Memory Collage Diorama
Advanced Illustration Project
Introduction
Many assignments recognize the way we draw things may be influenced by factors outside of the drawing and perhaps only visible in our minds. In this project, students create a series of drawings based on objects associated with personal memories. This project focuses on the significance of objects in our lives as well as on the integrity of the object, and the object as a signifier of experiences, values, and desires. We will use a technique of three-dimensionally layering collaged paintings and drawings within a boundary (wall installation or a shadow box form). Next, students can select one of two options: a memory collage or a macro collage.
Enlarging an object and drawing it multiple times transforms it. For the Memory Collage Option, we will investigate 5 different objects and draw them multiple times in various scales. With each iteration, we will draw less of whats physically in front of us and instead lean into what's behind the mind's eye-- what memories are associated with this object? How can we illustrate them? For the Macro Memory Collage Option, we will focus on a single object and carefully render it as though we are looking through a magnifying glass-- it reveals a level of structure and detail that is otherwise invisible to us. As you zoom in and out of the object, also find an associated memory that flicks in and out of our focus.
In this project, we will use representational subjects such as objects from mundane, everyday life to communicate a narrative and story. I recommend selecting objects that are unified under a central theme. For example: focus on pets, animals, and anthropomorphic subjects; highlight political / social issues that are important to you; reflect on a hobby or obsession; depict important places in your life; etc. The story you share in this project can be loose or direct.
Restricted Color Palette
Instead of painting the actual color of objects within your box, we are going to use a restricted color palette. Make a few color swatches in your sketchbook and ask yourself, how do these color choices add to the overall narrative and concept of the work? Use one of the following color schemes: monochromatic (not greyscale), analogous, duotone, complementary, split complementary, triadic complementary, tetrad).
Memory Collage Option Overview
-- Place 5 or more items in a shoe box that are significant to you as momentos. These objects may be trivial things such as matchbooks, empty perfume bottles, or keys.
-- Bring these boxes to class and introduce your “memories” to your classmates by talking about your associations and stories attached to the contents in the box.
-- Begin a series of drawings based on the items in your memory box. -- Emphasize associations of each item rather than solely focusing on formal elements like form, proportions, shape, color.
-- From the first series of drawings, select 3 for reproduction and enlarge them to double their size.
-- Next select two of the 3 drawings and draw them again, enlarging them also to double the size.
-- Select one drawing and draw it again to double its size
-- Each time, the selected items are drawn bigger and bigger and more detailed or abstracted.
-- By this point, you should have a series of drawings in which the significance of the objects on which the drawings are based is represented by their size and complexity.
-- Finally, cut out your objects from this series and place them on a large sheet of paper or within a shadowbox form. Overlap objects, add background imagery, paste your cutouts down, and add additional elements on top.
-- Consider refraining from including text; the viewer should be able to understand your objects and associated memories from the visuals alone. If you do add text, I recommend doing so in a way that is conceptually driven (consider poetry).
Memory Memory Collage Option Overview
-- Find an interesting organic object, larger than a golf ball and smaller than a basketball. It should have an intriguing shape made of several parts and lend itself to being studied. You may want to gather two examples of your subject, which will enable you to pull apart and dissect on while leaving the other whole as a reference to the object’s complete shape. Examples of items that work well are a pine cone, a gourd, flowers such as a lily, fruit, a horseshoe crab shell, a skull, large seed pods, or an ear of corn with its husk.
-- In your sketchbook, make several “whole object” and “detail” studies until you being to understand the object’s unique characteristics.
-- Direct illumination on your object will make its light and dark sides visible, assisting the development of its three-dimensional appearance. Dissect your object in a systematic way, and after each stage, make a drawing that records the new knowledge gained. When you have a good understanding of your object’s “anatomy,” begin your final drawing.
-- Make paintings/drawings of several views of your object, detailed observations of its parts, and drawings or diagrams that describe its construction.
-- Cut out these drawings and 3-dimensionally layer them into your shallow box.
-- Create a visual flow through the whole composition by analyzing shapes, building connections between parts, and trying to reconstruct the process of the dissection. Your composition should have at least one precise image of the entire object, and may also include diagrams, details, parts of the object, and the way it looked in its various stages of dissection.
-- Include more abstracted and memory-association imagery that takes us elsewhere.
-- Finally, cut out your objects from this series and place them on a large sheet of paper or within a shadowbox form. Overlap objects, add background imagery, paste your cutouts down, and add additional elements on top.
-- Consider refraining from including text; the viewer should be able to understand your objects and associated memories from the visuals alone. If you do add text, I recommend doing so in a way that is conceptually driven (consider poetry).
Project Materials
-- What are we painting on? You may paint on paper/illustration board that is easy to cut
-- Diorama box: minimum of 16" in a single direction and at least 3" deep. A very simple way to create this is nailing 4 pieces of wood together and attaching book board to the back with brad nails (or staples). You may also use found objects, ceramics (if you have studio access and know-how), laser cut a form, cut foam, use fabric, etc.
-- Paint materials: gouache, ink, acrylic paints (up to you what you want to work with)
-- Brushes: bamboo brush (size 4 or 6) and a variety of watercolor/acrylic brushes (suggested sizes/types: Round #1, Round #4, Flat 1/4” and Flat 3/4”)
-- Objects: 5 objects with personal memory associations attached to them.
-- Tools: 18” ruler and X-Acto knife (if you want to incorporate cutouts or folded flaps)
-- Adhesive (rubber cement or PVA)