Luscious Watercolor Collage

I will be teaching a workshop September 6th at the Cameron Museum of Art called Luscious Watercolor Collage. In this two day workshop we will weave a lush tapestry of color using the technique of watercolor pour. We will use inherent characteristics of watercolors and their pigment to create a moody underlayment for collage. Flat objects can be left in the wet paint to create interesting effects. We’ll do our pours, let them dry and then come back and discuss collage techniques. Materials used include paper, tissue, magazine images, rubber stamps, ink, graphite…. the sky's the limit! This is an excellent class for beginners as well as seasoned watercolor artists who might like to try their hand at an alternative, unpredictable technique. You will be amazed and surprised at what pigment can do!

 As illustrated in the picture above from the last workshop, this is a messy, unconventional, non traditional, free form process! You will not have complete control over what you get. You will get some wonderful surprises. So if you are a control freak who does not like messes..... well, then this might not be the class for you.  However, if you love playing with paint and allowing things to happen then you will love this process! It's just so yummy!

You will need the following items:

A few loose sheets of 140 Hot press watercolor paper. (NOT a "block" of watercolor paper)

I prefer Fabriano Artistico but you may bring your favorite if you have one. If you are in Wilmington you will want to order your paper as there are no stores that have sheets that are affordable. You can find usually deals on watercolor paper at Cheap Joe's & Jerry's Artorama
Whatever you bring be sure it's HOT PRESSED. 

Professional grade watercolors in small tubes. This is very important you won't be able to make mixtures with dried cakes of paint. I suggest professional grade because they have minerals that do cool things when poured. Bring any that you have to experiment with

Two mixtures that I often use are: Windsor&Newton's Aureolin+ Ultramarine,+Crimson Lake and Cobalt + Cadmium Scarlet+Indian Yellow.

Collage materials- magazine clippings, scrapbooking ephemera whatever you like. Also, I will have a box of material to share. So don't panic if you don't know what to bring.

Matte medium to apply collage materials. If you are new to collage you will probably only want a small jar to start out. I will have a bit to share if need be. If you want to dive in you may also want Matte gel medium. I will show how to transfer photocopies and prints with this.

Brushes for applying medium

Watercolor brushes if you decide you want to paint back into your pour

Acrylic Painting board to tape your paper to is recommended but not required. We can tape things to the tables. But if you have one it might come in handy.

Painter's tape another useful material

A few small plastic jars with lids to mix your paints. A few since you will want to try a few paint mixtures.

A small travel spray bottle of rubbing alcohol 

Other optional items that are very useful might be:

Eye droppers or pipettes -Sometimes found in hobby science areas of hobby stores.

Vinyl gloves- I don't use them but I could see where someone might.  

An apron- paint might be spattered

Pens, pencils, inks????? I work into my pours in all kinds of ways. I use Caran d'Ache, inks, markers, Stabilio marks all, So you may want to bring some mark making goodies.

I will bring material to embed in our wet paint, but you may want to try your own items flat and/or waterproof things things work well, washers, dried leaves, vegetable netting.... slightly curly hair does wonderful things! Anybody got a labradoodle????

I will also bring lots of examples, lots of rubber stamps for you to try, stencils to share, a few extra droppers and lots of enthusiasm! If watercolor paper is a problem let me know. I do have some extra sheets for sale for $7 per sheet.
However, Cheap Joe's is having a sale right now! click here.

More images of my pours:

While your pours could become background for collage, the above images are from a book I made out of pours. It fits in this wooden house constructed by my friend Danny Samppala and decorated by yours truly: