Sir Vagabond Collage Pages

 

Stamperia recently released collage and design elements in a line they named Sir Vagabond. I was drawn in by the beautiful oriental designs and colors and purchased several pieces I felt I could work with. About that same time I purchased an inexpensive Master's Touch watercolor book from Hobby Lobby, thinking I could compare it with other like products. Normally I wouldn't collage journal in a watercolor book but I thought . . . why not? This is the two page spread I made and I would like to share some of the steps along the way with you. 

I began by flipping through the pieces I bought - the Paper Pad collection, the Backgrounds Selection, and the Collectables pad looking for elements that caught my attention. I wanted my two pages to tell a story, so I looked for pieces that would work towards that end. 

I knew an ocean was going to be involved so I brought out a set of ocean watercolors and painted both pages. Nothing fancy, just some water and sun reflections. 

I really loved the papers in the collection and wanted to incorporate them into my collage pages. And I have always preferred hand-torn edges. 

After hand-tearing two sets, one for each side of the spread, I added some black Archival ink along those hand torn parts. I used sticky stuff tape to stack the pieces to make them into one block for each side. 

I wanted to work a little more on those backgrounds before I got busy adhering pieces. I did some stamping and some stenciling till I liked what I had. Knowing that most of it would get covered up, but that was alright. 

This is the majority of collage pieces I wanted to use. To make a longer lasting adhesion, I ran the pieces through my sticker machine before fussy cutting out each individual element. 

Placement of pieces was the next decision I had to make. And hey, look! I found a dragon to use! Hahaha! The story I wanted my pages to tell is about a man who loved a woman so much that he would cross any ocean and even fight a dragon if he had to just to get to her. And I thought these pieces could do that. 

The side paper pieces went down first, then the statement block and lastly my noble samurai warrior. He was too tall for my 5" tall page, so I just lopped off his bottom. Hahahaha! 

I repeated the paper border on the right, then added my beautiful lady! I inked the edges of all elements prior to placing them. At this point I used an Aquarellable pencil to add some dimension. I was concerned that my warrior was fading into the background. 

After adding the ship and the dragon I really went to work adding dimension with the black pencil. I wanted each piece to really stand out. 

Like this. 

Hopefully you can see a huge difference with him. 

And with her. 

Left hand page . . . 

. . . and the right side. I was really happy with the shading and the way it brought each of the four main elements to life. 

In fact, it was so much fun I may to do another spread. Can you see the story unfold? He is deep in thought about what he may face on his way to see his lady. She is just kind of just over there smelling flowers - hahahaha! - but hopefully thinking and wondering when she will see him again. There you go. That's as day-dreamy as I get today. Hope you enjoyed my two page spread in the Hobby Lobby $14.99 book. It worked great and these pages are so flat in my book it's amazing! Now, onto other art endeavors. Like making a new book!!!!!