like, and there was a lot of influence from other people who drew from his particular style. 1929. Hm. Mondrian wished to build his pictures from the simplest elements straight lines and primary colors. That's pretty cool. Like him could draw from that influence quite happily. Shall we just look at a couple more? Okay. What about Barnett Newman? Now, that is minimalistic. You can either look at this as three red rectangles or it's one picture plane with two lines down the middle, straight, geometric, concise, very minimal. Now, it says the arrangement of the stripes encourages the viewer to concentrate on the spatial experience of pure color. So there he's really refining everything he's doing so that you're focusing on the color. There definitely isn't any movement in it. But it's really quite fascinating the effect that it does have, especially this yellow line down here. That creates a real tension of the color. Oh, let's finish with a circle. Okay. Kenneth Noland, 1962. Concentric circles of paint surrounded by bare canvas create the image of an apparently spinning target. Do you think? Maybe. I guess if you look at it enough, it kind of does. You could do this in collage so easy peasy. Absolutely. He's actually left bare canvas on this artwork, and he was one of the first to do that. I couldn't do it. There's nothing within me that would leave that canvas bare. Or even the page. I wouldn't even leave the page ba. But it's so incredibly interesting how other people approach their creative expression and their artistic style. I absolutely love it. I love looking at the history of art, getting inspired by seeing what other people have done, and then thinking of how you can develop it and change it and create your own beautiful expression. W. So I'm gonna pull out some jelly prints. I might get that whole punch that I was using yesterday because that would make great circles. And maybe cut some straight lines. I think I liked malcovic the best in those shapes that were overlapping, but I don't know if I really want to do that. Maybe I'll go with Barnett Newman and do simple lines on the page. I don't think I could do that, but let's see what we're inspired by and what we're going to create today. Right, so I pulled out my scrap bag and a ton of jelly printing, baby. I don't know how I'm going to be able to decide, especially as we're doing a minimalist collage. I think I'm going to start by cutting some lines off my black piece of card stock paper. It's not very thick this one. I really like it. I used it in yesterday's class, and it worked pretty well, so inspired by the fabulous paintings, we saw I'm going to start with this idea and cut myself some little strips in various thicknesses. Am I going to use them? I'm not sure. But I figure it's a good place to start just in case I want to. I like the idea of the strips, and they work really well in this particular paper. So there's a few of those. That's a good start. That's a good idea. And then I'm thinking, What about the hole punch? Hm. So circles. Maybe I want to use the circles or maybe I might want to use the space. Of the circles. Oh, that could be possible. And then I could put maybe something underneath that shape. Oh. What about if we make it not so obvious and they're not so lined up? I know. Like that. Yes. I like that idea. So we could put that on the page and then something could go underneath it. Something could go on top of it. I'm liking this idea. I just have to decide out of all my hundreds of papers, what we're going to use. And yesterday, I was punching holes with this little one, and I've also got some black ones from the other page where I was punching holes with my black triangles. So I could maybe use some of these. Oh, look, I've got some gold, as well. That's fun. Okay? So we might use those. We've got small circles, big circles, straight lines. What are we gonna put with them? That's the question. I want something bright for under my black circles. I'm definitely going with this idea. So I'm thinking one of these prints, that one or perhaps this one. I like this color, too. Either that one or that one, it's the same color. I'm thinking that I like that on there. What am I going to put on here? Not sure. And we want some of these lines. I'm liking or we could put them diagonal, even or else we could put them straight. Or we could do both because we like that tension, don't we? I'm definitely not going to mathematically calculate their distances. That's not going to happen. But I do like the idea of having one on the diagonal and three upright because that creates a tension. Within the shapes of the composition. Yes, I like that idea. Okay. That's how we move along. Now, what other? Oh, man, I've got so many jolly prints. I like this color. That could go underneath that page. Maybe, baby. Oh, what about just a gold? Gold would look really nice and very simple. Very minimal. I don't know if I can really do it. Can I do it? Now how did I have them? I liked the diagonal, and then we have the other vertical line like that. And that's on the diagonal. Well, that is very minimal, and I love the idea, and the gold looks rather snazzy. So we're definitely gonna think about that. Now, this sides gonna have to have something else. I do have so many other prints and possibilities. I do like this one with the deco for, but might be a bit much on there. And then I have more scraps. In this scrap bag, as well, these ones coso scraps. Oh, maybe I like this idea better for underneath the circles. Oh, that's a bit fun. And that kind of matches the stripes from over there. What about if we did I like that. I like that. That's a fun idea. And then what else have we got? This one, maybe? Will it fit? Love that idea. Alright, so that's gonna go under the circles, and then something's going to go here. I have to have something. I can't just have the big black. Boy, I could do, maybe one of the dance moves. Shapes. That could work. One of these could work. Like maybe. That's an option. Oh, that doesn't look too bad. Alright, we'll think about that. Oh, that one looks even better. We'll definitely think about that. Oh, I could just go and get the stencil and stencil it on maybe, baby. But that copper works nice with those. I like that. It still needs something. Well, I'll have a rummage around. I'm thinking it needs something else. And I'll cut that down, and I'll put those under there, and I'll definitely going with that. It's whether or not I can actually leave it alone. It's so minimal. All right. I'll glug that down, and then I'll see where I'm at. Now the backgrounds are on, I have to decide what's going to be my dare I say a focal point. Now, there's no way I could leave that big black blank space. No, I can't be that minimal. I'm pretty minimal. Look, I've only got three circles on that side. I'm thinking one of my dance moves shapes, but I'm not sure which one. I do like the color of this one. I like the shape of this one, but maybe it might be better off with some smaller ones. I could put this on the edge like that. And then I've still got all of that space there, so that's not too bad. Alright. I'm doing it. I'm doing it. I'm putting this on that edge there, and then I'm going to put the lines there of the black card stock, and my beautiful minimal pages are going to be done. I definitely didn't measure them. And I'm putting them a little off. Not exactly the same distance apart because, you know, we're doing that whole creating tension with the shapes. I really liked that idea. So I'll put another one on the end here. And I'm thinking it's looking pretty good for a minimalist collage. Definitely glad I did the diagonal. My page needs a bit of a trim up, but we'll wait till it's dry. There's the edge there, so that's gonna look pretty good. What about we add one of these little circles in black? I think that'll push the tension even more. What do you think? What about that? I'm doing it. I do. That looks fabulous. I love it. Enough, no, I might decide to do more minimal collages. Mm. Probably not likely, but it has been fun. Let's put a circle right there to create more tension with the shapes, loving that, and also it's connecting with the circles over there. I ended up going with these dance