Exercise 2.1

I started off by deciding that I was going to replicate a rather lovely teapot and milk jug I have in my house.

I began by sketching it on a plain piece of paper, so I could get the perspective of what to cut out. I didn’t trust myself to ‘draw’ with my scissors at first.

After I sketched it out, I then decided on a two colour theme for the pot using black paper and an envelope which had contained a greeting card which was white with black spots. I then attempted to cut out the paper to correlate with the sketch.  I soon found out that this did not work, and it was much easier to cut the paper by eye and feel, rather than follow a pattern.  I was very pleased with the result of the teapot as I wanted it to be a bit quirky, rather than a replica of the original item.

The jug was inspired by a plain white jug I have. So I cut it out of piece of plain green paper which was originally a paper bag.  I cut it out freehand in one piece and added bits of white paper to define the rim and the handle.  I found a picture of a plain white jug in a magazine, so I added that to the middle of the green jug, and then cut out two photos of some white daffodils and placed them in the jug on ‘stalks’ of old wrapping paper.

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The cup and saucer were made in a similar way to the teapot, using old wrapping paper, with contrasting paper to define the inside of the cup and the saucer.  I wanted to create the feeling of flowing liquid from the teapot to the cup and used another old envelope which had a pattern on the inside to recreate that image.

I made each piece on a separate piece of paper before cutting them out and mounting them in their final position.  I felt that the scale of the jug was too large in relation to the cup and saucer and the teapot, so I placed it at the front to try to get the perspective of scale. 

Looking at it all together, I don’t think that the teapot fits the theme, which although I didn’t have a theme when I started, it does seem that the image conjured with the jug, flowers and teacup is one of summer. The teapot is more geometric and stands out starkly whereas the other two objects are more easy on the eye.  Although the jug is also quite stark, the presence of the flowers softens it somewhat.  However, maybe it should contain milk and not flowers! The addition of the butterfly, sourced from another piece of old wrapping paper was a last minute thought. Also looking at the paper I had used to mount the images, I realise there’s a reason for using cartridge paper and not the A4 sheets of paper I had stuck together, and the crumpled texture detracts from the finished piece. Although something I’ve come to realise about the beauty of collage, is that you can easily cut images out and restick them down.

However, I became absorbed with the process of cutting out and sticking and enjoyed the challenge of recreating a solid object with this technique. 

Exercise 2.2

I didn’t want to make collages to scale as I wouldn’t be able to fit many on the paper. I didn’t have big enough pieces of paper, and I wanted to cut continuously, as per the continuous line drawing I did in the first assignment.  I first used a sheet out of a pad of paper I have.  The paper itself is quite thick and I found the process to be much more difficult than I expected. I tried to keep my eyes on the teapot and not on my cutting, and it took quite a while – and total concentration – to complete.  When I examined the end result, I could see that it wasn’t quite symmetric, but it was actually quite a fair representation of a teapot and I was pleased with the end result.  For the next attempt, I used a page from a magazine, so the texture of the paper was very different to the first one.  Again it produced it’s own challenges, and was very difficult to manipulate as it was flimsy and whereas with the thicker paper, you could keep your place with your scissors, this paper kept slipping and moving and I had to keep more of a firm hold on it.  The result of this one was not as good a the first so far as representation, in fact I think it looks a bit like a trumpeting elephant, but proportionately it looked better and also depicted the roundness of the lines of the teapot better than the first attempt.

The third one was cut out of a piece of used brown wrapping paper.  This one was the easiest and quickest one to do! I think I was on a bit of a roll and after using the first two very different textured papers.  The end result was the best representation of the teapot, and although not perfect, I feel it is a lovely, quirky image of a ‘proper’ teapot. The brown paper made me think of tea (probably the colour) in an old fashioned sense and I love the jaunty angle of the spout, which seems to make the whole teapot appear very confident and comforting, as if drinking tea from this pot will make everything OK! The contours are also very rounded and flowing and it ‘flowed’ very well from my scissors.

The final image I made was again using paper from a magazine, which I chose for the colourful image. Again, it was difficult to cut concisely, but I was very pleased with the end result as it is in proportion with the teapot subject.  I felt that each image I produced went better as I became more confident with the technique and the end result was pleasing.  I finished by making a little handle for the lid of each pot out of a piece of coloured card. I chose this to link all the very different images together.

I placed all the different images I made on top of each other to see how different they were before finally sticking them down onto the paper, and this highlighted how very different they all were and how the final two were much more rounded and pleasing to the eye (I regret I didn’t photograph this).

For the second exercise in 2.2, I used the same items as my study objects  – the teapot, two jugs, and a cup and saucer.  I do not have a huge range of papers to choose from and I decided that I didn’t want to spend money on buying more.  I always choose to recycle anything and everything, including the paper I have used in this exercise.  For the second exercise in silhouette collage I used a selection of magazine papers (different weights), paper bags, double thickness wrapping paper and tracing paper.  I found that I had gained a lot of confidence from the first two exercises and jumped right into this one. I used two different papers than I had used in the first exercise – tracing paper and double thickness packaging paper.  The tracing paper was pleasing to use, but the effect was, understandably a bit underwhelming! The packaging paper was the most difficult to manipulate, but I was still very pleased with the end result.  The second drawing, on coloured paper, made me think about the colour of the paper I was using to make the silhouette, and I wanted to complement the colours of each, so I choose a solid colour.  Again, I don’t have coloured A3 paper, so for this I used a size as near as possible to A4 (it was actually an old ring file divider).

Although I had enjoyed doing the first exercise with collage, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to doing this one, but I have been very pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it.  I really like the result of the bold, solid image on the paper, with a nodding acknowledgement of the original article. As with the continuous line drawing I did in the first exercise, I found the process totally absorbing and after the first couple, very satisfying to do.

Exercise 2.3

One thing I had observed from the items I had chosen to depict was that they all have soft, smooth, curved lines, there was no harshness to the items.  So for the next exercise, Line, I decided to change my subject matter of one of my drawings to a more angular one – my sewing machine.  As it is mainly white in colour, and I wanted to my drawing to be an accurate replication, I decided to use tracing paper as my base, and I could then use white paper which would enable the image to stand out.

I decided to cut the main structure of the sewing machine as a silhouette and then build up the detail by adding other pieces of paper.  Cutting out the main body of the machine was enjoyable, and I used the techniques I’d very recently used in the silhouette exercise.  The angular lines of the machines were fairly easy to negotiate and I enjoyed the process. I think the end result was at least recognisable as a sewing machine!

The next exercise I undertook was ‘drawing’ one of my earlier subjects, a milk jug with rounded edges.  I found this much more difficult to negotiate. I found that the curves were difficult to replicate and keep the dimension and the scale of the jug accurate.  It took me ages to complete it, and I still don’t feel that it is a true reflection of the jug.  Unlike all the other collages I have done, this one didn’t flow and I found it frustrating, even though the jug was a simple, smooth rounded shape that I had enjoyed replicating before when I depicted it as a silhouette.  I must admit that I chose the simple item as I thought it would be more enjoyable than the more angular sewing machine, but it turned out not to be the case!  I became absorbed in the process of the sewing machine, but mainly frustrated with the jug.

For the final two exercises in 2.3 Line, I decided to attempt to ‘draw’ the jug again, as I really had not enjoyed the process before and my philosophy is to face the things you find difficult.  I used coloured paper this time on a white A4 background.  I decided to cut pieces, like a jigsaw, along the curved lines of the jug as I was observing them, and then to finally stick them all down once I was happy with it.  As before, I found that as I was focussing on one part of the jug, I missed other features, like the inside curved line of the handle against the main body of the jug.  I only really noticed this once I had stuck everything down, and I found it quite jarring to the eye to see a very straight line amongst a very rounded object.  In fact, there are no straight lines on the jug at all, which I only discovered after studying it over and over again during this collage section. 

