One of my main beliefs about collage art is that it is not a talent, but a skill. This means that the more you do it, the better you get. But how do you practice collage, and where can you find exercises to help you?
Before I get into the resources I offer to encourage people to create, I want to mention those that I have discovered or heard about.
First, there are art groups. There are groups that you can find in person in your local art communities, or groups such as Facebook Groups, which can be good for finding structured challenges. There are so many Facebook groups for all different kinds of arts so you have to do your research to see what is the right for you. You also have to be picky. If you feel that it’s not the right fit, you need to be proactive about cutting your ties and keeping on with your search.
Second, there are other social media sites, like Instagram for example, where people will share what challenges they are working on. Once you know what some of those are, you can follow them. For example, I have seen many posts on #ICAD or #icad, which is the “index card a day” challenge for 30 days. You can follow that hashtag to learn what the latest prompts are and then use them as inspirations for the types of collages you make.
If you know of more places to find practice, do let me know in the comments, please. I’d love to learn about more.
What about the resources I provide?
The most popular ones are the Collage Weekly Planners, which are gluebooks that have an assignment printed on the page. You have space on the opposite page to create your collage. You have 52 weeks worth of collages to keep you plenty busy! The good thing is that you can work at your own pace.
If you don’t want to buy a whole book and just want the exercises so that you can do collage in your own gluebook, you can buy just the assignments.
What about a free version? In the Collage Art Collective, there is a group where others work on assignments. A new assignment is posted every week, which you can see and print out if you would like.
I offer YouTube videos that help beginners with collage. I’ve got a whole playlist that may be useful if you like learning from videos.
Lastly, I offer an online course that structured for beginners or those who have done collage art but are not confident in their work. You can find more information about it here. The course is accessible for life and is part of the Collage Art Collective.
Whatever you choose to do, I hope you will find opportunities to be creative with collage art. The more you practice, the better you’ll get!
A new mail art junk journal
I have used your prompts in Assignment to make collages. I wasn’t pleased with the results, but I wasn’t sure what needed to be different to make it more pleasing. How will “Collage Art Basics” be different from following your prompts?
Hi Susan, Thanks for asking. Along with the lessons in the course, you have access to most of the same papers that I am using to complete the lessons. You can follow along and see EXACTLY what I am placing where, and why. You can choose to follow suit, or do something different. I am explaining as I place things, which will then help you understand. I guess these lessons are more guided and provide more information about choice selection. I hope that makes sense!
I used 2 years of my own doodle art to tear off and paste into my own art junk journal. I also used my own handwriting to complete my stash of ephemera!
Great ideas, Lorraine! It’s so nice when you can incorporate your own bits of art into a collage. It adds something personal. 👍🏼