Afternoon creative: painting and collages

Yesterday Ophelia, Lucien and I decided to make collages from large sheets of paper that we painted before starting cutting. We painted about a dozen A3 size sheets of paper that were set to dry on our long kitchen balcony. The beautiful weather was perfect for the fast drying paint.
We didn't really have a theme in mind, we just liked the idea of doing some collages from scratch...so here's our process in images:

We use acrylic paint but gouache is also a good option. Just remember to add enough water to the paint to have a good smooth consistence before applying the paint on paper.
As for the brushes we played with different thicknesses and even used a medium size roller.
When applying uniform paint on a large area you feel like using a roller but I kind of like to see the brush strokes to give a bit of texture to the paint.

Adding lines and dots and other shapes on the painted sheets will create a nice pattern for your collages.


As i said we didn't have a specific theme in mind when starting the collages. It was just nice to experiment cutting different shapes and then come up with a composition.
Lucien made cute little birds while Ophelia mixed up flowers with an eye and a bird. As for myself I had in mind a gardener picking up flowers from his garden.

I usually cut paper with a scalpel when I do my paper cuts as it requires a lot of details. However with the children I prefer to use scissors for safety reason. When cutting large chunky shapes it is much easier and actually more fun with scissors.

I love the freedom collages offers...it's endless...until to decide to glue each piece down!