Hi everyone!
This is Karen and I am back with another Mixed Media with Karen. This month, I wanted to try something different so I decided I would use the papers in the Collectable line to create a paper mosaic.
The first thing I did was to pull out two templates. One for drawing clouds and one that had a bird on a branch. I used a pencil to draw them onto my page and create my scene.
I then pulled out every paper that had a shade of blue and a few grays. I cut them all up into little pieces and grouped them by paper so I would know to use a variety. I patiently started gluing them down:
Maybe you can see from the photo, but I just covered my cloud with glue and stuck the papers down. This meant I didn't have to glue the tiny sheets (which would have been no fun for me.) I layered and varied colors haphazardly to make it not look perfect in any way. This is best to do while listening to fun music, a great book on tape or some TV you don't actually need to watch because it takes a long, long time. It's not boring or hard, but it is time consuming. (At least, it was for me.) Here are all three clouds covered with paper:
I then picked pink papers for the bird, brown ones for the branch and green ones for the leaves. Here's a side photo I snapped. It was pretty late at night by then hence the lower quality of the photo.
and once all the paper was glued down, I just had fun. I painted the background with a light blue wash, traced around the clouds with a pen, added some shading to the cloud in the back, etc. I then added my words, of course, because without words, it's never finished for me. And here's what I ended up with:
It says: It is all going to be ok. You can rest awhile.
Here's a little close up of the clouds:
and of the bird on the branch
If you haven't played with paper just for fun or made a mosaic in a while, I urge you to tear some paper and just have fun with it. The last time I remember doing this was in middle school and I forgot how much fun this simple activity can be. Was there something you really loved as a child that you haven't done for a while. This is the very best moment to try it again. I promise you will not regret it!
As always, thank you for letting me share my art. See you back here next month!