moves because I just like the little sizes rather than sticking one big one on there is what I decided, and the colors really nice. They're matching. I can't help myself. These colors in the background work beautiful. And this is one of my absolutely most favorite jelly prints. I wish I had more of it. I'm running out. I've used it a few times. I put the masks on the background on the gel plate with these beautiful colors, and then I stenciled over the print once it was dried with the dance moves. And, oh, man, I just loved it. You know how sometimes it just works out. Well, that was that print, and I think I don't really have any more of it left, which is sad. But that's what I love about creating art in the art journal is that I can flick through it and look at it and go, Yes, that was one of my favorite prints. Maybe I'll try and make some more. Or you just get some more ideas or I'll look at this and go, Hmm, maybe I should try that minimalist approach again, 'cause look how cool these pages are. I'm really glad that I put the three different patterns under those circles there. That's looking beautiful. Loving this tension, feeling the tension there. It's just beautiful. And I think it went a lot better than I thought it would. I'm definitely really glad that we looked at the art book and were inspired by the other artists because I think that actually helped put me in the mind space of what I wanted to create. I'm feeling like Is are inspired by Malkovich with this one. And then this one, I think it's just beautiful. So I'll let the pages dry. I'll give them a trimer. And then what are we on to next with our next lesson? Hmm. You'll have to wait and see. 6. Day 53: Repetition & Rhythms: Day 53 repetition and Rhythm. Design a collage using repeating patterns of shapes, both simple and complex. Play with this repetition and arrangement of shapes to form mesmerizing patterns. Experiment with various scales and rotations to create a dynamic visual rhythm. So I was a bit excited today, and I pulled out my Medan 100 color back. This is such a beautiful pack because all of the paints are in little color palettes. It's really easy to use. The paint's nice and buttery. It works well on the gel plate. There's only one problem. The tubes are so small. So I got into a printing frenzy, and I'm creating print after print. I'm pulling out the beautiful colours, putting on different shades on the gel plate. It's a bit of Russian roulette. I don't even know what I'm going to get till I put it on the plate. And then a. It looks absolutely amazing. I just loved. I kept the repetition and rhythm going by doing similar colors without having to clean the plate, without stopping and cleaning the brayer. I used a lot of warm tones, and then I switched and used some of the blue and green tones, and they turned out absolutely beautiful. So did you know that jelly printing can be a little bit addictive? But we're all about repetition today, so I just kept going. I had the thought that I could possibly use some of these prints for if not the next lesson, then definitely the lesson after that. And our last lesson, we always use some of the papers from the previous lesson. So I'm thinking, I may as well stockpile when I'm on a roll and create these beautiful prints. Then I pulled out a couple of stencils. Now, these ones are Elizabeth St. Hlai's stencils, and I'll put the link in your notes if you want to find. First one turned out okay, but I wasn't in love with it, so I used the second stencil and, oh, yes, I'm loving this. Because of the marks and the patterns on this stencil, I'm thinking it's going to work really well for that repetitive line and those shapes. So, of course, I had to create quite a few of these prints in different colours pulling them up with different types of paper as well. So now I have an absolutely beautiful collection of papers on some thicker print paper, also on some wet strength tissue, glorious warm tones, beautiful blue tones, and a few of the fabulous stencils. But wait, there's more. Then I hit on my best idea yet. I pulled out my gel elf plate, the beautiful beak 16 by 20 plate, and I decided I was going to spray some of the fabulous liquitex iridescent antique gold onto the plate. Yes, it does pull off very easily, and this is my favorite technique at the moment. So I used the stencil, sprayed the shapes onto the gel plate, covered the beautiful area. Look how fabulous it looks, but then you have to wait for it to dry. Once it dried, I put on some glorious colours, some of the different beautiful shades of my medin 100 colour pack, rolled them over and pulled out this little pack of watercolor paper. Now, I bought this watercolor paper on Amazon a few years ago, and it wasn't the size that I thought I was getting. These really small pieces, I decided to put onto the big plate I think I end up with 14 covering the gel plate. I'm a bit excited because with our repetition and rhythm, I'm hoping that each of these little pieces of the fabulous watercolor paper is going to have a section of the stencil, some of the idscent gold. And I know they're going to be amazing. Right, so let's see how this brilliant idea worked or didn't I haven't actually tried this before. They were kind of cute little watercolor papers in a pack that I bought off Amazon like ages ago. Ah, maybe, baby, it might just be okay. Look at that beautiful little print. I'm liking it. We've got the repetition and the rhythm happening. Mightn't be too bad. Sometimes you wonder when you try different ideas if it's actually a good one or not, but I think I'm loving the idea. I think it worked. That spray paint always comes off really well, and I love this big size gel plate. Ourse I've never tried putting this smaller piece on before, but for today's theme of the repetition, I'm liking it because each of these pieces is going to have a part of this stencil, some of the stencil somewhere. So I'm thinking we did okay. If my colors worked out, I did get a little carried away because the meat and pack is like a treasure trove of possibilities. There's so many colors to choose, and until I take the lid off and put them on the plate, I'm not sure what the color even looks like. They're pretty nice. This is working okay. Why were you so worried? Woopss. That one stuck a little bit. Not to worry, not to worry. I think we have enough of them to compensate for the ones that might stick. That was my tiny little bit on the end. Now we're heading into these colors. I think the idea was a success. Yippie. Now, of course, I have an absolute ton of possibilities with all of these papers to use. That one's pretty nice with a little bit of pink there. So I'm pretty sure I could actually stop printing now. And pull out the art journal. The next agonizing part is going to be just deciding which ones I'm going to fit on my way too small art journal. Right, I'm definitely going to have to put in one or some of these because they turned out rather beautiful. They've got that repetitive pattern through it, and I'm thinking that we definitely have Woopss. That one got stuck. Enough printed material to move on to the collage section. Yay. Right. So with all my beautiful prints, how am I going to decide what I'm putting on my journal? Well, I think I'm going to start with one or some of these beautiful prints. I'm loving the way they turned out. They're absolutely beautiful. And, yes, my idea worked. There is repetition and rhythm within all of the prints. Makes me happy. And I just have to decide which ones I like the best. Oh, man. Yes, I did get carried away, definitely using one or some of those, but I also have some of these prints with a fabulous pattern in it. So I'm definitely using the pattern. I think I'll skip the first one, even though that color is really nice. I wasn't really feeling that particular design. So you might put that to the side. That one looks pretty cool. That one's got the fabulous spray paint on it. That one looks good, too. But, yes, as you might have guessed, I do really like the red one. So I'm going to put some of this one on definitely with some of these. Maybe some of the lighter ones. So it contrasts with that one. Oh, man. They're so beautiful. Oh, that one's pretty