Flower Flow

 Flower Flow

Another taster session completed ; this time a floral collage project with Laly Mille. My art room has never been filled with so much collage fodder. I had myself boxed into a tiny corner surrounded by piles and piles of STUFF! I was pulling out doilies, cheesecloth, handmade paper, old ephemera, scrapbook paper, gel prints, magazine fodder, and old greeting cards. Then the supplies: gesso, acrylic paints, gel medium, matte medium, watercolors, water solvable graphite and Stabilo All pencils, all sorts of brushes, and a silicone spatula. 

Making botanical bits was great fun. Painted old ephemera (music, book pages, letters) with gesso and then used water-solvable graphite to sketch botanicals with non-dominant hand. Adding water and smudging with my finger created an interesting effect. The graphite was softer; Stabilo-all was VERY stark, dark black. Loved how using non-dominant hand led to funky, wonky, imperfect drawings.  Very organic and great way to avoid perfectionism. Also painted black paper with gesso and etched designs with a clay tool while paint was still wet. Loved that so much!!!

Next day for first layer, I created a neutral-colored background using handmade papers, cheesecloth, book pages, used teabags, paper doilies, and my white-on-black drawn botanicals. Then I softened the edges of the torn pieces with gesso and added some white and tan acrylic paint around the edges and corners.

Layer two involved adding my drawn graphite botanicals and some color. . . torn colored botanical fodder and scrapbook pieces in pink and green. Some tough decisions here. 

The final layer was the most fun . . . adding those finishing touches to bring the pieces to life. Loved applying watercolor on top of mediums and splattering and blotting with a paper towel. Peeling off the tape was a grand moment of excitement . . . the big reveal. Very satisfied with this series and learned so much. Thanks, Laly!