Initially I was very skeptical about this exercise and had difficulties finding my way into it. Somewhat confused and lacking orientation, I decided to simply jump into it and see what would happen. I did not want to do a mosaic approach. I preferred to work with larger pieces of paper that would fit by shape and tonal value into my composition. I looked through a magazine and tore out pages or bits with interesting textures. I soon decided on using printed text for the lighter shapes, and larger coloured areas for the darker areas of my composition. I worked rather quickly and it was a smooth process.
When I had the entire A2 sheet covered with torn out patterns, I reviewed the result so far and was disappointed. I had tweaked the composition a bit to make it simpler, but the shapes I wanted to define were not recognizable. Therefore I decided to work in the shapes using black oil pastel.
The result did not look coherent, so I decided to work in some more oil pastel in a soft green to unify the lighter areas and make them belong to a single larger shape. But it still did not work for me. I found there were not enough contrasts and the shapes were still unclear. So I painted into the collage with white gouache. I took care to apply only a thin layer because I wanted the printed texture to shine through. This was the step where the image began to work for me.
Right after finishing I was a bit confused and unsure whether the result was good or not, and took a break to gain some distance. Coming back, I was surprised how much I liked the result. It felt similar like after the green sgraffito composition – a bit like a breakthrough and quite liberating. I’m now quite happy with it.
What did I learn from collage?
Most importantly, it was a pleasurable experience, in particular the second part where I worked over the collage to make it fit with my compositional idea. I think I would have been very frustrated had I tried to impose the exact original composition. But with the somewhat looser approach it worked perfectly for me.
The technique made me focus on the absolute essential elements of the composition, and leave out anything complex or intricate detail. I think it is a good way to approach a topic in a novel way. This might be particularly helpful when one got stuck with a subject, because it requires to rethink how the object can be depicted.