I am usually up for an art challenge, and Michelle Ward, of Green Pepper Press, is particularly good at coming up with one. So it remains a mystery to me why I have never taken part in one of her GPP Street Team ‘crusades’, as she calls them. Until now. Today, I took the plunge.
Michelle’s challenge this month is to step out of you comfort zone, and make art in a size you are not used to. It’s a good one for me for a number of reasons—my art comfort zone is pretty limited (I’d say 4×4 to 10×10) and I rather like being comfy in any zone of my life (my husband always urges me to stretch myself, but without much result).
Well, this time I did it. Michelle gave a number of options you could go about tackling her challenge. I decided to go extra small and, since we have yet to move to the new house, I had to use slightly different mediums by default (did I mention that I still have no access to my acrylics? It’s driving me mad).
So I made an inchie collage with watercolours and, you know what, I am rather happy with the result. It is pretty and, despite having to depart from the way I usually do things, it still looks very much ‘me’.
This is a blown up version of the inchie
The process of making the inchie was also surprisingly easier than I thought it would be.
I cut a sheet of watercolour paper into an inch square and painted it with rose and burnt umber watercolour. Now, I usually like to apply watercolour with a sponge to obtain a lovely blended effect, but of course there was no way I could use my huge sponge on such a small piece of paper. So I blended the colours with my finger instead and it worked rather well (though you wouldn’t like to see my finger now).
I tore really tiny strips out of a selection of high quality copies of my ephemera collection and glued them to the watercoloured paper, then applied some more rose and burnt umber (still with my finger, which by no was positively dirty). Once the whole thing was dry, I stamped a little swirl from my NonSequitur Memories of Italy plate using black ink.
Finding some suitably small images to collage proved the hardest bit, as I don’t have many. But a bunch of lovely roses, brown leaves and the same Victorian girl that is in my header were just the thing.
I glued them on using PVC glue and a tiny brush. The piece was still lacking something, so I first tried a sparkler, but the smallest one I had still looked gigantic on such a small canvas. Eventually, I settled for a tiny paper rose, which finishes off the bottom left hand corner rather well, methinks.
Working on the inchie taught me three valuable lessons:
1. a small scale collage doesn’t take any less time to complete than a larger scale one
2. In a 1×1 canvas, there is a fine balance between building in detail and making a busy mess. Finding the right composition took me far longer than it does when I work on a larger size, although I suppose it gets faster the more you do it as your eye gets used to it. For example, I decided against doodling something on the inchie because it was starting to look too full.
3. Stepping out of your comfort zone is enormous fun, and I should do it more often!
14 Comments
Carla – thanks for coming to play with us! I have never made an inchie so I was surprised by your *lessons learned*. Thanks for sharing your observations, your process, and your lovely work. I can’t imagine working that small on paper! Love hearing that you enjoyed working outside your comfort zone – mission accomplished!
This is lovely! I’ve done many ATCs, but never an inchie!
You did a great job ! I did ATC’s for a while, and very few inchies … I found that the inchies were difficult, when I do them I always feel my fingers are way too big LOL Hope you get access to all your supplies soon
Wow, Carla, this is a real blown up version of your inchie, cause an inchie is really small ! It surprises me how you collages all the different things in this small space.
i like to read your experiences about working so small.
greetings from belgium
Inge
Hi, this is fabulous !!
I love inches.
Love your lesson learn finding.
Welcome new crusader, to our team! Thanks for sharing your inchie story, your inchie is lovely. It reminds me of the one and only inchie I made (http://www.ihanna.nu/blog/?p=658), also wanting to “try it out” in such a small scale. It was strange, working tiny, don’t you think?!
I’m a new crusader too! Your inchie is so sweet, I think one square inch is a great scale to work on. The way your layers overlap gives it dimension. Happy creations from tj in germany
Great post – I love inchies and find them challenging too. You have managed to fit a lot in in a such a small space.
I also went “small” for this crusade and agree with your “lessons learnt”.
That’s really fantastic to see an inchie in detail, thank you for sharing your work process. Helen
This is really beautiful and I cannot believe it is really so small. Thank you for sharing your technique.
You have managed to put an incredible amount of detail in this tiny piece. I came back for a second look.
Thanks for sharing your insights… especially that small doesn’t mean fast… People tend to think that small paintings should cost less because they are small. I have completed large paintings in much less time than many of my small paintings.
Your inchie is really cute.
Far out – I can’t believe you managed all that on an inchie! You must have lovely slim fingers…
Thanks for sharing your process, it’s always interesting to read how people got to the end result.
I loved reading about how you made your inchie, Carla. I’ve never worked on anything so tiny and found this fascinating. Welcome to the street team!! xo-teri