Collage & Mixed Media

This workbook turns the course into studio practice. Each section pairs with one course module and mixes hands-on exercises, fill-in worksheets, and checklists so you build real material judgment, not just notes. Work through it at your bench with scraps, adhesive, and your devices nearby; the editable templates give you a sourcing log, a piece-development planner, and a critique sheet you will reuse on every project.

Build your kit, learn to read material for permanence, and set up a sourcing and storage system before you make real work.

Gather ten different papers from around your home (magazine page, newspaper, kraft paper, receipt, book page, watercolor scrap, packaging, etc.). Without testing chemically, rank them most to least acidic using feel, smell, sheen, and what you know about the source. Then note which you would trust in archival work and which you would only use deliberately or seal first.

Plan your starter kit against a target budget of 60 to 90 US dollars. Fill in the tool you will buy or already own, what it is for, and its cost. Mark the two items where quality matters most (blade and cutting mat) so you do not under-spend on them.

Practice value structure, focal points, grids, palette limits, and rhythm so a busy surface reads as one resolved image.

Make two 10 by 10 centimeter studies using only black, white, and one grey paper, five minutes each. Aim for a clear dominant value mass, one supporting mass, and small accents, not an even scatter of mid-tones. Photograph each and convert to greyscale to confirm it still reads.

Plan one collage before touching glue. Choose an armature, place the focal point, and define the supporting elements and the rest area. Fill each field, then lay the piece out dry and photograph it before committing.

Build a complete small collage in 45 minutes limited to three colors and one motif repeated at least three times with slight variation in size or value. Add a single passage of contrasting texture near the focal point. Step back two meters to confirm the rhythm reads at a distance.

Drill substrate prep, archival gluing, image transfers, and finishing so your physical work stays flat, bonded, and protected.

Glue four identical scraps to a prepared board using four different adhesives (PVA, gel medium, wheat paste, glue stick). Burnish each from the center out and weight them. After 24 hours, try to peel each and note bond strength, warping, and any shine or residue.

Run a practice sheet of small transfers and record what happened so you can repeat success and avoid failures. Make at least four attempts before using a transfer in a real piece. Fill one row of fields per attempt.

Take a composition all the way to a protected, presentable finish. Prepare the substrate, layer and burnish, integrate with at least one mixed-media unifying move (glaze, connecting line, or stitching), then apply an isolation coat, varnish, and present it. Photograph it in flat, even light.

Composite non-destructively in Photoshop or Procreate, prepare archival prints, and develop, critique, and sustain a series.

Scan your own analog scraps at 600 dpi and build one digital collage on a 300 dpi canvas at final print size, using only layer masks and blend modes, with no erasing and no flattening. Name every layer. Export a flattened copy for sharing while keeping the layered master.

Plan one fine-art print so the output matches the file. Fill in the specs, soft-proof against the paper profile, and order a single proof before any edition. Judge the proof under daylight, not a screen.

Define a coherent body of work before building it. State the unifying thread, fix one constraint, and thumbnail all six pieces up front so the set holds together. Revisit this sheet as the series evolves.