Add watercolors to your next collage for a fresh new look.
My idea for this piece was to make a graphic paper quilt of vibrant autumn colors to capture what I love about the season—my favorite of the year! Using watercolors, vintage artwork and a hand-carved stamp, I created
Autumn.
• Get all of your supplies together so you can work uninterrupted.
• I used Fabriano’s Artistico acquarello hot-pressed cotton watercolor paper for this piece. It’s extra white, which I find makes the watercolors appear brighter. I always use watercolors that come in concentrated tube form; on this collage, I used my Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolors with a synthetic No. 4 round brush.
• I’m constantly on the lookout for vintage paper ephemera to incorporate into my work. I keep a big cardboard box full of all the little paper bits and pieces I collect.
• I buy digital collage sheets online (
digitalcollagesheets.com) because I like that I can print them at home on acid-free paper and use them again and again on my mixed media pieces. The postcard portion on this collage was made using a vintage postcard sheet I bought online. I've also got a few favorite Etsy shops, such as
petitpoulailler.etsy.com, where I purchase original vintage ephemera like old map pages, botanical prints, etc.
• Since I wanted this to look like a quilt, the first thing I did was make a 1-inch grid with pencil to use as a guide. I built my collage with watercolors and bits of paper ephemera. Once I had my background finished, I drew my birdies on different levels to make it more dynamic and then colored them with watercolors.
• I used Daler-Rowney's FW Acrylic Artists’ Ink in white and a very fine No. 2 round brush to finish all the detailed feathers on the birds.
• The white flower was stamped on the finished piece using a hand-carved stamp I made with a Staedtler Mastercarve carving block and a Speedball linoleum cutter. I used Clearsnap pigment acid-free ink in Frost White. (For a tutorial on how to make your own hand-carved stamps, visit my blog, geninne.com, and click the tutorial box on the right-hand side of your screen.)
• I’m in love with birds, so I try to incorporate them often in my work. If there’s something you love, surround yourself with as many books on the subject as you can. I have a BIG collection of books about birds that I'm constantly looking at for inspiration.
• Remember that practice makes perfect, so make art every day!
autumn
supplies: Carving block (Staedtler) • Digital vintage postcards (digitalcollagesheets.com) • Ink (Clearsnap) • Linoleum cutter (Speedball) • Watercolors (Winsor & Newton) • Watercolor paper (Fabriano) • White acrylic ink (Daler-Rowney) • Misc.: paper ephemera, pencil, PVA glue, round synthetic brushes, ruler, scissors
Geninne D. Zlatkis was born in New York, but she stretched her wings all over Latin America and the United States before building her nest atop a mountain near Mexico City where she lives with her husband and two sons. Geninne works in a variety of media, including watercolor, pencil and ink. She sews, embroiders and recently learned to needle felt. You can see more of her work at
geninne.com.