The final exercise in 2.3 I decided to look at something completely different – and very angular, a 4 pin plug socket extension lead.  I found the straight lines easier to cut out, but it was a challenge to get the perspective right so that it looked in proportion.  I decided to use a piece of paper which had two main colours and to stick with that.  I liked the finished result, with its clean lines and I especially liked the plug sockets as the pattern on the paper I felt depicted sparks, like electricity. Again, once I got going with this exercise I became absorbed and enjoyed the process.

The one thing that I haven’t done is to tear the paper to create the shapes I wanted, I have only used scissors. Maybe because the scope of the exercises veered towards using scissors, and maybe because I haven’t even thought about tearing the paper?! 

Exercise 2.4

For this exercise I decided to change tack completely from the objects I had been studying – and also because I had managed to acquire a quantity of magazines! In one of the magazines there was an article about Zandra Rhodes, which had a lovely photograph of her as the centrepiece.  This photograph inspired me to create a collage based on her, using mainly pinks, which is the colour synonymous with Zandra.  I used her photograph as the main centrepiece and cut out a block silhouette of my dressmakers mannequin and then surrounded it with images representing items relating to creating cloth textile fabrics and fashion.  I decided not to reproduce items to scale but to randomly add the images as if they had been scattered across the page.  I enjoyed sourcing the images from the magazines, and found myself looking for more items on the theme.  If I had have found more, I would have grouped them more closely together, even overlapping to create a montage of sewing paraphernalia. 

For the line drawing, again I found it very difficult to achieve a reasonable replica of the images I was trying to represent – this time furniture within the room I was working in.  Maybe because I don’t feel that I can draw very well, or I find it particularly hard to manipulate the angles of the image I am trying to copy with my scissors, I’m not sure.  I decided that I would try tearing it.  I found I enjoyed this much better than using my scissors and felt much more in control of the shape I was trying to achieve.  I also found myself more satisfied with the finished result I think because the lines weren’t straight, there was no way it would ever be a precise replica, and the quirky lines were actually very pleasing. I even went back and added another sewing item to the Zandra Rhodes collage and tore the paper to do it! Although at the moment, I haven’t tried to tear the paper other than in a straight line …… next I’ll try curves!

Final Exercise

For my final exercise, I decided to use two themes; the tea theme from my first exploration into collage, and a completely different abstract theme of stripes and spots.  My first effort was to do the teapot, again using the brown paper which I had felt really went well with the earlier study.  Although it was a block silouhette, I actually used my scissors to cut solid pieces of paper and fitted them together like a jigsaw.  To keep to the brief to use spots and stripes, I added spots and stripes to the image to complete it.  I was fairly pleased with the end result, at least you could tell it was a teapot!

I then wanted to recreate the teacup, again inspired from the very first efforts I had made with collage.  This time, I tore the paper instead of cutting it, but still used the block silhouette technique.  Even though this wasn’t to the brief of the exercise, I really wanted to try to use the tearing technique to create the curved edges of the teacup.  I was very pleased with both the process of tearing the paper, which I found satisfying, but also with the end result of the image on the paper.  The whole image had been created by tearing paper in different thicknesses and curved shape, apart from the flower motif I added at the end, which I had cut out. Even though I had strayed from the theme, I still managed to get some straight(ish) lines to depict the steam rising from the hot tea, and one spot!

I then went back to the original brief and decided on a completely abstract theme of stripes and spots. For the first one I used some paper (actually the inside of an envelope) which had black irregular shaped lines on a very pale pink background.  I cut out individual lines using my scissors and placed four across the centre of the paper, which I was using in the landscape orientation.  I then used some paper, again an envelope which had irregular black spots, and tore these out individually. And continuing on the monochrome theme, I had some mottled grey paper which again I tore into round shapes.  My intention was to show the spots as two individual entities at the bottom of the paper, then moving through the lines and intertwining with each other, and eventually mingling with each other at the top of the picture.  I was really pleased with the end result of this collage; it was simple, but visually effective. 