nice, too. That one's nice. They're all really nice. And do I want to add a different color over here? Yes, I think I do. I think I'll add, do I want some purple? Oh, it's pretty nice. Although I don't mind the turquoise one, too. Look at the fabulous gold. Idscent in that one looks really nice. Maybe I could put some of the turquoise on and some of this pattern on like that. I'm thinking maybe with a slither of the purple. Do we want any other patterns in it, or is this all we want? Well, there's that question as well. I could pull out some more textures from my scrap bag, but maybe I better not get the scrap bag out because we know how that will go. I mean, I'm liking this idea. Okay. I like the turquoise and the blue with one of these, probably this one because the pink's working nice, and I'm going to go and find a little trinket for the focal point. One of those glass bead skins from class four would be nice. I'm gonna go and find that. On this side, I'm going to go with some of the red for sure, for sure. And maybe a couple of these pieces, 'cause they just look beautiful. Alright, I'm going to have to make a decision, and I might get out my scrap bag and put something more dramatic, maybe something black and daring on this side here. Alright, that's a good place to start. Pretty. Right. So they're all stuck down and looking beautiful. And when I put this print on here in this glorious red color, I almost stopped. It's such a beautiful color. I didn't want to cover it up, but then I've got so many of these beautiful prints, I had to do it. And I like the repetition of the shapes coming through in the stencil. That was such a good idea. So I'm thinking I'm gonna pull out my scrap bag because I just want something across there to give it a little bit more interest. Loving this, I'm going to find something for the focal point. There's going to be a trinket to be found to put on there, but that needs something across there. So I'm thinking maybe, maybe either some black that could work for sure, for sure, or something sparkly and pretty. Yes, that always works. Or maybe, maybe, what about the crosses? They might work? In a single line, perhaps, let's have a look at that. This is my cross stencil that I've jelly printed onto the beautiful Coso paper. Coso rice paper. It's beautiful and handmade. And just glorious. Look at it. So I'm thinking, what about that one? One, two, three, four, five. Oh, I like that. Yes. That one's a winner. Right oh, I'm going to put that one. It just reaches right across. It's just the right size. I love scrap bags. It's just the right color. It works with my warm tones. Giving it a little bit more of an interest and another focal point. That's going to finish it off. Absolutely. Beautiful. I'll go and have a rummage through my class box and see what trinkets I can find for the other page. I'm loving that I love these stencils and these prints, and I love that I have a whole stack of prints for the next lesson. All the one after that. We've got a couple more to go, so I'm figuring that those prints are going to definitely get used up. Right, that's going on like that. Easy peasy, got to love a scrap bag. Oh, I love my scrap bag. I'll let all that dry or got to find a trinket. So I pulled out one of my little packets from taperology. I do have some fabulous trinkets and things from there. I'll put the link in your notes if you want to have a look. I did get a little carried away when we were doing our steam punk theme. Look at these. This is pretty cool date, you think? I think I should use one of these. The trouble is going to be just deciding on which one 'cause they're all pretty cool. I like this one with the little wing there. That gives it a good focal point. I like putting the two ends on the split in the paper like that. I know it's all gonna be, you know, coordinated. Love that pack. And then I'm thinking, What about one of these keys? Yes, did I mention that I went crazy buying things when we were doing steam bank. Love these. Look at these. Aren't they fabulous. Again, it's going to be a matter of deciding. And what I like about these ones is they're nice and small. They're not too heavy, 'cause my pages get so fat, which I don't mind, but I'm liking this idea. What do you think? Yes. That's what I think. I'm going to put that key there like that, and I like the little wing tip there. The symmetry is working well on the page. Loving these colors. They're just beautiful. Love that red, but then the crosses work really well on this side. It just needs a trim up. I'll stick that down, give it a trim up, give you a close up, and then we're on to the next lesson. And, you know, I do have quite a few jolly prints to use. 7. Day 54: Urban Geometry: Day 54 urban Geometry. Create a collage inspired by the geometric shapes found in urban architecture and cityscapes, Incorporate elements like building facades, windows, and skyscrapers to capture the essence of the city. So I've pulled out these fabulous images. Here they are laser copy prints. I took these photos in Venice of the Doge's Palace when I was visiting there. Mm. Last year, or it might be the year before. I was on a Viking cruise with my son. We had an absolutely fabulous time. What I love about these images is the incredible windows of the buildings and the arches and the like four leaf clover shape. They're just so beautiful and they're going to print up so well to create fabulous collage papers. The whole building is rather fascinating, and this is the bridge of size because in the Dogs, palace was the court, and the criminals that were charged with their crimes had to walk across a bridge to go to the other side where the jail was. And when they crossed that bridge, they stopped at the window and sighed. It was their last look at beautiful Venice on their way to jail. And let me tell you the jail was terrifying. We had a fabulous tour in the Doge's Palace. Look at all the gold and opulence and murals. It was absolutely fabulous. And then we went across to the jail section, which was not so fabulous. Some of the prisoners actually didn't survive their sentences because of the state that they were actually living in. And when the water came into Venice, and if it flooded during high tide, the cells at the bottom of the building yes, they were standing in ankle deep water, and they didn't really last very long in those conditions. The tour was absolutely fabulous. I loved all the history. Of course, the beautiful gold and opulence of the Doge's Palace is what's going to influence the jelly prince and my collage today. So I'm starting with the muted violet on the plate, beautiful, rich, opulent color. And when I put the image down to take the transfer, I decided to wipe out some of the people that were in my shot. Isn't it annoying how many people are there? All of the tourists. But it's really easy to manipulate your image transfers. Once you get them on the plate, you can rub out sections, change this, or add that. I absolutely love this process. I pulled the first print with my favorite gold and iridescent bronze fine. It looks absolutely beautiful, but I'm thinking I want more. I want more of that opulent gold. It was so rich. So I'm thinking we have to pull out the rich gold for the next print. We're stepping it up for the next print, and I took the image transfer with the beautiful rich gold color, and it turned out really well. Look at the shapes on the plate. It's just so much fun. Then I pulled that print with the same red violet color, and it turned out absolutely beautiful. That's more of what I want. Those glorious window shapes in the rich gold, I'm liking a lot better. Absolutely love the way the rich gold shines of the transfer. It's absolutely fabulous. So I'm doing the next one. Again, with the rich gold. I'm liking this much more. This time, I pulled the print with a little of the red violet, but also some transparent red iron oxide, just to mix the color up a little bit, make it a bit deeper, but also a bit brighter. Print turned out beautiful. Of course, I then had to bust out the rich purple. We can't have rich opulent colors and royalty and palaces without bringing in a little purple. It's tradition. So I'm using purple for this image transfer, and