In the Style of van Gogh: Painted Collage

One of my favorite paintings, especially this time of year, is "Siesta" by van Gogh, 1889 - 1890.  It also sometimes titled "Meridian" or "Rest".


I had the pleasure of seeing it in person at the Orsay in Paris and the texture of the brushstrokes immediately places you in that field.

What a good place to start with a painted paper collage.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- wc or heavy sketch paper for painting
- newspaper
- brown kraft paper
- disk tempera, liquid tempera, and/or acrylic
- sponge
- scissors
- glue
- charcoal
- colored pencils or crayons
- reference photos

PROCEDURE:

So this is a 2 session project.  One for painting and one for cutting/pasting. 


Take your heavy sketch paper or wc paper, this will be your background substrate.

With blue paint  cover at least half the paper on the diagonal.  Now with kids I just have them paint the entire page.  Set aside to dry.

Newspaper is one of my favorite art materials.  You will need 3 1/2 sheets.

With the same blue paint you were using paint over one 1/2 sheet.  Add a little white so you have a page that goes from dark blue to light.


Set aside to dry.

Paint the next piece brown and one yellow.

Take the brown sheet.  Using liquid tempera and/or acrylic paint 1/2 of the sheet with darker colours and one with lighter colors.  You also want different brushstrokes for each half.


One side has skinny diagonals and one side has wavy.

It's up to you what you do just be consistent on the half.

Here on the yellow I'm using a piece of cardboard to make my lines.

Leave your newspaper to dry.

By now your background should be dry.

Grab your sponge.  Now it can be a sea sponge or a manufactured one.


Put a little white tempera or acrylic on a plate.

If using a manufactured sponge make sure your tear a chunk off.  You want an uneven surface on the sponge.

Sponge on some white paint on the diagonal.


I ask the kids to turn their hand each time they sponge so you get variation in the sponging.




Let dry.

Take your brown kraft paper and cut a rectangle that fits in the lower 1/2 or 2/3rds of your background.  I pencil in a mark on the kraft paper so I know where to cut.


Don't attach just yet.

Using the painted newspaper start cutting out the other parts of your background.


Here is the light field.

The medium value haystack.

The dark value haystack.

Using glue secure the pieces into place.

Add some pieces to the front, (foreground).







Now with crayon or

colored pencil add in some grass details onto the kraft paper.

With the blue paper you painted sketch out the figures.

Cut out and add to the collage.  For the faces, feet, and hands I used the reverse side of the painted newspaper.

Add some shading and details to the figures with charcoal and crayon/colored pencil.

You could also sketch out the figures on white paper.

Add colour and then cut and paste onto your collage.

That's it.

Onto the results for the giveaway of the DVD Series, "Understanding Art: Impressionism" with Waldemar Januszczak.

I had a total of 57 entries and the winner by random draw is:

Here are your random numbers:

33

Timestamp: 2012-09-28 19:35:59 UTC


Which works out to be Jess who left this comment,

"Hi Gail! I have you on my google reader and I always look forward to your blog. I teach art to grades 4-8. Would love to win the DVDs! Thanks for sharing your ideas. "

Congratulations Jess!  Please email me at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca so I can arrange delivery.   Thanks everyone for entering.

See you next week.

"Daring Adventures in Paint" Giveaway and Tutorial

I was experimenting again yesterday.  This time after reading "Daring Adventures in Paint" by Mati Rose McDonough.







End result,  this painted collage and I will be trying this out with Grade5/6 next year I think.

"Daring Adventures in Paint" by Mati Rose McDonough is a new book from Quarry.

- 128 pgs
- soft cover
- roughly 8.5 x 9 inches
- suggested retail $22.99US/$24.99CAN

Lots of great photography which in any art instruction book is always appreciated.

Mati touches on quite a few techniques to try including;

 using silver leaf, spray painting with doilies. transferring sketches onto specific areas of a painting and developing your narrative.

Where this book shines is in it's practical take on the developing artist....how do you take that "Wouldn't it be great to paint my own canvas for my bedroom"  to identifying how to locate inspiration, finding your voice and confidence as an artist, and then transferring that into completed work.

I will be giving away a copy of this book later this week, see the end of this post for details but first let's go thru the painted college using some techniques from Mati.







MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- canvas, piece of masonite, or paper/cardboard as a base (substrate)
- assorted papers from recycling, junk mail, etc.
- acrylic paint
- glue
- alphabet stamps
- craft foam
- scissors
- scraps of cardboard
- sealer, optional.  I like Mod Podge!

