Antidote to Watercolour

Well, after my watercolour efforts the previous day, I needed a real contrast. When I feel a bit short on ideas, my first port of call is 200 Projects to Get You Into Art School. It’s not a detailed ‘how to’ book, more of a ‘Jack of all trades’. However, it does present a good range of options to try, and I take the view that once I have an interesting idea for an approach  I can either develop it myself or explore online for more inspiration or technical advice.

As I was flicking through the book, my eye was caught by a striking portrait made from a collage of torn magazine pages. Now let’s be clear, I’ve never been into collage, I couldn’t see its appeal. But yesterday, tearing and sticking seemed to be just what I needed to get over the wrangling with paint of the day before.

I chose a rose for my picture, raided my old Sunday supplements, grabbed a glue stick and plunged in. The paper often tore unpredictably, and it was quite fiddly as I was working small (8x8ins). But the the resulting interesting rugged edges showed up well on the black sketchbook and added an unusual dimension. It was, unexpectedly, tremendous fun!

I realised afterwards that the process has also taught me a lot about looking at block shapes of colour and tone, a useful exercise in itself. Every day you learn a little…