I decided to carry on with this same theme to create another similarly styled collage, but this time tearing instead of cutting the lines and cutting instead of tearing the spots.  I tore strips of brown paper to create the lines and the same grey paper I had used in the earlier one for half of the spots and some completely black paper for the other half.  Again I used the paper in landscape orientation and wanted to show the spots moving through the paper, but this time, starting with the black at the bottom moving into the grey at the top of the page.  For both of the collages I started with sticking the lines down first, almost like they were the basis of the pictures, the ground rules so to speak. The spots became more fluid and took on a life of their own and flowed around the page, before I settled on the final design and stuck them down.  I  really enjoyed doing both of these collages; I became totally absorbed in the process and felt the message that they gave to me was that everything is connected and nothing is fixed, nothing stays the same, all things are constantly moving and changing, merging into other things and becoming something different.

My final piece was another spots and stripe, this time using one colour of paper on a white background.  I tore strips for the lines and used a hole puncher to create the spots.  I also used the pieces from which I’d cut the holes from, as I thought they looked very effective and gave a slightly different variation on the theme.  This piece can be viewed from any angle and it reminds me of an underwater scene, where the lines could be either foliage or fish, and the spots bubbles of oxygen.  I really liked the effect of just using one colour on the white paper.

Summary

Prior to undertaking this exercise on collage, I must admit I had not thought a great deal about it and thought that it was for children in nursery school.  I have memories of my own children bringing home collage work with lentils and pasta! But I have thoroughly enjoyed many aspects of this exercise.  I enjoyed ghe research on the three artists I chose to study and found their work fascinating – particularly Matisse as I had never previously thought of him as a collage artist.

I really enjoyed getting ‘stuck’ in to the practical exercises and particularly enjoyed the block silhouette collages where I used my scissors in a continuous motion whilst closely observing an object.  I also enjoyed the quirky results I achieved with the teapots.  I found the line drawing much more difficult and frustrating, particularly with the curved objects (jug) which I didn’t enjoy as much as the more angular objects (sewing machine and extension lead).

Looking at the pieces I have created, I believe I could have been more creative with the background colour of the paper. Although I have already said that I didn’t want to spend too much money and I wanted to utilise what I already had, it is only now, in retrospect, that I realise what I could have used.  For example, I could have painted the white paper – I do have a pristine box of watercolour paints which have never been used – as that would have given me much more of a contrast to just using white most of the time – I did use some coloured card I had for two small collages. But apart from that, I certainly felt I was becoming more willing to try different things as I progressed through the exercises.  I can see that I will use collages going forward, particularly to develop ideas for projects. I also really love that you can create something beautiful out of things that may be considered as rubbish. Again this reflects my ethos of reusing and recycling which pretty much forms the basis of so many areas of my life!

I spent a great deal of time looking at collage on Pinterest and Instagram and realise that there is huge scope to develop this area of my coursework.  However, and this is generally speaking, when looking at different artists and images on social media platforms, I tend to get completely overwhelmed and find it difficult to find a contemporary artist I particularly like – there are so many!  But what I do is I look at what others achieve and then tend to focus on my own (poor!) efforts in comparison and get ‘lost in the scroll’, which is very demoralising. I understand that sites such as Instagram and Pinterest can be very inspiring places, and we are actively encouraged to use them, but I have spent a lot of time over the years ‘looking’ and not actually ‘doing’, which was my main motivation for undertaking this course. I have decided therefore not to spend too much time looking at these platforms as I want to focus on the processes and learning the techniques in this course so that I can become more confident and develop my own style.

I have had a very long time away from my studies, due to difficult circumstances, and I feel that this exercise has been a bit like starting from scratch again.  As in the first exercise in this course – mark making – I still feel fairly constrained in my work, although I do feel as if I’m making progress!