Tip Jar Thursdays! No. 9 - Collage and Appropriation • Art House Co-op

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Tip Jar Thursdays! No. 9 - Collage and Appropriation

Happy Thursday Sketchers!

Welcome to the 9th edition of Tip Jar Thursdays! Join us as we explore the work of a few very talented Sketchbook Project 2011 participants who have creatively demonstrated the techniques of collage & appropriation in their sketchbooks. A few have focused their use of appropriation on found imagery (i.e. pages from books & old photographs). Others have collaged materials into their sketchbook, almost as a process of journaling.

These first two images are great examples of how an artist can change the context of found imagery through absorbing it into their drawing or painting:

Here we have the work of the Doodle Club all the way down under in Brisbane. For the inside cover of their “Dirigibles and Submersibles” book, they have transformed a an anonymous, sombre portrait into a goofy submarine-residing pirate. The eyes say it all! Yargh matey.

For the first of our snaps from her stunning Coffee and Cigarettes sketchbook, Kendra Yee has adapted some images from an old-school elementary reader, painting whiskers, horns, lungs and skeletons onto innocent little children and their teacher “Miss Smith”.

Appropriating images can also be used to create an environment to base your drawings in. Personal photographs, magazine cuttings and postcards of landscapes can all be used to envision a whole new setting for your sketches.

Kendra has used old black and white postcards as a basis for her delicate pen and ink drawings, from a damsel in distress lying across a bridge to a Venice gondola with a zany architectural dystopia in the background.

Collages of cuttings from books and catalogs can be used to form interesting compositions made of found imagery combined with line drawings or transfers.

Kendra has used a found image of a china teacup, and placed it upside down with two doll-like, rosy-cheeked creatures falling out into the great unkown.

Nicole Gervacio has chosen black and white images from a nature text book and feathers, and incorporated them with streams of rainbow colored paint and acetone transfers.

Sketchbooks can also be used as a form of diary, with various artists utilizing theirs to journal through the use of collage. Images can be appropriated and combined together to form a visual personal narrative.

Samantha Stephen’s collage of Polaroid photos demonstrates a simple and effective way to narrate a personal story through visual means.

Nicole Gervacio has collected and collated her personal receipts to keep track of events and memories - and it also acts as a particularly tasteful way to sort her taxes out!

Thanks so much to all these wonderful and talented artists for sharing their exceptional work. Enjoy!

See y’all back here next week for another Tip Jar Thursday!

- Caitlin and Fiona.