Expressive Watercolor Flower Collage
This is a sequel to the previous post “Flower for Your Art Journal” where we painted a watercolor flower step-by-step and used it as a collage piece for an art journal spread. This post has more ideas. Now we will paint more flowers and leaves. I also share some tips for artistic expression so that your collage will be more than just a stiff collection of flowers.
I have created this spread in Dylusions Creative Journal Square. The paper that I have used for collage flowers is Fabriano Accademia Drawing Paper (200 gsm/94 lbs). My watercolor set is a mix of artist quality pans from different brands. I have finished the spread with colored pencils. You can see these in action in the video of the previous blog post. The previous post also has the basic step-by-step instructions for painting a layered-looking watercolor flower. Let’s now look how you can do more and expand the basic idea!
Get More Variation – Grow Flowers More Naturally!
Instead of painting a separate flower by outlining it right in the beginning, grow a flower from the background!
Paint from the edges to the center.
Add more layers.
While you wait for each layer to dry, you can paint more basic flowers as instructed in the previous blog post.
When you can almost see a flower forming in the center, you can start painting petals on it.
Maybe you can also find smaller flowers near the big one, as I did.
Cut out the big flower but keep the background too. We will use it for leaves.
Add finishing touches to cut flowers with colored pencils.
Get More Variation – Paint Leaves!
Use the background for leaves.
Leave some background visible between the brush strokes to get veins. The thinner the veins, the more elegant the leaf looks!
Let’s Pause and Talk About Colors
Ï only made one pink flower for my collage. Other flowers have different colors. If you look at the finished piece, the pink flower really pops up because it’s so different. The green flowers may look unnatural when you have them as collage pieces but in the final piece they look like cousins of the green leaves and the result is natural.
When you want to build expression, some flowers have to be less important than others. That’s why you can use any color for both flowers and leaves. For example, you can have blue flowers and blue leaves. These are secondary elements to the focal point.
Get More Loose – Let Watercolors Make Some Flowers!
Put most of your energy to make the main flower, as beautiful as you can. You can then paint other flowers very loosely. Namely, some flowers can be more in the background and because flowers are very 3-dimensional things, their outline is often asymmetric. Think about a peony, for example! It has many layers of petals and they point in different directions.
With a fairly broad brush and quite a lot of water, paint multicolored spots and call them flowers.
You can add some brush strokes on the spots to make the flowers a bit sharper. However, these loose flowers are much less detailed, see my selection below.
Before attaching the flowers and leaves, add color to the background.
Get More Expressive – Paint a Multicolored Backround!
Backgrounds with only one color are boring, and not only for the viewer but for the maker as well. Different colors form different areas and when attaching the flowers you have much more fun deciding where to put which flower.
I let my background guide me: yellow flowers in the yellow area, green flowers and leaves where the similar tones are, and the pink flower in the center that has the warmest tones. This creates the effect of lighting – the flowers and the background are exposed to the light of similar tone and that makes them look less separate.
Watercolor Flower Collage and Colored Pencils
With colored pencils, you can easily add curvy stems and other delicate lines and darken the surroundings of the focal point so that it catches the eye right away.
Notice that you can also push some flowers further back by coloring over them with background colors.
My blurry and loose flowers get green tones. And I also add yellow to the background to push it visually closer to the flower.
Drawing curvy stems makes the collage flowers look less stiff.
You can also add more subtle details to the background by coloring over it with very similar colors that it already has.
Some green details are a little lighter, some little darker, and that’s makes them visible but not too much – the pink center flower has no competitors.
Next-Level Watercolor Flower Collage with Tension
I know that using dark colors is hard for many. These times need light and you want to make bright art, I get it. But light needs darkness to shine. I always finish my work so that it has the tension between the so-called good and the so-called bad. It has sharp and bright details, traditional beauty, safe and tame areas. But also dark colors, unclear, sometimes even scary-looking wilder parts. This tension makes the collage natural because life is like that.
I hope this post inspired you to create more watercolor flower collages!
Flower for Your Art Journal – Step by Step Video
Let’s pick watercolors and colored pencils and make a flower for your art journal! Scroll down to watch a step-by-step video!
This flower can be a rose or a peony or any round and layered species. For me, it’s not so important which flower it is, but what kind of personality it expresses. Here I aimed for a soft but unapologetic character. Every flower you create will become a bit different, and soon you’ll have a collection!
Flower for Art Journal Page – Watch the Video!
The instructions for the flower and all the inspiration for using it on a page is in the video below! We’ll start with watercolors to make the foundation for the layered look and then add more sharpness with colored pencils. Some patience is required because you need to let the watercolors dry between the first steps.
In the video, I encourage you to adjust the center of the flower, the flower’s sould. Find a look and personality that appeals to you!
Including the Flower in Art Journal
In the video, I also show how you can use the flower with almost any background and make a spread for the flower in the spirit of Freely Grown.
I hope this week’s video and the last week’s blog post about picture prompts inspire you to art journal and create art in general!
Torn Paper Collage for Artistic Exploration
Torn paper collage – do you remember making them as a child?
This project is not so much about the resulting image, but about the process.
You will need watercolors, thick drawing paper, and paper glue.
I have used Fabriano Accademia Drawing Paper (200 gsm/94 lbs). It’s not as thick as most watercolor papers but holds water well and is nice for collages. I bought this paper for the course Joyful Coloring, and it has become one of my favorites because it’s so versatile.
