06: Calligraphy Collage

Greetings. This is what I’ve been up to this past week: Calligraphy and collage. I wanted to make an Eastern artwork only this time using more unorthodox methods. I used acrylic paint in the background, and ripped up scraps of xuan paper that I have splattered ink over. Then, I cut up some poems I’ve written (copied) and laid them over on top. It ended up pretty well, so let’s get into my process!

Planning

As I have said in the last blog, I should think significantly more about my planning stage, and this time I did. I spent a great deal of time (a few hours) trying to figure out what I wanted to make, what would go where, and how to make it pleasing. My first idea came from ripping apart some paper I had applied ink onto, which looked kind of pretty. I wanted to make use of this idea. I had some previous calligraphy practice (which was my original subject of this week) and some parts were really good, so cutting out the good parts to use may be nice. Then, it hit me: I could make calligraphy collage and the paper scraps may be a good background or covering! I made out a sketch of what I thought would look nice and then laid out my calligraphy works into position.

Groundwork

After feeling satisfied with the plan, it was time to get started! I originally had bigger ideas for the background. I wanted light beige with different shades on the left and right sides, hints of blue, and white rectangles behind the calligraphy, but I simply did not know how to create these effects. Instead I made do with a simple acrylic background.

I really am an amateur at acrylic painting, HA. I was confused at first at why the paint wouldn’t apply evenly easily. Also, trying to mix beige from the primary colors was a trip too. I made orange and mixed with blue, expecting to get brown, but got dark green! It was such a shock (don’t worry adding enough red made it brown).

Adding Scraps

Making sure everything looks right with the calligraphy pieces, the next step would be to see how my ripped xuan paper will look. Right now, I still am not gluing anything down.

Not bad! Maybe a little more here and there, maybe some more darker ones in these areas and lighter ones there. That is totally manageable. Time to add the rest.

Finale

To be frank, I still haven’t glued or pasted anything down yet, but my final configuration is a sure thing. The only thing I will add in the future is a red stamp on all of my names scattered through this piece, which should look neat. Next week I plan on doing more research on Western Abstract Expressionism. I should be looking at semi-abstract, which blends with realistic structures as well. I will come up with one or two sketches and perhaps another small piece. Cheers!