then I pulled it with the beautiful rich gold. I'm liking it. I'm thinking it's turning out okay, and I'm loving the way all of these prints will work together because they've got all of the same similar shapes. So I've got all my prints from the image transfers, and then I'm thinking, Why are we trying to do a second print? I was experimenting with this. Recently, I hadn't tried it much before, and there isn't really anything to lose. So I put the beautiful rich gold on the plate. And it did transfer. It's a little bit smudgy. The print's not exactly right, but for a second chance print transfer, it's not too bad. And I'm pulling it with the black tissue. Now, this is dolostoe tissue, so you can't put on too much paint, and you can't leave it for too long. But it does pull up a really interesting second print. I'm wanting to put it on the black tissue because I need a little bit of drama to go with these other beautiful opulent colors. So I put the other prints on as well, gave them a second chance pull just to see what would happen and what would come off the plate. I tried silver. The silver didn't work really well. Maybe I didn't have enough paint on the plate or maybe it dried too much before I pulled the print. Ma, they can't always all work. I'm doing pretty well, and I'm on a roll. All the other prints have turned out fabulous. But this one, not so much. Not to worry. There's a little bit of silver left on the plate. So I had one more print to try the second chance with. So I put it straight on the plate, and when I pulled it up with my black tissue, it pulled up both a bit of a mirror smudgy image with the silver and the gold. It looks pretty cool. I'm thinking a little ghostly, but definitely a lot of fun. Now I have an absolute plethora of beautiful image transfers of the Venice Doge's Palace to use today for today's collage. So how am I gonna put them together? And I'm thinking I'll probably need to pull out the scrap bag, maybe add some other shapes in between. Hmm. Not too sure. Better grab the art journal. It's time for our college. Now, which ones am I going to use? That's the question. I absolutely love this one. I love the color. I love the gold. I love the red violet. And the shapes worked out really well with the print. So I'm thinking, I might have to start with this one. This one looks good, too. It's got a lot of those fabulous art shapes. I love that one, but then look at the gold. That's from doing the second print with the gold on the plate. Even that looks fabulous. And you can see the shapes of the windows there. Oh, but Wayne. What about the fabulous second chance prints? Don't they look great? On the beautiful black tissue. Loving this. The gold works so good. This is the smudgy one that I took that has a little bit of the silver on. Even this one looks good. I don't think I'm going to need to add much to this collage because all of these prints turned out really well. It's just going to be a matter of deciding which ones I actually want to put in my art journal. See, this is nice and clear, too. Oh, man. So many decisions. Maybe, baby, this one, I do love the black one, but then I'm really partial to this one, as well. So perhaps I'll start with these two and then see, which other ones I want to squash into my 02 small art journal. This one here definitely is my favorite, the shapes and the color. I love the gold and the opulence of it, so I'm thinking I have to have it, though I do really love the black version as well with the second print. I mean, who knew you could take two prints? Now, remember, these are colored laser copy prints from warehouse stationery. That's where I get them from. I don't have my own laser printer. So if you're having trouble with your image transfers and you're using your own laser printer, try running the print copy through twice because that might build up the toner enough to get a better result. If you're getting the prints from somewhere else and they're not working, then definitely try different shop because I have found that not every place works well for the transfers, and you kind of have to shop around until you find somewhere that does work. And then Eureka, it's absolutely fabulous. So I'm thinking I like both these, and they're the same kind of size and shape just in the different colors. So I'm thinking I'm going to put both of them on this page because I want to get as many on here as possible. And have a look at these pictures here. Now, this is standing inside the Doge's palace looking towards the jail. I'm telling you, it wasn't a good place to be. And there is the crossing of the bridge of size. And standing there watching all of those fabulous gondolas pass underneath. Oh, man, it's another world. I absolutely loved it. This one is the window that spot there, where you're looking out your last view of Venice. This is from that window. That's the last thing that the prisoners saw before they entered the jail, probably never to be seen from again. It was an absolutely fabulous trip. Originally, I thought I might use that shape in the collage, and I'm a little tempted, but my image transfers are too beautiful. I think I'm gonna stick with those. But it is fun, and it was really fun sharing with you. So I'm thinking, I really do like the silver and gold one, even though it's smudgy, I do like it. And I actually kind of love these gold ones as well. But I'm not gonna fit them all on my page. What about this one? That's pretty nice, too, and that would work well with this side. Huh, man. That's just deciding. Okay, well, I'm gonna make some serious decisions, decide which ones I absolutely can't live without, stick them down and then see if I need anything else from the scrapbg to add some other shapes to them. Not sure yet. Haven't decided. They're too beautiful, and I want them all. Right, so my pages are all stuck down, and this one was a really tough decision because I have so many possibilities. But why I chose this particular print was because I really like all the detail that you can see here, I think it was a fabulous image transfer. It's on wet streak tissue. It's a little crinkly, but I like that about it because if you noticed in the video, the building's really old, and it is all very crinkly. So I'm liking that. It's got a great feel about it definitely feels like the Doge's palace, and this is just fun using both of these prints with the different colors. Now, I want something across there. I'm loving this. It's fabulous, but it just needs a little. Something I had a look in the scrap bag when I'm not convinced that that is what I want. I'm thinking maybe of cutting a section of these ones, either that one or maybe. That one, no, this one. I'm thinking, these are the shapes that I absolutely love the most for our urban geometry. So I'm just thinking maybe I'll keep repeating them. 'cause that's a bit of fun. We just did repetition and rhythm. I'm thinking, this could work quite nicely. Putting this shape across there, it's repeating all of the elements, and I think it's going to work because I just need a little bit more gold. Right. What about that? Going across there, trim it there, trim it there, stick it down. I'm thinking that's going to look beautiful. I can either put it up there or just under. I like those marks there. Oh, man, under them maybe, baby, something like that. And am I going to be finished with that? Perhaps, but there's no guarantees. I might have a fiddle with it a bit longer. I actually really liked the punched out circles from. This was less than one. Maybe I just want some punched out circles. Oh, see. You see how it goes. One idea leads to the next, not there. Do I want some on this side? No, I think I'll leave that side alone. But I might put some circles on. I'll think about it. It'll be one or the other. And I'll give you a close up. You can see which one I finally decided on. It's been a whole lot of fun. I love sharing my travels with you. What's the next lesson? Mm. You'll have to wait and see. But I know it's going to be a whole lot of fun. So I just glued this strip on here. I'm thinking it looks fabulous. And as I'm wiping it, look, look at that. I'm actually wiping the paint off because this was the laser print with the image transfer, and