Summer Watercolor Landscape Collage
A watercolor landscape collage celebrating summer on the rocky coast of Maine. Using Faber-Castell watercolors, create a fun, colorful painted landscape collage following the direction of artist Janis Doukakis.
Creatives Inspiration:
My inspiration for a series of summer landscape collages are scenes just outside our cottage in Ocean Point, Maine. I begin with this colorful flower garden overlooking Ram Island.
Recommended Art Materials:
Watercolor paper
Medium and large flat brushes
Scissors
Exacto knife
Glue/glue stick
Water (for rinsing brushes)
Paper towel
The sketch:
I look at the photo and decide how to simplify it into basic shapes to work for a graphic collage, just a few elements– the island, water, rocks, and the flowers. I loosely sketch it out to serve as a guide, details will develop as work.
Making painted paper:
I spend a fun day making myself a nice collection of about 40 pieces of painted paper to make several collages with. I know that I want earthy colored, interestingly textured papers to mimic the natural world of skies, rocks, water, grasses, flowers, animals, woods, etc.
I use a combination of watercolor paint, Connector Paint (a wonderful cross between watercolor and gouache), pastels, and Gelatos. I paint on 9x12 watercolor paper.
I use a variety of brushes and mix colors directly on the paper, experimenting and playing around with my brush strokes. I add texture by splattering and using a dry brush technique.
Assembling:
Here I begin to assemble the collage in the center of a piece of larger watercolor paper so that I will have plenty of white border all around the art. I start cutting all the different shapes and pieces from the best areas of the painted papers. I do not draw the shapes first. Going straight to cutting pieces gives a more spontaneous and unexpected result, lending the collage a more creative look.
Tip:
While not entirely necessary, using a pair of small scissors is useful. They make it easier for cutting out smaller shapes and getting into smaller areas. Small scissors allow you more freedom and spontaneity for cutting freestyle too.
I position the larger foundation pieces first– the sky, water, dirt and grass. I decide that I will deliberately make the edges of the art uneven and piece-y as part of the overall design, giving it a playful artistic look. I then glue these pieces down once I feel sure of the positioning.
Then comes the island, rocks and flower pieces that I slowly cut and position. The white cap effect on the waves are made by slowly ripping the small pieces of painted paper towards me.
Tip:
Lifting and positioning the smaller paper pieces with the tip of an Exacto knife makes things easier.
I carefully glue all my pieces down.
I use the side of a white pastel to sweep across the sky to create a bit of cloud interest.
Finally, I use a pencil and title the art with its location– Ocean Point Maine.
Developing an original collage idea from your own photos of special locations and vacation memories always adds to the significance of the artwork, and creates a fun opportunity to share the experience or story that inspired it with others.
A collage like this would look great with a few inches of the white background paper border all around it and in white frame. Its clean graphic look would be a fun and unique accent to your home, or maybe it’s a gift. How about notecards?
Have fun!