PROCEDURE:

Before I started this collage I decided to make some homemade stamps.  Now this is not discussed in the book but it's so easy.

Take some craft foam and a piece of corrugated cardboard (or foamboard, or gatorboard). You want it the size of your stamp.

Cut out your design.  This is different than the other stamps I make by etching designs in foam with a pencil.

Glue into place on the cardboard.  You can skip this step if you use the craft foam with the sticky backing.

Let dry.

Gather some supplies for printmaking.

- plain paper
- paintbrush or roller, whatever you have on hand

- acrylic paint
- disposable plate or even newspaper, waxpaper to squeeze your paint onto to load your brush or roller.  If I use a plate I will wash it and reuse it again and again.

Apply paint to your stamp and turn it facedown onto your paper. Rub all over the stamp with your hand applying a bit of pressure.  You can also use a brayer here.

Lift to see your impression.  The one on the left was using a paintbrush, the one on the right was a roller.




Let dry.
Keep your stamp as you can use it over and over again.

Take your base, (canvas, board, paper) and glue down some of your collected papers.

Some of my edges are cut some torn.  I know what colors I want to use in the final piece so I'm choosing very neutral colored papers.

Start adding paint to your background.  No rules here.  Paint over some of the paper while leaving some areas untouched.

Remember to do the sides if using a board or canvas.

I want to add my stamped paper.




So I cut out the part I want.  I then tint it with paint and glue into position.

Add details with more acrylic.  Here I'm stamping circles using an old spool dipped in paint.

Add more paper details if you want.  I cut the circles out of this scrapbooking paper as they were in my color scheme.

I added some sharpie and stamped on the word CROW using the R that was already there in the map paper.

Fiddle with it until you are satisfied.

Finally when everything is dry add a sealer over top to glue everything down.  I used Mod Podge matte finish this time.  It still has a bit of a sheen to it.

That's it.  I love the way I really did not have a plan but the work just came together......this will be a great lesson for the kids!

If you would like to win your own copy of "Daring Adventures in Paint" please do one of the following:

- leave a comment on this post
- like or comment on this link on my Facebook page
- send me an email at  thatartistwoman@shaw.ca

I will be making the random draw on Friday Aug 3rd/12.

In the spirit of the Olympics I am opening this draw up to everyone.  Good luck.

Thanks to my friends at Quayside Publications for sponsoring this giveaway.

See you soon.

In the Style of Picasso: Guitar Collage

This is a good project to introduce students to both the work of Picasso and collage.

This is "The Old Guitarist" by Picasso, 1903-04, currently in the collection of The Art Institute in Chicago that I took on my recent trip. It is one of his earlier works from his Blue Period. Picasso often used guitars and violins as subject matter is his work and there is discussion on how it was his symbol for a woman, as the guitar/violin shape is very like that of a woman. 

and here is a painting of his titled "Bowl of Fruit, Violin, and Bottle" 1914 from the Tate Modern that I took in London.  Although it is painting, Picasso painted it to look like a collage.  He made several collages from bits of paper and then added guitar and violin details.

For our project we are first going to make the paper collage and then add paint and guitar details.























MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- scraps of paper, newspaper, junk mail
- wc or heavy paper
- glue
- tempera paint
- charcoal, colored pencil, sharpies/markers
- reference photos of guitars/violins

PROCEDURE:

Take your scraps of paper.  Tear and/or cut into pieces and start gluing onto your wc or heavy paper.  You can go over the edges of your paper as we will trim them later.  Let dry.













Using a marker or pencil add in some guitar details.  Maybe just pieces of the shape and the dominant parts of the instrument. Or you might want to do a full sketch.

Now start adding color.  Using tempera paint and colored pencils block in color in different sections of the collage.

Continue until you are pleased with the composition.  You don't have to fill every section and it is more visually appealing if you leave some areas untouched to show the collage papers.

On to the giveaway results for the newly published "The Natural Soap Chef".  I had a total of  80 entries and using Random Org to choose the winning entry:                                        

Here are your random numbers:

60

Timestamp: 2012-07-13 16:37:21 UTC

That works out to be Celese who wrote:

I just wanted to send you an email to enter for the soap making book. It looks so great and I've always wanted to try it. Thanks for doing this drawing!

Celese Sanders

Congratulations!  Thanks everyone for entering and have a great weekend.  I'm off to the Calgary Stampede this afternoon and I'll have more for you next week. Yahoo!