it was the second print. So I'm loving this even more. I had to show you. I just had to. I was just going to glue it on and leave it. But look how fun this is. I'm wiping the paint off with just a baby white, and I'm loving that so much because now it's got that black element on that page matches that page. It looks way, way better. See, now you don't have to wait for the close up. Now you're going to know what I did. Oh, that looks great. I'm thinking about putting these circles punched out circle bits on there. I'm thinking they look pretty cool, so I'm going to add those as well, but I was a little hysterical about my black shapes here. Oh, that looks amazing. Now I'm happier with it because I do like contrast. That's just how I am. I do like my collages to have a strong contrast element. I think I like the drama and the impact of contrast. Look at that. That looks way better. So excited about that. And, yes, I think I'm going to put them on. I just sat them there to think about it. But now that I've got those fabulous black shapes, I'm adding the punched out circle pieces. I think I like the gold side. I thought about doing the black side, but no, I like the gold side better because the gold is the Doge's palace. Oh. So I put those on there. Then now I'll let it dry. I'm much happier with that. Now, this could be repetition and rhythm, as well, because look at all the repetitive shapes. But it's urban geometry. That works too. Loving these prompts because you can take them in so many different directions, and it really is all personal interpretation how yours is created and how you want to respond to the different ideas. Right, let it dry. I'm pretty excited for the next lesson. Yay. 8. Day 55: Inspiration of the Master Matisse: Day 55 inspiration of the master Matis. Looking at the shapes Matis created in his collages, cut out your own organic forms and design them into pleasing compositions. Which shapes do you like the best? Which of his cut out collages do you prefer? And what are you going to create in your own art journal page? Henry Matis, born 31st of December 18 69 and died 3 November 1954. He was a French artist, primarily known for his paintings, although he was a draftsman, printmaker, and sculptor. He was often regarded as the most important French painter of the 20th century. Matis had a long and creative career. But I want to focus today more towards the end of his life when he was creating these fabulous collage cutouts. Toward the end of his monumental career, an elderly, sickly Mattis was unable to stand and use a paintbrush for long. In 1941, his health suffered a great blow and he became wheelchair bound. But this did not stop his creative spirit from expressing itself. He focused his creativity on a new language, which he called painting with scissors. He didn't see this as stopping his painting, rather a continuation of his creativity and art. He was almost 80 years of age when he developed this new visual language consisting of pieces of cut paper painted in bright colors, and at a time when Europe was being overshadowed by the Second World War, his assistants would paint sheets of paper in brightly colored gouache and following the artist's orders would hang them on the walls of his studio and bedroom. Mattis spent long hours reflecting on the different possible combinations before setting out with the scissors. He executed numerous sketches and studied different points of view before deciding on a final composition for his collage. He considered his technique as carving into color or drawing with scissors. Though dismissed by some contemporary critics as the folly of a senile old man, these gouache kata, in fact, represented a revolution in modern art, a whole new medium which would profoundly influence generations of artists to come. You're never too old and it's never too late. I think what I love about the story of Matis is in the beginning of his career, he created an uproar with the colors and the expressive application of his paint, especially with the woman with the hat. One of the critics who wrote in the newspaper article declared it to be the Art of wild beast or the Fog. And this particular to stuck with Matis and created a whole new art movement. And then, in his twilight years, very sick and confined to a wheelchair, Matis is still pushing the boundaries of modern art, creating another expression that the critics didn't like and couldn't understand, but really established a new revolution. I absolutely love it. These simplified shapes are a great inspiration for our collage today, beautiful, bright colors, organic form and this is what we're going to base today's lesson on. Which of these shapes do you like and enjoy? Mattis created so many. He's quite endless. But if you look at the images, he's quite repetitive in his patterns. Right. So I'm going to pull out all of the fabulous brightly colored jelly prints that I've already made. Get some scissors and start cutting. Right. So I have an absolutely plethora of beautiful, bright colored papers with all the jelly printing that I did from the fourth lesson, I think it was, I did jelly print like a crazy person. I now have fabulous, bright colored papers to use for cutting out the shapes. Really exciting. I also have this piece that I definitely want to use. This one is a jelly print that I added some Deco foil to in a crazy frenzy. Love it. I'm going to definitely use that. I might even use some Coso paper just to add a little bit of texture to my shapes and so that they're not all just flat one type of paper. I'm liking this idea. And I've got a printout of National Geographic page. That's one of my digital collage papers. I really like using these even more so than the actual original ones because they don't smell and they don't bleed. And I've got this print, as well. I'm liking the texture on that. That's a piece of Chinese rice paper that's been jelly printed. And then I've added the spray paint that I've used to wipe off a stencil. I know. You see? Nothing ever gets wasted. Make sure you're keeping all your prints and your experiments because one day, you just might need that particular texture or color or type of paper. So this is what I'm starting with. Oh, there's another one. That's one of my digital collage papers. Loving that beautiful. Yes, I'm going to use that as well. Now, to make my shapes, I'm actually going to use some stencils. I've got these stencils that have got fabulous organic shapes. Am I cheating? Maybe, maybe. Maybe, baby. But look at them. They're absolutely fabulous. They're great marks to them, great shapes. And what I'm going to do is just draw around those shapes from these particular papers, cut them out. And Walla, I'll have beautiful mats inspired shapes. Now, you can hand draw, of course, absolutely. Pretty much that's what you're supposed to do, but I am cheating because I've got these stencils. So I'm using them. I'm just going to do this. Draw around them like this, simple, and then I'm going to cut out the shapes, and I'll have a whole heap for creating my composition. We better do it fast or else you'll be waiting for ages why I draw these out and cut the shapes. Let's speed it up. Let's get it moving. I can't wait to get to the collaging part. Now, I'm going to use the stencils as a rough guide for creating the shapes. They're not going to be cut out exactly. But I think it's a great way to start, that's for sure. It's definitely a great way to help me decide what type of shape I might want and to help me not to use the same shapes. I think sometimes we tend to stick to the same shapes, and bouncing off this particular stencil will help me to branch out into completely different and totally organic shapes. Right, so I'll do a few more of these fabulous colored sheets, and then we'll see what we have. Look at that. I'm liking that. That's the little piece in between the shapes. Don't forget to look at those shapes as well. The negative shapes in between the shapes that you're cutting out. 