Chris Campbell Watercolors: More on collage with watercolor

The Iron Gate

To apply collage to a painting, you will need:

mat medium

old brush for applying the glue/medium

possibly tweezers or something to hold small pieces

variety of papers such as listed in the last post (masa, inside of envelopes, rice paper, magazines, etc.) These can be pre-painted with acrylic or watercolor.

After painting as much on the steps and walls as I wanted, I cut strips from the paper I'd prepared to use for the iron grating. This black was fluid acrylic painted on the inside of envelopes, then spattered with white and rust color.

I use mat medium for the glue. You can apply the medium to the painting itself or to the pieces of collage. Use a brush that you don't care about, because the mat medium will make it unusable for anything else. After you place the pieces, brush over again with mat medium.

Below is strips cut for the iron grates, glued on with mat medium.

I wanted to add some texture to some of the stonework. I used the pieces of masa paper that I'd painted on. I tore them to give them a rougher look, but you can cut them instead.

I added the points onto the iron rails. I used the dark blue to collage the post. The knob on the top of the post is from the inside of an envelope.

I used strips cut from masa paper for the wall in the back. I used bits of torn

green for the foliage growing through the rocks and the foliage at the top of the wall.

I painted in some lines between the stones.

I painted the shadow on the steps stronger, and painted in the small shadows from the

railing. At the top I painted lightly some black railing over the green. I also painted in

the grass growing over the sidewalk.

I put in some darker greens to bring out the foliage and used white gouache

to make small dots for flowers in the greenery.

To finish I added some more railings in the gate. I also collaged some thin strips of green at the bottom of the steps and on the sidewalk.

Keep working on the collage until you are happy with the results. Here are some student works, some finished, some in progress. I am missing a photo of Barb's...she did her collage stonework with a magazine photo of butterfly wings...it looked really neat. Bolder than I would have done on my own.

Margaret painted the iron work, then collaged in the stonework and greenery growing on the walls. Looking good!

Dolores collaged in the roof with rice paper that was painted. She used masa paper on the flowers.

I love the light airiness of the picture, and how she put just enough collage on it to bring out the

most interesting bits.

Here Dolores took a painting of an historical cabin she'd done before. The sides of the cabin are collaged with envelopes with wood grain pattern painted brown. The redbud tree buds are rice paper painted pink. I wish I'd taken a before and after photo. This looks so neat, and somehow the

collage really pulled it all together.

Kerry painted everything, then used bits of masa paper, torn, on some of the leaves in the foreground.

Also torn masa for the stonework on the chimney. He cut strips for the roof of the house, and rectangles for the windows.

Shirley did a loose painting for the cabin and trees. She used some black magazine for the shadow on the roofline; torn masa for the chimney; cut masa (painted in gray tones) for the fence line. She's not finished, but it's already looking good. Knowing that the fence would be collage allowed her to paint over that area in her initial wash and not worry about painting around the fence.