Creating Compelling Collage Textures

Process of Texturization

In parts one, two, three, and four we showed you how to make a basic collage, an assemblage, mixed media collage, and book cover collage.

As you've learned, it's the eclectic mix of colors, textures, and elements that make creating collages fun and interesting to the eye. By using a variety of materials and techniques, you can discover "happy accidents" in texture design that adds to the appeal of your collage.

The following examples demonstrate some unique texture effects we discovered during our collage experimentation.

Part 5: Collage Textures and Backgrounds

Additional Materials:

• Open to a variety of papers, fabrics, and techniques.

Collage #1: "Peeling Paint"
Made from found papers and acrylic paint on a wood support. This texture, reminiscent of peeling paint, is the result of combining and painting over different papers in the collage — while leaving some parts unglued and lifted.

Collage #2: "Wrinkled Blue"
Made from tissue paper, coffee filters, and acrylic paint on a wood support. This texture was created by painting over and down folded tissue paper and coffee filters onto the support.

Collage #3: "Mosaic Kitty"
Made from brown paper bag strips, shredded origami paper, and acrylic paint on a wood support. Using strips from a paper grocery bag gave the background on this collage a hard, leathery texture. Torn bits of foiled origami paper gave the inner kitty a flecked, mosaic effect.

Collage #4: "Webbly Weave"
Made with tissue paper and acrylic paint on a wood support. When tissue paper is crumpled, pressed down, and painted over, it creates an interesting textural effect that reminiscent of fibers or spider Webs.

Collage #5: "Shredded Treat"
Comprised of shredded papers glued on a wood support. Mixed shredded paper also creates an interesting texture effect that can act as a background or design itself. An assortment of tissue and printer paper was run through a paper shredder and used for this background.

Are you ready to see all of these techniques come together? Move on to part six to see how we combined background texture with magazine collage and other interesting elements to produce more unique and interesting collage combinations.