'Cause you might find something. Look at that. Really interesting in between the main shapes that you decided you wanted to use. Okay. I'm going to have quite a few, so I better get cutting. Right, so I finished cutting out all my shapes and look at my fabulous piles of colors. He was actually quite therapeutic sitting here just cutting away. I drew with the stencil on some of the papers, and then some of them I just randomly started cutting shapes. I'm finding that I personally really like round edges, organic kind of looking shapes. But I already did know that. I have quite a few neba looking pieces that look like interesting organic creatures, and all we can say. Now, I'm feeling a little dramatic today, so I'm thinking I'd like to start with a black background on one side, at least. I've got this beautiful piece of coso paper, and I'm thinking that I'm going to put it on this side for a background color. Beautiful handmade textured mulberry paper. Oh, love it. I'm going to stick that down right there. Let's just trim this side a little. And then I'll decide on which of my neva looking shapes I'm going to put on. Now, the Black's going to look absolutely fabulous with the Deco foil shape. Look at that. Absolutely fabulous. And, of course, it's gonna look stunning with the glorious orange. How are we going to arrange it? That's going to be the tough part. I think I have to have a piece of each one of the colors that I've cut out, and that's really not going to be very hard. And it's not going to take much to fill up my page. Hey, I'm liking this. This is okay. I'm liking that. Mm. What about one of these pieces? We have to have a piece of each of them. So let's go with maybe, baby. Now, what I find when I'm gluing things on is that I change my mind once I start, 'cause I'm gonna pull everything off to put the background down first. And then when I put it back on, oh, man, things never seem to go back in the same place. Or we need some of this one. Look at that shape. That's so weird. I like weird. Matis would be so proud. Actually love it. So I'm going to now pull it all back off, and you watch. As soon as I go to put it back on again, it'll be completely different, but that was just a little bit of a practice run. But I really like it, so maybe I'll hang on to that there. I'm definitely using some of each color pile of shapes. That'd be a good idea. And I'm really thinking that only one's gonna fit on my little page. What are we going to do on the other side? I'm going to, yes, continue to be dramatic, and I'm going to put a piece of silver. On this side, I know. I usually go with the gold, but today, I'm going to put a base color of silver down. Tara. Look at that. That is stunning. How are the colors going to look? Oh, I forgot this one. I've got two of these. It was one little piece that I pulled out. It has to go on the black. At least one of them. Maybe this one needs to go on the black one. So what's gonna go on the silver? Well, that's going to look fabulous. Yes, loving that. Do we want some of this one? Yeah, I think we could, but probably not that shape. Mm, maybe a smaller shape. Some of the orange. Oh, the orange looks good on the silver. The blue is gonna look nice on the silver, as well, especially in that weird shape. So I think I'll just get moving, put the background colors down, and then decide which shapes I want. On each page really is a lot of Right, so the background colors are down. Yippie, now I just have to decide on which ones I'm going to put on the page out of my quite a few piles of beautiful and fabulous shapes. Right. So which ones did I say I wanted? I definitely want a shape with the deco fool. So let's go with this one. That's a cool shape. Look how good it looks on the black. Loving it. And we're choosing a piece from each of the piles. So it's just going to be a matter of deciding which shape from all of these fabulous piles? Do I want to put on each page? And there's so many options. That could be the problem, but oh, the blue looks good. Yes, loving that. Do we want Let's have maybe one of the purple ones from this pile. Liking these ones. Look at these shapes. They're pretty cool. In that purple color? I like that. Then you have to decide, is it going to connect with your first shape? Is it just going to float in the air? Or is it going to be hinged on one of the other shapes? Oh, man. So many decisions. I'm going to move this one over, but I definitely want that there taking the focal point of the page. I really do like the blue, and I think I had one of these up here. I like that idea, too. Or, the shape could go off the page. That's not a problem or even right to the edge. I could put it off the page even. I don't mind that idea. O. That's going there, that's going there. This is going right to the top of the page, but I still want it floating I like the idea of floating in space. I definitely want a purple color, but I don't know if I like that shape. Well, I don't mind that one. I don't. Let's think about that there. And then or we have to have a blue one. Maybe one not so big, perhaps. Oh, that's nice. Okay. That one? Do we want that? That's a little insipid down there. Let's change that. Oh, and put. I like that. Yes, we're winning. Now we need. One of the beautiful orangy red ones, but which shape? What about one of the long thin ones? Oh, yes. Yes, that's working. I'm liking that. I'm just gonna sit with that for a minute. Oh, I wanted this on there, didn't I? Okay, well, it could sit on top of one of these other shapes. There's no reason why it can't. It can be connected. Like that. Do we still like that shape? Mm. Maybe we like that shape better. Maybe we like it connected. They can be friends. Alright. That's how I like it at the moment. Some of the shapes are connected, some of them are free floating. Now, this side, that purple looks nice on the silver, as well. So let's think about that. What color do we want for our main focal piece? What about the blue? The blues pretty nice on the silver? Yes. I like that idea. And then this would work as well. We put this piece on, I think we should connect it. Like that. Oh, I don't mind that idea. It's running off the page. That's okay. What do we want to float it? Oh, no, I do like it floating. Right, oh. Right oh, oh. What about something dramatic like that? Mm, not as fast on that idea, but we'll hang on to it. What about one of these ones with more of the yellowy orange color? It looks like a boomerang. No, not happy with that one. What about? It's that or that maybe, baby. We could swap that. Hmm. I don't mind that. We definitely have to have a purple one. What's gonna fit. Let's use that one because that's kind of connecting to that, which I like. I do like connections, and we do have to have a piece of the deco foil because it just would be wrong not to. No. What about just a little piece that we could put down the side. Maybe that one, maybe baby or even smaller. Right, what haven't I got? I haven't got a piece of this on there. Do we want that one on there? I don't know if we do. Maybe. No. I don't know, man. It's a great texture, but the color's not popping. We need to pop. Alright, we got the purple. We got that. You've got a little bit of that. We got that. We got that. I think we're good, but we need something here. So which one are we gonna put there? Maybe the darker? Red orange color? Oh, yeah, it's kind of dramatic, isn't it? Oh, what about that little slither? Yeah, that could work. Let's put that there and we'll put the purple on top of it, like that. Don't mind that idea. Don't mind that idea, but we need a little something. We need a little bit more of this, I'm thinking, but only a little bit. There's a piece. I was gonna cut one. There's one right there, so let's use that. Okay? Yeah, I'm not happy with that. What about a? Cut this one down. That might be better. Yeah, I don't mind that idea. I still want to put a piece of this on there. Can I? No, it's not working. But this is looking good. I love the focal point the best. The others, I'm still thinking about it, but this side I'm happy with. So I think I'm gonna glue this side down while I think about this side because I just don't think it's got too many little bits. I'm just not happy with the little bits. Maybe if I push that up there, put something bigger down here. What about the deco foil? What about a different shape of purple? No. Okay. I'm gonna stick this side down. Why, think about what's gonna go on the