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My first exposure to making papers for collage was the whimsical art of the late, great Eric Carle, creator of the iconic children's picture book, The Hungry Caterpillar. If you watch any video on his art making, it's easy to see his joy in painting and texturing stacks of paper -- all fodder for his famous collage illustrations.
Another artist whose collage appears to be made entirely from her own hand-painted and printed papers is British crafter Clare Youngs. After watching a mark making tutorial on her web site, where she mentions using gouache, it reminded me I had a set of gouache paints tucked away. Gouache is basically opaque watercolour and I think it's that opacity that gives Youngs' iconic work the bold vibrancy it's known for.
I followed Youngs' suggestion and used a stash of papers from the recycle bin -- flyers, old photocopies, envelopes, etc.
This paper was a clean-up sheet and I painted right over the daubs of tempera paint.
This is just copy paper and after the first coat was dry I stamped over top. To me, that's when the papers start to get interesting.
This was paper from a financial report and I liked working over that grey stripe.
Corrigated card stamped over a painted sketchbook page.
Good old reliable bubble wrap!
A few hours later I had a good start on a stack of papers. I'll likely do more stamping and over-printing. And it will be interesting to see how it is to collage with this paper -- the gouache gives in a matte finish and stiffens it.
Below, are collage papers made using printing inks. They're mostly Asian papers or art tissue and are softer and more flexible yet they also have a bit of a napped finish.