Bear Collage

I was working on Bear projects today.  This painted paper collage came together fairly quickly.



















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- brown kraft paper, I also buy rolls of 'Builders Paper' at the hardware store, it's like a heavy duty kraft paper
- background paper, I used 1 sheet of 9"x12" heavy white drawing paper
- scrap of black paper
- acrylic or liquid tempera in browns and black, disk tempera in yellow, green, and black
- glue
- a few pencil crayons
- scissors

PROCEDURE:

First you have to paint some paper for your collage.

I used brown kraft paper and painted   one sheet with brown and black acrylic. You can also use liquid tempera.


I also painted 1/2 a sheet with just brown acrylic.

I took a scrap of paper and did a quick brown wash on it.  (Take your brush that has the brown acrylic on it, give it a swish in water but don't clean all the paint out of it and then use that for your wash) 
I speckled on some black and grey paint.

Set your papers aside to dry.


This is what I ended up with.

Time to paint the background.  Take your piece of heavy drawing paper and paint some spots yellow with disk tempera.

Add some green to your yellow, mixing a bright lime green and paint in the rest.  You'll notice the green is brushed on vertically at random heights. This adds to the illusion of the forest.

Don't cover up all the yellow.

While the paper is still damp we want to add a few trees.

I'm using green disk tempera.

It's easier for me to show this technique on white paper.  You take your brush (a big flat one) and using the edge make a line by dabbing your way up.

Vary the heights.

Now add some branches.  Use the edge of the brush again but push down a little bit.  Try to make the trees a bit asymmetrical, they look more natural that way.

Fan out as you get to the bottom.

Put a touch of black paint on your green disk to mix a darker green.

We want to put in some dark sections.  Here's a hint: put the dark on only one side of the tree for shadowy bits.


Set aside to dry.

I took the paper I painted black and brown (the darkest one), turned it over to the unpainted side and sketched out my bear body shape.

You want to keep a corner intact and then its a rounded arch shape, (like a slice of bread).

Save the scraps..you'll need them for the ears.

Don't glue until you have cut all your pieces.

I wanted to do a grizzly looking bear so I cut an oval out of my medium brown paper. You could leave this one out if you wish.


I don't want too be too small so I measure it a little before I cut.

Time for the head.  Again I measure it a bit.  You could trace the size of the last piece on the back of your paper.

The head is upside down pear shaped.

Make 2 ears out of the scraps of the dark brown paper. (body)

Out of the light speckled paper I cut the muzzle of the bear.

With a scrap of black cardstock I cut out the nose.

Once you have all the pieces they way you want them you can start gluing.

Using pencil crayons I added a few details.

I tried out those inner black ears but changed my mind.

I also blackened one side of the head for more of a shadow.


That's it.

Have a great Labor day weekend everyone.



Gail