Sketchbook Study: Integrating Handmade Collage Papers

I was so surprised by all the vibrant oranges and violets of Cornwall wild flora… Bell Heather, Devils Gut, Mossy Stonecrop, Lichen, and more.

For this study I used inks, collage papers made with inks and high-flow acrylics, soft body acrylic, and soft pastels. I’m loving working with collage papers that I’ve made. Even though I know to expect the colour vibrancy of inks to fade as they dry on paper, I still find it so disappointing. So I’m really excited to find that the vibrant colours of the inks are preserved when they dry on the collage tissue paper. And I love that collaging enables me to layer transparent ink colour on top of other layers without it seeping into the layers underneath.

Collage is how I re-started my art-making after I became visually impaired, when I was too afraid to try working in a familiar medium. So collage will probably always feel special to me, and working with collage papers again feels like a wonderful integration of my early magazine paper collage work with my painting work.