Watercolor Collages

I found this watercolor collage I did in high school and I thought it would be really fun to try it again:

I thought I used rice paper to create the collage, so I ordered some on Amazon and waited patiently for it to get here. I realized very quickly when I opened the package that rice paper is NOT what I used to create this collage. The paper I originally used had a lot of fiber and texture. The rice paper is very smooth and thin. So I did some research online and discovered that there is a fibrous paper called mulberry paper that is used in Japanese painting. I think that will work much better for this project and it is on its way!

In the mean time, I figured I might as well try using the rice paper for a watercolor collage. I painted two sheets. On the first sheet, I started with a layer of just water because I wanted to see if the colors would blend. Turns out that was a bad idea. The paper got fragile very quickly and the top layer started peeling off in little balls. I painted it anyway. On the second sheet, I just painted the color on without getting it wet first. That seemed to work much better.

When they were dry, I crumpled them up to give the paper some texture. I will apply them to the watercolor paper with a mixture of water and white Elmer's glue.

I'm picturing something more abstract. We'll see how it goes!

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Emilee Williams Art

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