I've been in a "finishing up" mood lately, and that meant completing another 6x6 collage exchange that I'd had on my desk forever (last fall, I think.. yikes.) The materials exchange was with Dilar Pereira from Lisbon, Portugal. Dilar is a prolific artist and heads up a blog called Daily Collage Project where she shows and sells her collages, check it out for really cool, affordable work.
So. I was at a bit of a loss when Dilar's package came last autumn... it was jam packed with a lot of neat foreign text and graphics, but nothing was jumping out at me at all. So the package sat and sat. Then recently I came across a dog-eared page in an art magazine describing a technique I wanted to try, so I thought: why not try it with the 6x6 materials?
The technique is pretty basic (but I'm clueless about a lot of mixed media techniques so it was new to me): create a patchwork with equal-sized squares of different papers, lay down a thick layer of matte gel medium, cover with gesso then wipe most of it off, then finish with pencil drawings on top.
Botanical 1
A Girl and Her Bird
Botanical 3
Things That Break
Botanical 2
Night in Lisbon
I had a great time trying this, and although these feel more experimental than "finished", I can definitely see using this technique in the future. I also had the best time drawing!! Perhaps it's time to dust off the sketchbook again.
