Collage Artist 5/5 - Share a Message

Create a self-portrait collage

This collage was created to represent the part of me that loves books.  To create the collage I found some old books my family was planning on throwing away and I chose three books with three different colored pages to create my collage with. From each book I tore out a few pages and ripped and cut them into the approximate shape I would need to fill the spaces in the book I had sketched. I really like how this one turned out and think it definitely displays both my love for reading and for art.

Collage Artist 4/5 - Use Found Objects

Create a collage on a found surface

This collage was done on a pink conch shell that I thought would be a cool 3-D surface for a collage. In this collage I used tissue paper and magazine clippings to create a blue pattern that swirls up the side and the message and people on top of it. The words on the edge of the shell say 'different yet the same' and the mixed up people represent that we are all different people with different desires and goals, but we are all human. 

Collage Artist 3/5 - Create with Color

Create a collage using one color

For this assignment I whose the color green and my mission was to get as many shades of green as I could into the collage. I ended up using both light and dark green paper, green string, note cards I had water colored green, the edge of an old green towel, a green marker, and a flower I had dried earlier in the year. I used mostly Elmer's glue in this collage but I also used a little bit of rubber cement to get the piece of towel to stick.

Collage Artist 2/5 - Focus on Composition

Compose a collage using cubomania

Cubomania is a technique in which you cut an image into squares and then reassemble it however you desire. I used a photo I took of the capital building while I was on vacation, cutting the photo into half inch squares before reassembling them randomly using Elmer's glue. It got very tedious towards the middle and end to get all the squares to line up (I did not cut them perfectly) but I think the end result looks really cool.

Collage Artist 1/5 - Explore Collage

Read about three collage time periods or styles.

The first known collages come from the 12th century in Japan. In Japan at the time paper was rare and regarded as sacred material and the first record of collage came from Japanese calligraphers who copied poems onto collaged paper. Collage later moved West, along with paper, along trade routes.

In 13th century medieval Europe collage techniques emerged with a new purpose. In the 15th and 16th centuries Gothic cathedrals, icons, and coats of arms all began to be adorned. You could find gemstones, gold leaf panels, and other precocious materials applied to these objects.

The method, and the word, coming from the fresh word for glue, were first popularized by Pablo Picasso and George Barque in 1912. At the time both artists were revolutionizing the painting world with their cubism. Both artists would use collage to build up parts of there painting giving texture and small amounts of depth. They would do this by gluing on materials such as newspaper string and even sand.



Bibliography

http://www.sugarlift.com/blogs/the-blog/18603059-a-brief-history-of-collage
http://www.stuffthatsticks.com/?page_id=271
http://www.sunnyday.org/art_lesson_plans/collage_history.htm
http://victoriarestrepo.com/2013/02/06/art-techniques-for-kids-history-collage/