My Creative Space: Sketchbook Collages

Tuesday, I was hit by the collage bug. Hard. In no time, I had collected two images from old calendars, along with a few scraps of papers I had lying on my desk to make a couple collages in my sketchbooks.

I started with the small one, focusing on the colour scheme of the calendar pages (one underwater scene, one rainbow over a field of gold):

Once I'd laid down the basics, I knew I needed some words to complete the page. I started by drawing in the date, but that wasn't enough. I added (soar to new heights) with stickers to the sky and really love how that looks:

But the other page still needed a little something. I thought I'd cut out letters to make my word of the year, purposeful, but it ended up being too big and busy for what I was going for (see the results of that below). Instead, I browsed through my envelope of words and found a few I liked.

Of course, the letters spelling purposeful couldn't simply be left to scatter, so I pulled out my larger sketchbook. But what about a bit of a background...? Hmmm... At random, I pulled out an image from my "textures" envelope. A busy piece from an art magazine. Perfect! I ripped it in four and glued it down, a bit spread out. I really love using this technique.

Of course, I wanted the letters to pop off this crazy background, and for that, I needed to tone things down a bit. Masking tape was just the thing to do the trick!

Now I only wish I had left the top of the page blank instead of writing in "my 2013 word of the year" - the balance was much better before - but at least it's there for the record!

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