Robin Williams Handmade Design Workshop: Create Handmade Elements for Digital Design

124

Tools and materials

• Collection of copyright-

free images

• Substrate

• UHU Tac temporary

adhesive

or Spray Mount,

or Yes! Paste,

or StudioTac sheets

• Cutting mat

• X-acto knife

• Metal cutting edge

• Paper scissors

• Burnisher

The tools and materials used for collage include those used by

fi ne artists and illustrators, as well as those used by crafters and

scrapbookers. And you get to play with un or tho dox materials

that produce stained marks or blanched areas.

On the paper that you plan to use in your collages, experiment

with taking it a step beyond normal; create e ects with bleach,

shoe polish, markers, pastels, colored pencils, color crayons,

inks, and other materials. Develop your own techniques with

unusual surfaces and feel free to trash/destroy/embellish the

di erent pieces.

Collage with Paper

29

Tool

s

an

• Collec

t

free i

m

•

S

ubst

r

• UHU

T

adhes

i

or Spr

a

or Yes

!

or

S

tu

d

• Cutti

n

• X-

acto

• Metal

c

• Pa

p

er

• Burni

s

124

125

Materials for Collage

You can collect and store a wide range of papers

and other materials for use in collage. I’m always

on the lookout for little scraps and pieces to

use. I cut textures from magazines and look for

unusual papers wherever I go. I buy old music

scores, maps, receipts from antique stores. I

love joss paper from Asian markets. Even the

confetti in the Disneyland parade did not escape

my acquisitive collage-afi cionado notice. I keep

everything organized and labeled in a portable

fi le so I have what I need when inspiration strikes.

You don’t need much to do collage: papers, a

good cutting mat (see page 127), a metal straight

edge, cutting tools, a brush, some glue, and

something to paste everything onto. Most of

all, you need a creative, experimental, and

enthusiastic attitude.

Copyright issues

Obviously, as a collage illustrator,

you don’t want to end up in jail on

copyright infringement charges,

so you must be very careful not

to “borrow” other people’s stuff. If

you are a student working on class

projects, this is not so much of an

issue because you are not publishing

and making money on your student

projects (and you probably aren’t

given a budget for buying photog-

raphy and other art). However, as a

practicing professional, you must

pay for any photographs or other

imagery—unless you find public

domain and copyright-free sources.

Make it a practice to be careful what

you use in your collage illustrations.

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As a designer, I have

always loved collage!

It seems so modern,

so direct, and very cool.

I fell in love with Kurt

Schwi ers’ work the

fi rst time I ever saw his

beautiful pieces from

the 1930s. Many of my

favorite illustrators are

collage artists. I love the

textures, torn edges, rough

cuts, ephemera with type

on them, photographs— all

the stuff collage artists use

to create their pieces.

Of course, Photoshop

is a wonderful tool for

creating photomontages.

It has capabilities that

are not available to the

hands-on artist, such as

transparency eff ects.

Nonetheless, there

is a case to be made

for ge ing out the art

materials and chopping,

tearing, spa ering, gluing,

and painting. The look

can be perfect, gri y, dirty,

messy, tidy, but always

very human.

~

C

Keep an eye out for

all kinds of paper

possibilities.

And see the appendix

for sources for free and

inexpensive images you

can work with.

126

Creating papers for collage

You can create many of your own papers by

coloring them yourself. Watercolors and acrylics

are great media for coloring and creating textures

on a variety of papers, as you can see by the

multitude of techniques in this book.

One of the great things about painting your own

patterns on watercolor paper is that you can get

beautiful, white torn edges that provide a lot of

contrast and texture to your illustration.

Experiment with splattering paints, inks, metallic

markers, and opaque paint markers.

Rub charcoal, pastels, colored pencils, or “ Distress

Ink” stamp pads on scraps of paper or textures

you’ve created to make your own special materials.

Be sure to save scraps from all projects! Even little

pieces are very useful to the collage artist. I keep

the little scraps in labeled envelopes.

Robin makes piles.

Carmen creates neatly labeled envelopes.

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