I was a bit worried going into this particular exercise thinking my terrible handwriting would be an obstacle – but I realised that wasn’t really going to be an issue . The hand drawn text became a series of patterns (See hand drawn text 1-6) though sometimes half way through a line (depending on the letter) I would lose the rhythm and produce a poorly shaped letter. I had particular problems with the letter ‘s’. I think the letter c came across most nicely – its a very nice shape, and I like the way the tooth of the paper shows through the charcoal, particularly with later lines where I got into the rhythm of things and the line of the letter is getting thicker and softer.
There is additional analysis further down this page when I discuss the layouts I then produced and the final collages.
I then proceeded to cut out the text into different shapes and tried different layouts. Again, like the found text exercise some of the layouts are too crowded and I think they work best when I keep the number of cutouts to a minimum. I particularly liked the circles, especially the one with the letter c’s – which almost look like Arabic text in that.
It was interesting too how some of the layouts took on a particular character – layouts 1-3 for example felt quite archaic to me – I think that was the choice of lettering and shapes – the circles and triangles and the letter c and i – it felt like you might see similar shapes and inscriptions carved in stone on some ancient monument. Layouts 4 and 5 felt more industrial and slightly cartoon-like – I don’t know why but they reminded me of images and cartoons I associate with my childhood and the 1970s, particularly the cartoon video accompanying Pink Floyd’s ‘Brick in the Wall’. I found that quite amazing – just lettering and an arrangement of shapes – and I think the bright yellow background also helped to emphasise this.
I really liked the simple pattern of layout 11 which is why I was then so disappointed when the final collage was spoiled (see below). I have seen something like that before. I was just trying to repeat the triangular arrangement of the circles with a similar arrangement of thin rectangles of text. I think this sort of thing is repeated quite a lot by practising artists – a way of approaching composition – so, for example, Haim Steinbach in ‘related and different’ (1985) where the shape of a triangle is repeated in different juxtaposed objects: a pair of trainers, an arrangement of ornaments and the stands that these objects rested on:
The other layout I chose to re-create as a final collage was layout 16 because at the time I liked its simplicity and the reverse shape of the large letters partly mirrored by the blocks of smaller letters, but it’s not that exciting in hindsight – layouts like 4, 6 or 13 might have been more fun to explore.
There is further analysis lower down on this page when I discuss the final collages
The final collages are shown below. Both were disappointing, but produced some useful learning I think – both technical in terms of using materials and in terms of thinking about colour and negative space.
Collage 1 looks incomplete and scruffy. It looked so nice in the original layout (layout 11 above) when the paper was stretched. Unfortunately, there were two strips of old gum tape under the paper so when it came to cutting the paper out and removing it, I found parts of the paper were still stuck to the board. I was able to ease these off with a ruler but it produced scruffy looking folds and detracts from the overall image – now it just looks like bits of card stuck to a scrappy piece of paper. It did not help that the paper was far too thin as well.
I have now learnt you can remove old gum tape stuck to a board by just wetting a few times – eventually it peals off quite easily – so I need to remember that for next time.
For collage 2 I used thicker paper and painted a background this time using burnt sienna. Also this time, I attempted to do something with the negative space – but unlike the found text collages, the pattern of the lettering did not immediately suggest what I could do with that space – I think because there was a lot more of it and with the larger sheet of paper I was a bit intimidated by the larger empty spaces – I found myself wondering ‘what am I going to do here?’.
I ended up trying different things – and that comes across – the overall image is disjointed and not unified. I did have fun applying lots of paint – I used a tissue daubed in paint to apply ultramarine blue and cadmium yellow across the paper. I also used large brushes laden with paint to apply strokes of colour around the text. I think the latter were probably on the right track because then I was thinking about the shape of the negative space and how it echoed the arrangement of the cutout text. If I was going to attempt this kind of arrangement again, I would probably stick with the horizontal and vertical thick and thinner lines of paint and have avoided the splodges (which leave the picture feeling almost ‘hairy’!)
I think in approaching a larger collage like this it helps before attacking the negative spaces to stand back and consider the overall patterns of the central objects and then consider what to do with those in terms of how they are reflected or contrasted in what is done in the negative space.
Also, colour is important. The colour applied in the negative spaces is not quite right – the ultramarine blue which is lovely and bright if you paint it directly over the white paper almost looks black over the burnt sienna background – it’s too dark I think in contrast to the blocks of brighter coloured card of the cutout lettering, the yellow paint though is okay I think. I was thinking perhaps using a much broader brush and applying yellow and further burnt sienna with that – building up blocks and squares around the card cutouts – that might have complemented the latter better. Or I could have made the arrangement of the cutouts more explicit by painting a triangle connecting the large letters and another to connect the cutouts of smaller letters and then played with the remaining negative space – perhaps painting that in a different colour.
Kris' Art Learning Log 