bird coming to life

I just finished a collage, and I am elated about how he turned out.  He is for sale and listed on my Etsy.

This was a painted paper collage, which is one of my favorite things to do right now.  I had no idea I was going to make a collage of a bird.  Once I started tearing up the papers and laying them out, the bird magically appeared.  I've been trying to walk into some artistic endeavors with a blank slate, and it's been tough but also so much fun too.

For each painted paper project I used the same colors in several different combinations and paint about 8-12 pieces of paper.  I love the process of painting paper for a collage and find it really relaxing.  Once I've painted the papers and let them dry, I pick out my favorite color combination, and that part becomes what I call the "focus" of the collage.  I had no idea this collage was going to be a bird.  My favorite papers were the pink and brown papers, which I started with.   

As I make the collage, I'll spend a couple hours and then walk away.  Until I'm working on the collage again, I'm staring intently at the progress picture looking for the next steps.  Sometimes they are obvious.  Feet!  Sometimes they are subtle - smooth or recreate a line.  

I make marks in my phone of my next steps.  The papers I know I'll be fiddling with are only slightly glued down.  This way I can still move them as I'm going.  

This is how I was able to gently lift and play with the wings, which I was constantly doing until the very end.

I have been starting to let everything but necessities come to a complete stop once I get involved in a project.  School, family, work, and sleep just barely win.  I've been giving every other moment to a project once I can no longer resist its call.  This has been tough for me, as I like to go through lists I create every day.  There have been days I've taken three or four showers because I'll walk away from a project, exercise or walk the dogs and then about 10 or 15 minutes in, need to race back to the project.  I'm proud of myself for ignoring the lists and making my art projects a top priority.

Here is my happy mess.  By the end of a collage project I am usually wading around in paper scraps.  The table I primarily work on holds four projects - three collages and an embroidery project.  I've got another collage in process, but it is very fiddly at the moment.  It has not been calling to me, but the background isn't even done.

Progress pics!

I will leave you with a few pictures of the edges.