Oh no! I’m stuck again, the artistic flow was cut short before I even got started… but that’s OK because here’s a pair of solutions for obstructed creativity.
Collage by 9s
This warm-up drill requires paper, a glue stick and a handful of 9-letter words, maybe from this list on Become A Word Game Expert website. Pick one word (randomly or otherwise), cut or tear the letters from magazines and then paste the pieces onto another sheet of paper in a grid of 3 x 3. A great example is Alan Fletcher’s design for the Wallpaper magazine cover (December 1996 issue):
I made collages for two words: ‘telephone’ and ‘modernise’. Using a lightbox, the ‘modernise’ collage then is traced onto plain white paper, which made for some fun font shapes:
This idea of cut-and-paste can be translated to software such as Adobe InDesign or other design/layout application. Here I made a couple of layouts of the word “pawprints”:
which then became an exhibition flyer for made-up Pawprints Gallery. This could go on and on but you get the idea!
Collage + Automatic Drawing
A combination of sticking down paper and then letting some automatic drawing happen will result in some pretty kooky images that might inspire new creations. I love flipping through old sketchbooks to find creatures like this:
There’s not much to it; just some scissors, glue, an old magazine and a pen. Now you try it!
A few more artists who use collage in their work:
- Alan Fletcher – graphic designer/artist
- Collage artist Hannah Hoch now showing at Whitechapel Gallery, London until 23 March 2014
- “Not just paper and glue” Exhibit review of collage artist Kurt Schwitters at Tate – kelise72.com
- And of course, Matisse – whose work will be shown at Tate from 17 April through 7 September 2014
More links and information
- Artist’s block? Try idea generator no. 1 – automatic drawing – kelise72.com
- Building toys and Borough market – 2 antidotes for artist’s block – kelise72.com
- Find a list of 9-letter words on Become a Word Game Expert website
kelise soixante-douze 