Collage tends to be a very instinctive process for most artists and this direct way of working makes it an extremely successful way to avoid the ‘fear of the blank page’ syndrome and quickly create a vibrant image.
At times, however, the tendency to use too many elements or colours gets in the way of creating a cohesive composition. Following these simple guidelines will help everyone from scrapbookers to professional artists create pages that have more impact.
What is Composition?
Composition, when referring to a piece of art, is taken to mean the organization, grouping combining parts or elements of a work of art so as to achieve a unified whole.
With collage and mixed media artworks there is often a tendency to want to include all the wonderful elements that have been gathered, so learning to recognize which elements are essential to include and which are extraneous is the one of the major keys to creating professional looking compositions whether in collage or other types of artwork.
This stage is especially important in a small piece such as an art journal page where less is definitely more. Very often there is an element that the artist feels very attached to but that disrupts the harmony of the whole. As Matisse said in "Notes d'un Peintre" in the Paris magazine La Grande Revue in 1908 (as translated by Jack Flam in Matisse on Art, University of California Press, 1995),
“Everything that is not useful in the picture is, it follows, harmful.”
So, in order to rid the composition of any extraneous elements, before finally starting to stick down the collage it pays to ask the question “What can I let go of?”
Gathering Collage Elements - Journal Topics and Scrapbooking Ideas
Another way to avoid overloading a collage, art journal page or scrapbook layout with unnecessary items is to focus on a theme – whether it be inspired by a journaling prompt, a quote or just an idea or concept that the artist wants to work with. Keeping this idea uppermost in the mind whilst looking for elements to include in the collage will help to make the collage composition more meaningful. It is easiest to start with more elements than are needed and rearrange them until the composition begins to feel coherent.
Limited Colour Palettes
When searching for elements to include in collages, art journal pages and scrapbook layouts, try to tie together the composition by co-co-ordinating the colour palette around the key element in the piece. This might mean using complementary colours to those in the central element, colours that are analogous to it or colours that contrast with it.
Either way, resisting the temptation to include every colour in the rainbow will make the finished composition look like it really belongs on the same page. If it is desirable to include an element that doesn’t match the overall colour scheme, the colour can be manipulated in various ways – see below.
Bringing Together the Collage Art Composition
Another of the most important keys to making attractive collages, is to find a way to bring all the disparate elements together. This can be done in various ways:
- Try tearing our the collage pieces rather than cutting them out with scissors. Tearing the paper gives a soft edge that is much easier to merge into other areas, especially when applying colour on top. Tearing the paper one way will create a ‘halo’ around the image the colour of the original unprinted paper whereas tearing it the other way will give an edge that has printed colour right to the edge of it. Both of these have their uses according to whether the edge is to be emphasized or not. Torn edges can be attractively combined with carefully trimmed edges such as those around lettering, for maximum contrast.
- Use colour to bring the disparate elements of the collage together. Acrylic paints are a quick drying medium that can be used thickly or thinly to cover or enhance collage compositions. They can also be used to completely change the tone or colour of an individual element so it better fits into the overall scheme. Oil pastels - water soluble or traditional - also make a great medium for blending different areas of collage but the drawback is they tend to smudge onto the opposite page. (Combat this by affixing sheets of tracing paper or tissue paper between the journal pages giving the art journal the feel of a vintage photograph album.)
Getting the Most out of the Collage Process
By adhering to a theme and limiting colour palette and number of images used, everyone from scrapbookers to professional artists can learn to quickly create resonant, cohesive compositions.
An awareness of these basic rules means that artists and crafters can bypass fear of the blank page and get the most out of the unconscious insights that that such an immediate way of working as the collage process offers.
Cherry Jeffs - Artist, designer, gardener and earth-lover, I was born in the UK but have been living in Spain for the last thirteen years which gives me ...
