SUNFLOWERS AND BARN
Watercolor Collage 15x22
Last Saturday I had a wonderful group of eight ladies for my Watercolor Collage Workshop. They came from Colorado Springs, Denver and Lubbock, Texas.
Combining collage with watercolor is a colorful, messy business but there were happy faces all around.
I had several colors and patterns of tissue paper and rice paper on hand for each student to use. The leopard print is especially great for the centers of sunflowers.
We also painted our own tissue papers so that the colors would coordinate with the paints we were using and we could combine shades, spatter and even use coffee for added texture.
While the papers dried, I lightly sketched in the barn and the centers of the sunflowers to give myself a starting place. Then, areas of color were painted on wet paper to create a road map of color placement.
When that was dry, I began tearing shapes form the tissue for petals and flower centers and collaged them on to the painting. The beauty of tearing the paper instead of cutting is that it forces you to make creative shapes.
I then started using the watercolor to paint some shadows between petals and add definition to the sunflower centers. With the process of watercolor collage you paint, collage, paint and collage some more until you are happy with the final piece - a very fun and creative process!
You can see my workshop schedule for the first of 2013 here