other side. Right? So I've got that pasidesorted. Pretty happy with it with it. And I have this side half sorted. I'm still in my dilemma about what I'm doing with this section. I'm loving this. I like that connection of that shape. That's too much the same color as that. I think I need a different color. And I really want to put some of my deco foil on here. Somehow. Maybe? Oh, that's not bad. That's not bad. We could run it off the page. Oh, man, I don't think that I do. Oh, I like that. Okay. I like that. Quick, quick. Well I like it. Ah. Quick, get it on before I change my mind. Well, the shapes have to be right, 'cause it's fairly minimal, especially for me. So we've got to get it right. Alright, I'm liking that running off the edge, definitely. And I want something there. Maybe I need another color. Abby I need some This beautiful color? Okay. I'm need some of this. See, we're painting with paper. It's so much fun. I need a color here. What size? Hm. In a kind of oval shape, I'm thinking needs to be there. I like that little bit of pink. In this color? Yes, I do. Yes, I do. Oh, maybe I want it okay. I do. I'm gonna put it right on the edge like that and like that. Dada, da. Oh, we need a little round one for there. Okay. Do we want? No, we don't want that. Oh, we want purple. Purple's not on there. Oh, man. We got to put the purple on there. Ah, or we could use this one. That's pretty nice. Mm. Options. Maybe it could go down there. I don't know, man. It looks like an eye. Creeping me out. I don't think I like that, but I like it there. Okay. And maybe that goes there. Right. Well, that's how it is for the moment. Whether or not I poke at it some more is quite possible. I don't know that I like this shape so stiff. Let's put an indentation in it and change it. That's the fun part. It's a matter of just changing things, moving them around, switching up the colors, changing the shapes until you're happy. Yeah, I like that better because then it's kind of mimicking. Those shapes there, that's working. Beta it's not such a block shape. I don't mind that. I'm loving that color, so we're keeping that and whether or not we're finished? I'm not sure. Okay, it's all stuck down. So what do you think of my Mats inspired collage? 9. Day 56: Shapes in Style & Contrast: A 56 shapes in style and contrast. I absolutely love the last lesson of each class. It's one of my favorites because we can use all of the fabulous papers and textures and in this case, shapes from all the previous lessons. Use any or all of this week's prompts to create your collage art journal page. Which shapes do you like the best? Do you prefer hard edge shapes like the fabulous triangles that I was working with or did you like more of the NibaRoundOganic. I think they're friendly shapes. So, which of the lessons did you enjoy? Which of the techniques did you like the best? Which of your pages do you really like? Oh, that's the question. So today, you get to use any or all of this class lessons, papers, textures, shapes. Oh, man, I have so many jelly prints and so many shapes. I'm not sure if I'm going to go geometric or more organic. I really enjoyed doing both. I loved using the triangles, and some of these triangle prints are absolutely fabulous. But then I also really enjoyed our Mattis inspiration, the organic shapes, and I loved the repetition and rhythm as well. And I've got a few of those prints left. I've even got some of these small little miniatures. I'm loving those. I might have to use those. So I think it's going to depend on what color scheme I'm going to go with and, of course, I still have some of my fabulous Doge's Palace image transfers. I've got some of these leftover, as well. I'm really liking this smudgy one. With the silver and the gold. I might have to do that. Oh, man. I I'm not sure how I'm going to decide. I've got so many. Absolutely. I love it. It's been so much fun. Well, I know it's going to be a tough decision. And it's going to come down to what I feel like today because every day changes you feel differently and different colors can affect your mood and different shapes can be determined by how you're feeling and where your creativity is at. So today, I'm thinking I want something bright on this side, complicated, maybe on this side or textured Really? So I really, absolutely love my Doge's Palace Image transfers, I think they're fabulous. And I'm really loving the triangle print. That was so much fun. So I think I'm going to start. I want this section in here. I'm going to cut it under the circle shapes there to there. I just want that section with those fabulous shapes, and then I'm going to put a section of these glorious triangles up here. But then I might see if I can fit somehow one of these triangles on there, or maybe even two, I love these ones that I hole punched. I think the shape looks absolutely fabulous. I don't want to cover up too much of my print, so I may only really, in all reality, get one of the triangle pieces on there. But that'll be okay. I like the multiple layers. It looks quite complicated with all of its textures and shapes, and that's what I want for this side. Now, the other side, I have to toss up, do I want to go with the blues and purples? They're pretty nice. I could use a piece of that organic print, and I'm really loving the color on that one, that could work. And then I could put maybe some of these shapes with it as well. But I do really love this pattern. Do I want some of this pattern on it? It sits quite nicely on this purple tone here, so I could cut a section of that out. I'm a little tempted OO. The other option is I could go really bright on this side, which is very possible. Then I could put some of these shapes on I do have a ton leftover of these shapes. I know. I had a lot of fun cutting them out. So I could do that, or hold the phone, caller. There's more. I could use this print, which I love, absolutely love. I could use a leftover slither of that one. And then I could put one of these fabulous little miniatures. Oh man. Which 1:00 A.M. I going to go with? All of them are gonna look fabulous, and at least I'll have all of these prints for maybe another day. That's the fun in having so many leftovers. Well, hmm, okay. I could do all of that. That looks fabulous. It absolutely does. They're all good possibilities, but I think I might go with the beautiful purples because that would be a nice contrast to this side, which I'm definitely doing. And then I can decide if I want to add this to it or if I want to add some of these shapes instead, which would look really nice, as well. So that's the question. But I'm pretty sure I want to do this with this side. So I'm going to start with this side. I'm going to stick that piece down, cut a section out and put my fabulous triangle. I'm really loving that I did triangle, so I'm very proud of myself. Right. Let's get started. Right, so the papers are stuck down, and I'm loving it. Now, this one, I absolutely love the splatter of the spray paint on the gelprint. I love spray painting on the gel plate. It's only a recent technique that I've been using and experimenting with. And look how great it looks. I love it. I love the texture that it makes, and with my triangle shapes, it's looking beautiful. I love the little windows from the Doge's Palace. That makes me happy. The colors match really well. And then I put this fabulous triangle over the top with my whole punch. Areas that you can see the underneath coming through. Isn't that fun? It adds quite a dynamic shape because it's going that way in the composition, and I've got another triangle coming down here and all those triangles underneath. It's working really well. I'm going to leave it absolutely just as it is, because I think it's a finished and beautiful collage, and it's making me happy. Now, on this side, I went with the purple. I thought it would be a great contrast with this other page. And I was putting this on. Then I remembered my fabulous tissue. This is one of my absolute favorite techniques, and look how stunning the colors are. So we had to have a piece of that, as well. It's always such a tough decision when you've got so many beautiful papers, but what a great problem to have, don't you think? So the