Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #33 - Paper Collage

The Paper Lovefest continues.  I picked up a pack of mulberry paper scraps from the local hobby store, and set to work. The bear outline was drawn on a piece of illustration board, larger this time to give me some elbow room to collage.

Collage Bear

6" x 10"

Mulberry paper collage on illustration board

Oh.....my.....gawd.  If this was any more fun it probably would be illegal.  At first I was my usual persnickety self, cutting the and placing the paper pieces precisely.  That didn't last long.  Before it was a quarter of the way done, the paper was merrily being shredded into a sizable smorgasbord of selected scraps, and gleefully cemented onto the board with matte medium.  The paper was wonderfully textured with colorful strings and bits of newsprint.  The white, orange and purple papers were nicely translucent, becoming more transparent when brushed with the medium.  Layers were used to create various values.  In some areas, there are more than twenty layers of paper.  This was a blast, and something I'll have a go at again in the future.  Without this blog challenge, this is something I probably would have never attempted. 

If you want to see some beautiful 'paper paintings', check out the work of  Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson.  She is an accomplished collage artist who creates some fabulous work.  I'm particularly love her cow collage paintings, they're just to die for.  Or would that be 'to moo for'?