Beginning a Collage Series with Mark Making

 I have spent the past 5 months deep in renovations to the buildings that pay my bills and allow me to do art.  My schedule gives me little time for art and honestly, I have not done anything with fabric since the scrap quilts I made last fall!  Instead, I have turned to mixed media art on paper.  This is something I can spend a few minutes per day with.  I can set it aside to dry and go about my day, returning the next day to add another layer with another medium.

I am working on a heavy watercolor or printmaking paper.  I am gravitating to a square format.  I have been cutting large sheets of printmaking paper into squares and working the entire group in a series.  I am working in 12x12, 10x10, 6x6 and 5x5 sizes.  I have a couple of larger pieces - 20x20, but they are more challenging.

I am in the middle of a series now.  This is the fifth or sixth series I have done in this style / medium and I feel confident enough in the process to take pictures of each step along the way.  I really don't know that this series will be successful, but I always hope my work will be reasonably decent in the end.  I have learned a lot doing these and I am loving it.

I begin with some kind of mark making on the paper.  This time, I have used a new permanent marker I am trying out.  I hate Sharpies - they reek.  I find Pitt pens - India ink - should be permanent - they are not supposed to smear, but they do.  These markers are from Office Depot - the Office Depot brand.  So far so good.  They do not reek like Sharpies do.  Will they smear?  Stay tuned.