Paper Tulips (Collage as of April 10)

Paper Tulips (Collage as of April 10) Originally uploaded by randubnick

This is the collage I started a few days ago. I have been thinking about what to do with this little collage, and went back to Red Brick to try to solve several problems. The leaves didn't show up well against the background: I thought about painting the background a stronger blue, or outlining the leaves and stems, or adding a lattice of white paper for contrast. I wasn't sure that the colors in the four tulips worked well, so I thought about adding more tulips or a border that repeated those four colors. I started working by completing the tulips I had, just by adding one leaf. In doing that, I could see there was no room for more tulips or a border. I was about to tint some acrylic gel medium to change the background color, but then saw some more blue tissue paper. So instead I decided to apply another layer of blue tissue paper, tearing and cutting pieces of paper and "glueing" them down with gel medium. While I was at it, I put gel medium over the whole surface. The added layer of tissue paper changed the value and added enough color to contrast better with the leaves, and the slightly stronger blue improved the color scheme. I liked the added texture, and the coating of gel medium made the different kinds of paper go together better. I decided that I liked the piece well enough as it is here. More important, I (re-)discovered the technique of pasting layers of tissue paper down with gel medium, and I began to think about how I could create mountain landscapes that way. So even though I was at the studio for a short time, it was very time well spent, and I was smiling all day.