question is, am I going to add an organic shape on this page? Because I could. I have quite a few. Well, that doesn't look too bad. Might trim it down a little maybe. Or maybe we could put some in the fabulous deco foil. I've got quite a few of those shapes. The blue might be a little. Actually, the blue's not too bad either. Oh, man. Now I'm gonna make it harder for myself. We've got one of these in the blue. That's pretty fun. Or we've got some of the Coso paper, too. That might work. If we're not going to use organic shapes, then I could put one of these beautiful silver and gold shapes there from the Doge's Palace. Which one do I want? If I put this on, I think it's nice because it mirrors some of the shapes that's on there. Oh, man. Alright, I'm going to go with the Doge's palace and have a look. I'll cut a section of it off. And I think, really, that's the only way I'm going to know if that's what I really want. Oh, that one's quite nice. Alright. I could put this section on. It would sit nicely, being quite dramatic on the black tissue. Always love a bit of drama. That could go on there like that. Do we do we want the dome? I'm thinking that we do. We could put it right at the bottom, and we could take it right to the top. Do we want that? Well, it's one option, but there's only one. It's only one option. There's numerous things we could do. We could also get out the scrap bank and really confuse my brain. And put something else textured over those sharp lines there. That's highly possible? You know that it could really be quite problematic pulling out the scrap bag, but we have to look. Oh, white could be nice. Look how good that looks. The white on there looks really nice. I actually really like that. Maybe we won't have any other shapes. What about some of the gold? Gold looks good, too. We could put that on there. Yes, that does look nice. You got to admit it does. What about if we add one of the windows? We could so do that. We want the dome. I really do like the dome. All right, what if we just put one? We put one window, we don't get a dome. Oh, man. Sacrifices must be made. If we put that on there. I don't mind this idea. This is kind of fun. That could go on there. That goes over that because we decided we like the white. It's fresh. And we still like the gold idea, as well. Don't we? Do we still like the gold idea? I think we do. We just want everything. I just want it all. So that is totally a high possibility. Let me just double check in the scrap bag that something else doesn't take my fancy because you just never know. Oh, man, there's so many nice papers and textures in here. You don't know until you look. Maybe you shouldn't look. Oh, that's kind of nice, too. What about that? No, it's getting all too busy now. Too much too much. Right. I'm putting it down. We're gonna go with that. I'm gonna put that on there and that on there, and then we'll see where we're at. Unexpected changes were made during the gluing stage. And that's not uncommon. It actually happens quite often with me. I start gluing something down. I changed my mind. And because I'm so surrounded by a sea of amazing textures and papers and shapes, I get a little bit excited when I look over there and see, Oh, I might want that. So changes were made. I ended up putting two of my fabulous window shapes in because one looked a bit lonely by itself. And I've got the white coso paper. That looks beautiful. It just separates those two areas, and I had to have the gold bling. Now I decided I wanted to add one more shape. It's a very mats looking shape. We have to have it. And this one is in the glorious Coso paper. Now, I put it on and I loved it, but I can't remember how I had it. Yes, I know. I am a bit of a worry, so I think it was like that. It kind of went across the page, like that. I know that it went off the page, and it was connecting those shapes underneath and the color is working beautifully. This Coso paper is incredible. It works so well with my amazing jelly prints. So that's how it's going to go. That's the edge of the paper there. It's got a beautiful bronze or brass or gold looking line through it and a copper and a silver. I mean, why would you have one metallic when you can have all of them? So my page ended up a lot more complicated and a lot more texted and layered than I originally thought I was going to do, but that's what happens. I think I was in that mood today. Anyway, it started with the triangles. But this triangle side was a lot simpler. I'm loving these pages. What I love about this particular lesson is especially being in the art journal, because I can look back and go, Oh, my gosh, that's my Doge's Palace windows, love them. That's the jelly prints that I did with my repetition, and there's my Mattis shapes. Absolutely, love. The triangles. The spray paint on the gel plate is definitely one of my favors right now. And I can look through the art journal and pick out the different techniques that I've really enjoyed about the different lessons, and I might want to repeat them, definitely repeating the spray. And, you know, I might be brave enough to try triangles again. That worked out. Beautiful. I love it. So it's a great way in the last lesson to put your favorite pieces or your favorite prints or techniques onto the page because then it becomes like this visual diary. You can flip back and look at it and remember which elements you really like the most. Right? I'll let the beautiful pages dry and I'll give you a close up. I can't wait for you to see how great they look without being plastered with the mat medium. 10. Let's Celebrate: Thank you for joining me on this epic adventure. I really hope you enjoyed this class as much as I did. Who knew that you could have so much fun with a triangle? I absolutely loved that lesson. Of course, I did have to bust out the circles a few times, but wasn't it a whole lot of fun creating the organic shapes inspired by Mattis I loved sharing my favorite art books with you that really brought me a lot of pleasure. I would love to see what you've created, how you've responded to the prompts, so don't forget to show me pictures or photos of your beautiful collages and art journal pages. You're so welcome to join me in my Facebook group and show me your fabulous collages. I would love to see what you've been doing creative Adventures making art. It's a fabulous group. There's so many encouraging people in it. Come and join us, and then you get to show a whole lot of others how amazing you really are. Don't forget to check your class notes for all of the information. Remember, you don't have to use exactly what I'm using. Pull out from your card all of your art supplies first, and you might like completely different colors. What shapes are you going to use? What papers are you going to try? And remember, jelly printing can be addictive. So if you end up knee deep in prints, just remember we're all with you. Information is there in your notes, and if you are looking for recommendations on papers or prints or stamps or stencils, don't forget the discount codes. If you want to contact me directly, you have my email, and you can find a whole lot more on my website, froula.com. Now, I hope you're keeping all of your papers and prints and the textures that you're finding because you don't know what we might need for the next class. I seem to have pulled out a few trinkets in this class. Class five. I have a fabulous box in my art room that's just got the class bits and pieces in it. So when I want something, I know where to find it. Next, we're going to be on to Class nine, exploring culture and identity in collage. Oh, man, it's going to be a whole lot of fun, but I think we're going to get a little deep. I really hope you're enjoying the course. I absolutely love making these classes for you and I enjoy creating these pages with you. Don't forget you can download the treasure map. You can tick off the lessons that you've done or even circle the ones that you've really enjoyed. Then on another day, you could go back and try them again. And if even using the same prompt, you would definitely create completely different artworks. I can't wait to get started on the next class, so I see you for the next mighty adventure.