Thursday, December 27, 2012

Painting Over Collage - Finding Your Style


Over the Christmas break I bought an art lesson by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer over at Interweave called Paint Over Collage
At $1.99 it is a terrific value and, as always, Julie does a fabulous job walking you through the steps. 

I've been messing around with my Gelli Plate so I had lots of random papers to collage onto my painted backgrounds:


Then I got at it. The first one was a wreck. It happens. 
And if you don't fail on occasion you aren't really trying.

Collage Girl #1:


But even the hot mess that she is, there is a lot I like about it. The interplay of the patterns across her face made me want to keep trying.

Collage Girl #2: 

I did a bit more with the eyes and shaded in her nose. Better. 
Still terrifically strange and not at all right.


Then I reread the lesson and realized I was supposed to be shading in the face a bit. *headslap*

Note to self: don't try so hard not to copy that you fail to read through the whole lesson as you do the steps... at least at first.

Collage Girl #3


I feel like this one was a huge leap forward. I shaded, added a shoulders, clothes and accessories. She's weird but she's me-weird.
Apparently I needed to sleep on it and let things percolate a bit.

Collage Girl #4:


This one is from the same day. I really like how she came together but I feel like I lost a lot of the collage. Her lips are my favorite part as the bright pink background and washi tape created an interesting effect. I also left the whites of her eyes collage paper instead of painting them white. It's kinda cool.

Collage Girl #5:

 A new day. New girls to draw. 

The night before I read through Suzi Blu's Mixed-Media Girls
 and she insisted that the pupils and irises need to be perfect circles. So I hauled out my circle stencil and made sure they were more circular and less goggly-eyed. Better?


My boys call her 'Man Face' LOL

Collage Girl #6: 

Same day, I tried this one with less hard outlines and more abstract shading. 


She's cool... in a hammer-head shark sort of way. How her eye ended up in her hair I'll never understand. LOL

Collage Girl #7:

 We watched Love Actually so I had the urge to draw feathered hair (the caterer).  Again, a little masculine. Okay, a lot masculine. One of my teenagers may or may not have referred to this as my, "guys in drag series"


Collage Girl #8:

This is my most recent one. I tried adding all the shading first and then the features. I love the effect. But I find the cool greens and blues a little Marilyn Manson in the 90's. She really makes me happy though. I was thinking of a dear, dear friend back in the NW and some of her essence came out in the painting. 

So, yeah, I cherish it.


As always the backgrounds have a ton of splatter and stamping. If you open up any of the above pics you can see the details.


Thanks so much for sticking around for this gargantuan post. I wanted to show you the evolution of a project and how your style starts to emerge. I think it's safe to say that no matter what I try, my work has a 'look' to it that's inherently my own.

Linked up at A Colorful Journey

13 comments:

Mel said...

Collage girl 1 is my favorite, she looks mysterious and complex.

Melissa Lewis Mathis said...

Love it! Love the commentaries also - lol. Your teenagers sound like mine. I love that you kept at it and made so many. I find that I give up too easily and get frustrated - you kept at it and enjoyed the process - something I'm learning to do!

Jane Wetzel said...

they are all very cool! Love your sweet journaling post below this too...hey,..how did I miss a 1.99 class with Julie B.?? lol

DannyB said...

Your paintings are great! I like your artwork, self critiques and backstory to each painting. Great work finding your own style and learning at the same time. I hope to do art like this in the New Year.

Anonymous said...

Fascinating to see your technique change over the couple of days, and I really like all of them for different reasons. The unshaded ones are actually very visually compelling, you have to look several times - kind of like a puzzle. I like that!

SAMARA said...

Hi Nicole: These are outstanding and I really enjoyed that you posted your process (even watching Love Actually - me too - I watched it! lol) I went through your blog. Do you give any courses on the collaging you do that you sell? Man, you are one talented lady! I've seen the womyn know for the She Art and her work is LOVELY however this speaks to me deeply. Will you let me know? I'd love to know more. "Walking in the Rain" Samara

Carolyn Dube said...

Seeing all your collage girls is inspiring! Each one has her own personality!

Darcy Marshall said...

aww they are awesome, when i get time i shall have a go. i really like the last one in the series with the Manson hair lol

Unknown said...

I love the way you stuck with this and kept creating these fabulous girls. They are each unique and fascinating.

Gloria j Zucaro said...

Your comments really made me laugh! I've had the man/girl experience myself! These are great. I love all the color and layers.

Teddi said...

i really enjoy seeing each face! do you like suzi blu's book then? so you would recommend julie's class too?

The Journal Junkie said...

These are great and right up my ally!


;-> Felicia
The Journal Junkie
Blog: http://feliciathejournaljunkie.blogspot.com/

milkcan said...

These are awesome!