2+ Hours of Content
Lifetime Access to all class/video Content
Facebook page to share work and interact with Kate & peers
Course Price $39 Class opens June 11, 2021
Would you like to create an ethereal landscape for your guardian angel to abide in? Would you like to try your hand at the art of collage with ephemera, acrylics, gold leaf, poetry, photography, beautiful collage paper, and more?
I have been a mixed media artist for 11 years. A couple of years ago I fully embraced my love for collage in my art practice and haven’t looked back. Collage is such a beautiful vehicle to express our imagination and our emotions. I love teaching! It brings me great joy and many smiles to see people who have never approached art bloom with their stories in their collage work. This is my third class and it has been so rewarding to meet and engage with so many accomplished artists and beginners.
All my classes are filmed in my home studio. I live in Massachusetts with my husband, two daughters, a few cats, some snails, a chameleon, and my lab, Misha. My home is in a very rural area with lots of farms and trees. I am alone in my studio so when I film my classes it’s like I am with each and every one of you and it’s so fun!
If you’ve taken any of my classes before you know that I make art for mental health primarily. I have developmental PTSD and art is my best medicine. Art is for fun, sharing, getting your mind off your mind, and challenging yourself. I will always encourage you to not take it too seriously, tap into your inner child and play. Be kind to yourself in the process and kick the judge out of your head!
I believe in angels. In the Bible, we are told we each have a personal angel that reports directly to God. I have often wondered what mine is like and honestly, I can’t wait to meet her/him one day and hang out and ask a million questions. I also imagine that my angel must be lion-hearted and a warrior. We’ve been through a lot. I started creating these one-winged creatures a few months ago here and there and there has been so much interest in them I decided to develop this class. I choose fierce, strong images for these angels and enjoy creating their other-world backgrounds. Below are some examples of other angels I’ve created (click on images for better viewing) and I hope to see you in class!
Lesson Plan
In this class, we will begin by covering our substrate with random collage papers. I chose to use old sheet music, book pages, poetry, and craft paper. We adhere them to the panel using matte medium and a brayer.
The next part of the lesson is taking our background colors and blending them from dark to light. In my neutral color palette, I selected I show you how to create a dark foreground and a more misty dusk sky. We will be using a soft mop or filbert brush for this part and I suggest some baby wipes and shop paper towels handy. We will add some mark-making and fool around by adding crumpled saran wrap and rolling our brayer over damp paint to create interesting effects. To add more texture and variation we use a palette knife and wedge with heavy body acrylics to saturate the pigments of some of the craft paint areas.
Moving on to the mountain back-drop. I use 2 different papers here to create the mountains and a little silver tissue paper. Links for the papers are in the supply list or use whatever you want! Next we matte medium our angel on and start building her cloak with grey Thai unryu paper and gold tissue paper.
We take a warm-up wing sketchbook break to familiarize you with the structure of the wing and then we sketch it with a white charcoal pencil on and paint it. For finishing touches a moon is added, scrap papers in her hair, a fun pen halo, and some makeup for her face. We add some more collage, a medallion for her cloak, marks, and doodles to brighten the horizon.
Upon completing this class you will be competent in:
Adhering ephemera to create a textural collaged foundation
Adding poetry, quotes, or meaningful text to peep through your background
Blending creamy acrylics to create a base for your dreamscape
Textural techniques using saran wrap, mark-making, and collage
Applying photography to your artwork
Using dreamy hand-screened collage papers from around the world
Sketch warm-up and painting of a wing
Fashion design of your Angel
Class Supply List:
Crafts Paints (decent quality: Martha Stewart, Folk Art, Americana): I used Americana buttermilk, white, slate gray, neutral gray, raw Sienna, black, burnt umber (feel free to choose another color palette:).
Heavy body acrylics: I used Golden neutral gray, Liquitex raw sienna, and Liquitex Basics parchment
Stylus or skewer
Silicone wedge or credit card
Plastic palette knife
Assorted brushes (links are examples but use what you have):
Angle Brushes ( 1 small for wings)
Soft pastels for the face or a medium of your choice. I used Sennelier soft pastel. Other suggestions: colored pencils, watercolor markers, acrylic glaze, oil pastel. I don’t do much to alter my face in this class other than blush, lips, and charcoal on eyes.
Metal ruler(for tearing collage paper)
Assorted old sheet music, old text, and craft paper for the background
Poem, lyrics, or quote to peep through background (optional)
Gold wrapping paper or craft paper for the moon
Gold tissue paper for angels cloak
Collage paper for finishing details(mountains and scraps for hair
Links for papers I used:
Soft charcoal pencil for eyes ( I used 6B which is in the white charcoal pencil set link)
Q-tips or blending stump
Matte medium I prefer
Fixative: Workable
Acrylic Varnish (optional)
Gels pens: gold, black, white, brown, bronze for halo (choose colors you love!)
Water-soluble black inktense pencil or black stabillo all pencil (optional)
Saran Wrap
Baby wipes
Image of your choice from class Pinterest page or print out available for my choice
Sketch paper
Pencil to sketch wing practice
Imitation gold leaf with a soft brush to sweep excess away
Other sources for collage paper