Paint Past the Photo

Here's a wonderful exercise I learned from Dory Kanter in her beautiful book Art Escapes. It's called paint past the photo. Basically, you put a picture down in the middle of the page and paint past the edges. It's a wonderful way to practice color mixing and working on your ability to use a realistic style.

Here is one I did using a photo I took at Joshua Tree National Park. It was approaching sunset when I was there, and the colors and shapes of the rocks were amazing.

And this one I love, because the small person walking on the trail is my husband.

Thank you to Dory Kanter for this great idea!!

Collage SourceBook: Exploring the Art and Techniques of Collage

This book is a great resource for anyone interested in collage techniques including paper, fabric and found object collage as well as collagraphy. It has many photographs of collage by many different artists throughout the book that provide examples of many types of collage art. In addition to providing the basics for each type of collage, there are chapters on project ideas such as chronicling relationships and inspired by nature. If you are interested in collage, this is a great resource book.

Here is a link to the book at the publisher's website.