It's Great to Combine Collage with Drawing or Painting

Collages can be created in many ways.

Sometimes, I fill the entire surface with magazine pieces that are put together to create an interesting composition.

In other cases, however, I prefer to leave the collage open and simple, so that I can paint or draw more freely on the background.

To combine collage with drawing or painting is a great way of making mixed media images.

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Table of Contents

1 Combine collage with drawing or painting
2 Several ways to combine
3 The rest of the series

Combine collage with drawing or painting

Making mixed media images by combining collages with drawing or painting is a marvellous way to express yourself.

Several ways to combine

Collage and drawing 268 — The image is completed with colour pencil and watercolour paint.

Reacting to the images realistically

There are several ways you can combine collage with drawing or painting.

An obvious way is to react directly to the images that are on the collage pieces. The result will be a more or less realistic illustration everyone will recognize.

The image is completed, as it were. You can use all kinds of techniques for this. Pencil, watercolour, acrylic paint; whatever suits you best.

Realistic images supplemented with abstraction

The difference between the former method and this way of reacting to the image is not that huge.

Yet, it’s a different way of approaching an image and being inspired by it.

As you might know, it’s my personal goal to make a collage every day and although I try to find as many different ways as possible, I also will try a technique multiple times.

I have been an artist for over 50 years now. Isn’t it great that even after such a long time, it’s still possible to keep being inspired?

Collage and addition are completely different

The only similarity in the example here is that the photo and the ink drawing are more or less black and white.

Of course I could have chosen to draw and paint very colorfully with a black and white image.
There are examples of that in the rest of the series below.

It’s wise to use thick and waterproof paper for the glueing and drawing.

All the examples here are made on 280 grs. watercolour paper. Even without spanning it on a wooden plank, as I often do, this kind of paper will be sort of flat when everything is dry.

Both collage and drawing are abstract

It’s not a given that the images of a collage are realistic.

Scraps that are cut or torn are fantastic to use in a collage.

A realistic collage can be supplemented with a drawing that is either realistic or abstract. In the same way, we can make that choice with an abstract collage.

In the example, I chose a contrast between the circles of the collage and the lines and triangles of the drawing.