Collage with a Message
Senior 1 · Fine Arts
Collage with a Message
Lesson 4 of 5
25 min
The small box below was made in the Netherlands about 270 years ago to hold a baby's birth cushion. The maker covered plain cardboard with marbled paper: paper laid on a bath of floating colours, so it picks up swirls like stone. On the lid, a pattern was cut out of the blue paper so that yellow paper underneath shows through. Found paper is useful, but collage artists often make their own papers, with exactly the colours and textures their message needs.
Definition
Medium (plural media): the material an artwork is made with, such as paper, paint, fabric or clay.
Adhesive: any substance that sticks materials together, such as PVA glue or flour paste.
Texture: how a surface feels, or looks as if it would feel: rough, smooth, ridged, speckled. Example: spattered paint gives paper the look of sand.
| Material | Where to find it | Good for | Preparation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old magazines and newspapers | homes, offices, shops | photographs, words, colours | cut out a whole page first, then trim on the desk |
| Packaging card (cereal, soap, sugar boxes) | kitchens, shops | supports, strong flat shapes | open out flat; the plain inside takes glue and paint well |
| Brown paper, sugar and flour bags | markets | textured backgrounds | shake out, wipe, press flat |
| Kitenge and other fabric offcuts | tailors' shops | pattern, colour, identity | iron flat; cut with sharp fabric scissors |
| Dried banana leaves, bark and fibre | gardens, farms | natural browns and creams, stripes | wipe clean, then dry flat under heavy books for several days |
| Maize husks, seeds, sand, feathers | kitchen, farm | texture and small details | dry completely; glue seeds with thick PVA |
| Bottle tops, sweet wrappers, labels | waste bins, shops | shine, relief, colour | wash and dry; flatten tops only with your teacher's help |
| Adhesive | Sticks well | Strength | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| PVA (white glue) | paper, card, fabric, leaves, seeds | strong; dries clear | thin it with water to spread or to seal; wash brushes before it dries |
| Home-made flour or cassava paste | paper, tissue, newspaper | medium | almost free; keep covered and use within two or three days |
| Glue stick | paper only | weak | clean and dry; best for small letters and thin pieces |
| Needle and thread | fabric, raffia, leaves | very strong | for fabric collage that will be handled or hung (see Unit 7) |
Flour paste is made in the ratio : mix the flour with a little cold water until smooth, add the rest of the water, then heat gently with an adult, stirring, until it turns thick and slightly see-through. A pinch of salt helps it keep.
Worked example: papers for a Nyungwe Forest collage
Ishimwe's message is “Nyungwe's forest gives us our rain”. He needs papers for sky, trees, tree trunks and rain.
1. Match texture to part. Sky: a graded wash of grey-blue. Trees: sponge in three greens. Trunks: dry brush in brown. Rain: wax-resist lines under a grey wash.
2. Decide the adhesive. Everything is paper, so he will use flour paste for large pieces and a glue stick for small ones.
3. Work out the paste. The class needs about 600 mL. The ratio has parts, so
He mixes of flour with of water.
<em>Paint Like Eric Carle</em>, from The World of Eric Carle. Eric Carle (1929–2021), the author and illustrator of <em>The Very Hungry Caterpillar</em>, built his pictures from tissue paper he had painted himself. Watch which tools make each texture, and notice that the papers are made first and cut later.
Warning
Scissors and knives
Warning
Glue, paint and paste
Tip
Make the paper, then cut the shape. A leaf cut from sponge-painted paper already has texture; a leaf cut from plain paper and painted afterwards usually looks flat and wrinkles. Label your dry papers on the back so you can find them later.
Practice
Which technique would you use for (a) sand on a lake shore; (b) a sky at sunset; (c) the grain of a wooden canoe? Give a reason for each.
Choose the best adhesive, with a reason: (a) sticking beans onto card; (b) tiny letters cut from a magazine; (c) a kitenge banner that will be carried in a school parade.
You need 800 mL of flour paste mixture. Using the ratio , how much flour and how much water do you need?
Why must banana leaves be dried flat before they are used in a collage?
Explain how wax resist works.
Make three A4 sheets of textured paper for the collage you are planning, each with a different technique from Figure 1. Write on the back of each which part of your collage it is for.
1. (a) spatter: many small dots look like grains of sand; (b) graded wash: the colour changes smoothly across the sky; (c) dry brush: the broken streaks look like wood grain.
2. (a) PVA, thick: beans are heavy and uneven, and glue sticks will not hold them; (b) glue stick: clean and does not wrinkle thin paper; (c) needle and thread: stitching survives being carried, folded and rained on.
3. There are parts, so one part is : use 200 mL of flour and of water.
4. Fresh leaves contain water: they shrink, curl and can go mouldy as they dry, pulling the collage out of shape. Pressing them flat while they dry keeps them flat.
5. Wax repels water. Where you draw with a candle or wax crayon, the watery paint cannot soak into the paper, so those lines stay the colour of the paper when the wash is brushed over.
6. Practical. Each sheet should show one technique clearly, be completely dry and be labelled on the back.
Sources and credits
