Torn Paper Collage, My Wren Friend

by April Sproule September 15, 2020

My Wren Friend torn paper collage by April Sproule

While exploring different mediums, I've become intrigued by torn paper collage. I had only done a handful of random projects with my hand painted papers, but I really wanted to try doing one of my bird designs.

Even though I was a bit reluctant to start, I thought I'd probably watched enough YouTube videos on this process to give it a try. So I gathered my supplies: glue and a brush, hand painted deli papers, Golden Matte Medium, and my mixed media sketchbook.

I started by transferring my Carolina Wren drawing to my sketchbook. I figured I'd better start with the head first as it would probably be the hardest to do. I cheated a bit by drawing the eye on paper, cutting it out, and gluing it on. Then I began tearing itty bitty pieces of paper for the rest of the head.

Carolina Wren torn paper collage by April Sproule.

Next I got a bit braver and started gluing bits to the body. I started to get excited because this was actually working!

I added some brown, rust, and black bits of paper for him to perch on. Next I needed a background, but I didn't have any light colored paper. Later as I was cleaning up my desk area and tossing away random notes from a yellow legal pad, I thought maybe that paper would actually work. It did work, so I finished getting all the paper down.

The colors weren't quite right, but I had seen demos of glazes being applied and I'd always wanted to try it. So I added a couple of different glazes applied with a paint brush and then rubbed it off with a rag for the right amount of coverage.

First Glaze:

Golden's Satin Glazing Liquid
Daler Rowney's Burnt Umber Acrylic Ink

Second Glaze:

Golden's Satin Glazing Liquid
Golden's Acrylic Paint in Titanium White

Torn paper collage detail by April Sproule

This was so much fun. I loved the end result. Now I can't wait to get started on a fabric version. The best thing about trying out different mediums is how it gets your creativity flowing. Now I can use the paper collage for reference when I start my hand stitched fabric version. I can't wait to get started!