Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Building from Scraps Part IV: Finishing

Finishing the collage, I started with glueing a piece of watercolor paper onto the cardboard, and letting it dry. Knowing I was going for blue-ish, I watercolored the surface a light blue shade, then found it somewhat dull, with no real texture. Painted it over with Ecoline, Prussian Blue – which was too dark for the transfers to stand out. (I realize now, I should have documented this, but I quess I was was completely caught up in the process—it never occured to me that taking pictures of this might be a swell idea).
I kept working the surface with layers of white acryllic paint, mixing it with leftover blue tones from my watercolor box. Once I found the background apropriate, with different tones in game, but not-too-contrasty, I let it dry and stamped the chinese "rain" at the top. Gave the Lady's frock a makeover, and was ready to glue the elements on.
In this collage, I pretty much stuck to the layout plan. But as a little bonus :-), I found a small metal circle on the sidewalk, that made a fine break for all the square elements at the bottom.
The wooden stick across, below the lady, changed appearance a few times. From thicker, to stamped on (with flower stamp), to this without the broad stripes, to this.
The knots were added last minute, and after having slept on it, I darkened the corner fans with some blue pastel on a cotton ball.

So—there we are. A-Z, skipping a few letters.

It ended up a lovestory. Of the two gentle people - Eileen, a matron of plain origin, an often misundestood woman, due to her fierce apperance, and her sweet Frederick (who was actually a king). Alas, a relationship doomed from the very beginning. Fredrick had, since boyhood, been promised to Princess Fleur of Monaco, but since that fleeting affair with Eileen in Edinbourough, the two lovers' hearts were bound. For all eternity.

(Hey - if you are still here, I wanna thank you for your patience :·)
Building from Scraps part I, part II, part IIb, part III.

I like le belle collage.

5 comments:

  1. the shade of blue you chose is so soothing... what's the size of the collage?

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  2. Oh this is such a wonderful project and piece. Love the addition of the found object at the end too.

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  3. i love that blue and the story behind the collage!

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  4. Thank you, Thereza, Seth, Marie-Louise and Aimee:-)

    Thereza·· it's 18x25cm

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