3.4: Collage Studies

The aim of this exercise was to help develop my collage skills focusing on colour and composition. Starting with taking a photo of a ‘messy’ part of a room with normal everyday clutter. Then, observing the photo, I had to gather a variety of papers that suggest the colour complexities and story of the photo. I had the choice to prepare some coloured paper myself with paint.

Part 1

Using my photo, I then had to prepare three collage studies that capture the colour and composition. I took a photo of the corner of my room because I felt there was a lot of colour to work from. I zoomed into the the photo and cropped it to have a more focused area. I then used ColRD to pull the colours from the photo which allowed me to make the right selection of colours for each collage.

The first collage I created was a silhouette of some of the main colours and objects. I’m really impressed with the outcome of this collage, I have successfully represented the colours and proportions.

The second collage was to incorporate unusual colour combinations. This one was tricky for me because I couldn’t figure out what unusual colour combinations were. Even colours I wouldn’t normally put together somehow worked together. I used the colour wheel for reference to figure out which colours dont go together and went from there. I started ripping some paper up and sticking them to the backing paper.

The third collage involved a complex colour combination. When thinking about what ‘complex’ is, I would think that it mean many different so in this case, many different colours. I decided to lay out this one in an abstract stripe pattern following on from the watercolour study. I picked out the colours, ripped up some paper and stuck it in the order of colour in the photo. I just looked at the image and tried to include all the colours that I can see. I feel like I have successfully represented the complex colour combination as well as including the colour and proportions from the photo.

Part 2

This next part was to develop one of my collages further. I chose to use the first one as it was my favourite out of the three and I like the blocked silhouette version of the photo. The first collage needed to be a monochromatic using black and white. I took the coloured collage and photocopied it in black and white, it really helped to depict which of the colours were black and which were white. I believe I have created the monochromatic version well, however, looking at the finished piece, I could have used a better variety of papers such as receipts or newspaper.

The next collage needed to be a single colour collage. I decided to go with purple as I had more different shades of purple than any other colour. I also painted some pieces of paper in purple to include a couple more shades. It was important to retain the same tonal colours as the original and I believe I have done this.

The final version needed to be a multicoloured collage. I had some patterned paper and decided to use some of them in this piece to give some variety. Although, the tonal colours aren’t similar to the original, the shapes definitely represent it. By using the patterned paper, it brought more colour and therefore is successful to the brief.