The Anatomy of a Collage

What if we rummage through my collage inbox to see what we can find, and create a collage together. Creating a collage is for me, a lot about trusting what your intuition tells you, so I’ll just go with some bits and see where that leads us, okay?

Rummaging through my scrap inbox the first bit I pull out is this one:

It’s a purple, red and pink striped wrapping paper, wrinkly from use and with tape marks. It looks beautiful to me. I love all the little fold marks where the color wore off. I enjoy using used wrapping paper because the colors are always vivid but the paper is thin enough to not create bulk. It is easy to glue down and fun to use in collage. So I’m grabbing another bit:

I did find a bigger piece of this old wrapping paper in a forgotten box recently, so I’m sure I’ll use it again soon. I love this pattern, the roses, the pink and green combination (always) and it will always brighten my day when I grab it. But to not only use wrapping papers (not that I’d mind that but that’s not what happened this time) I grab a more muted bit of artists paper. It’s something a bit thicker and more textured (but not too much) that I probably got in a paper pack bought from another artist once.

Getting one of those starter packs of paper is great if you’re new to the world of mixed media and collage I think. You get a little sampler of different textures, colors and weights of paper to try out. To get started with collage, you need a lot of different papers but you often only need very little of each one. And if you ever get rolls of a certain paper, or a whole package of the same type, make sure you round up little paper bundles for your collage friends to swap or gift to them, so that everyone gets a bigger variety and gets to infuse some newness to their stash. Sharing is always better than hoarding your favorites. There will always come along new paper scraps and other favorites, right?

If you’ve been “into it” for a while, you’ll also have lots of altered papers in your stash. Painted background papers, doodles, cut up artwork, started collage experiments, pen test papers or failed prints… So mix it up and bring a bit of yourself to the table as well I say. This also ensures a unique look of course, because no one else other than me could have a painted piece of paper looking exactly like this one:

The black and mustard yellow on a very fragile and old book page makes me think I painted this at the Orly workshop. It’s not a color combination I usually spring for, but I love this grungy piece of paper now, probably painted through a found stencil.

I’m drawn to warm colors most of the time, but a bit of black can be really beautiful. And to make this collage even more personal I used one of my photos into the mix, featuring a work in progress embroidery on painted fabric no less. It was taken in 2015, shared to instagram and then at some time I printed a copy of it onto regular paper. Today I re-found it and used half of the photo on a square collage.

All of these are patterns and colors that could create a backdrop for a more focal image, but they can also create an abstract collage that needs nothing else. But today I decided to finish of my collage by putting a bird on it, and then I kept going and made a little series of bird collages from the same bird book.

As a collage artists and a huge paper collector, I’m in love with each little bit I get to use in my art, so I thought I’d share some of my little paper treassures today. I hope you liked this rummage through the scrap inbox and got inspired to visit your own stash.

Here’s the finished result:

It is not perfect, it is not the best I’ve ever created but I like it fine. Every last bit is filled with memories and joy, and together these scraps created a home for little miss goose and I love that.

I am working on the 365 somethings this year, and collage is on my mind, on my desk, heavily featured on this blog and my collage papers are being turned over weekly. Looked at, torn to smaller bits, cut up, glued down and used. They’re finally getting their spot in the sun and I’m a happy little duck.

You might also enjoy my blog posts about

• 5 things every Collage Artist Needs
• Create a Warm-Up Collage before you start and
• How to create your own Scrap Inbox for collage (it’s a game changer)

All art created by hand by iHanna. Copyright Hanna Andersson. All rights reserved. AI FUCK OF