Step 1 – Paint the Papers
One of the best ways to grow your artistic skills is to move away from ready-made images and make the material for collages yourself.
While creating, think about this!
There’s a hidden miracle in every brush stroke, even in the ugliest ones. The potential of them is huge. Your artistry grows when you keep creating.
When you make the papers yourself, you can choose colors and add variation that will make every torn paper piece unique.
With watercolors, you easily achieve translucent effects and get great pastel tones. But also make a paper with darker and more vivid colors!
Check that you have all these variations: light, bright, and dark!
For a small collage, not so many papers are needed. My papers are 1,5 times the size of the final artwork.
Before continueing, think about this!
The papers are precious treasures. Handle them carefully like they would be glass!
Step 2 – Tore the Papers into Small Pieces
Next, let’s “break glass”! With fingers, tore the papers into pieces.
While creating, think about this!
Art is born, when you question what you see, experience, and own. While tearing the paper, let go of pre-assumptions of what you are going to create.
Step 3 – Paint the Torn Edges
The edges are the best part of torn paper collages, but especially when you paint them too. This way you don’t get too much distracting white to your collage, but the result will more colorful and atmospheric.
While creating, think about this!
Some people like to think a lot, some are more hands on. In artistic exploration, finding the balance is the key. This exercise is especially for thinkers. Look at the torn pieces – so many new beginnings, seeds for new ideas!
You can also spread the paint partly over the piece so that the color transition is less dramatic and the piece gets more depth. Some of my pieces have more colorful and some more blended edges. Variation is always good!
Step 4 – Glue the Pieces
Pick a blank background paper and glue the pieces on it. My background is fairly small, about 6 x 8 inches. I use Towbow Aqua Liquid Glue. It’s not perfect because it’s a bit brittle when it dries, but I like it because it doesn’t make my fingers sticky.
Start from one edge and work towards the center. Save most of the brights for the center and keep the edges less colorful. Create clusters and look for happy accidents.
While creating, think about this!
Papers that have been destroyed now get a new beginning. It’s like a window has been shattered and a new stained glass one gives a new view. Always when you create is some kind of distortion. But that’s not a bad thing at alll. We need these new views to make a shift in our lives, to see beyond the obvious.
Notice, that you can leave the background partly visible here and there.
Step 5 – Finish with Watercolor
You can still adjust the collage by painting over the pieces.
You can add details, but more than that I would recommend adding a thin color layer on most of the pieces so that you get a more unified look. I added yellow over most of the pale greens, and also to the areas where I left the blank paper visible. I like to have white as a highlight color only, and not everywhere.
While creating, do this!
Take a break! Don’t try to do everything in one sitting. Rest and give your mind some time to process what you have been doing!
The collage is now finished, but the process is not. So, proceed to the next step!
Step 6 – Explore Your Torn Paper Collage
Take photos of your torn paper collage. Don’t just take the realistic photo to your archive but get creative! Think about the light and the air and how they create a new layer to everything we see. Take the collage to a place where you get strong sunlight and dark shadows to get a new puzzle over it.
Or if you have a DSLR camera, do what I did: take the collage to a dark room, legthen the exposure so that taking the photo lasts many seconds. Then move the flashlight around the picture and its surroundings.
With the long exposure, you can also move the collage around to get an artistic photo.
You can start with a blank paper, but end up with painting with light.
Creating art is not only about mastering techniques or imagining things. Artistic exploration is where freely practice both.
Torn Paper Collage – Where Did This Idea Come From?
The oil painting that I am currently working on, is influenced by my artistic explorations. And, it’s also vice versa. When I looked at the painting that is still in progress, I felt the need to tear some paper, and so the torn paper collage was born.
I like to explore movement, so moving the collage under the camera produced an image that is related to this painting. That photo will inspire me when I am adding finishing touches to the painting.
I believe we have to explore to move forward in the path.
What do you think?
Watercolor Flower Obsession
This week, I have a fun video for you. In the video, I create a watercolor greeting card and talk about my obsession of painting flowers.
The card is A5 in size, so about 6 x 8 inches and I have painted it on watercolor paper.
My smallest brush is very narrow and I could have coped with two brushes. In the course Freely Grown, we use the similar process, but finish with colored pencils, so it’s much easier than working with tiny brush strokes.
Watercolor Flower Obsession – Watch the Video!
In this video I confess how goal-oriented I am about painting flowers but also talk about the importance of play.
This video has a lot of material, you may want to watch it more than once to see them all! Also, here’s the link to last year’s greeting card, watch that video too!
Boutique of the Heart
In the video I talk about a boutique that’s not a commercial thing at all, vice versa:
“I believe that we can create the best boutique out of our own art. Imagine your workspace as a paper shop where you sell hand-painted cards, bookmarks, hand-drawn stickers, patterned papers – everything that is already art as such, but from which you can look for inspiration for bigger works. I have even come up with a name for this kind of personal shop. It’s Boutique of the Heart. There’s only one customer in the Boutique of the Heart – you, and one seller and manufacturer – you! The longer you keep the shop, the more you learn to love the things you draw and paint yourself.”
My message is that the essence of art is in play. Thus no matter how high you want to reach, you can still create art with a playful attitude and have your Boutique of the Heart. I know there are art instructors that solely focus on the techniques and those who are about fairytales and imagination, but I feel I am something between. I want to create art with people who want to move forward in art-making, but who also love imagination and free expression.
We can have obsessions, but there should always be time to play too.
What do you think?