Creative Prompts #7
Exploring collage
This month’s creative prompts are all about one of my favorite techniques - collage - and how you can incorporate it into your creative process.
Through my experiments in collage I had the first real breakthroughs in my art practice. Playing with composition using collage papers allowed me to get out of a creative rut, loosen up and become comfortable with experimenting and failing. It’s also a very forgiving technique as you can try out compositions before gluing the papers down and you can always continue layering if the composition still isn’t working.
For its versatility and accessibility I chose collage for the 100 Days Project 2025 - I’m working on little abstract landscapes made with hand painted collage papers.
So here are some ideas for you to try:
Create your own collage papers - hand paint them, I’d say acrylics and inks (that dry waterproof) work best for this. Also use stencils and other tools to create textures and patterns (bubble wrap, sponges, various brushes, natural materials, etc.). Organise your papers in boxes or folders, sort them into piles by colour, type of paper, size, or because they look nice together.
Use a variety of materials - don’t focus only on using artists paper, but try origami paper, vintage ephemera, tissue paper, book pages, tracing paper, brown bags and other sorts of found papers. This can add interest and depth into your work.
Experiment with adhesives. Try different types of acrylic medium (fluid, gel, gloss, matte, etc.), glue sticks, other types of glues and figure out what works best for you and the type of materials you use.
Be creative with how you cut your papers. You can tear them to get unexpected shapes or you can use scissors (a utility knife is also great) to cut out specific forms. Don’t focus only on the basic geometric forms, try cutting out organic shapes, such as flowers or tree trunks, or regular objects, such as vases or cups.
Play with compositions before gluing your papers down. Make photos of the most successful compositions to be able to repeat them. Pay attention to composition, value, colours, creating drama and a pleasing eye path. When you’re happy with the outcome, use your adhesive of choice. You can learn TONS from this process!
I hope these prompts inspire you to play with collage. The most important is to let go of perfectionism, try various techniques and have an “anything goes” approach. Collage really has unlimited possibilities and is a versatile technique - if you don’t like something, you can always cover it with the next layer of paper. Also collage helps to reduce waste by incorporating all sorts of old papers into your work and by using up paint to create collage papers.
Thank you for reading and being here! Feel free to share these prompts with a creative friend. I’ll be happy to hear from you in the comments!
Until next time!
Lisa
Seeing your daily collages and reading this has inspired me to add collage to my art practice! I’m hoping that playing with collage will produce some good possible weaving imagery for future tapestries :) Thank you for the inspiration!!