Rod Judkins - Figurative Painting with Collage

Rod Judkins

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2016 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2016

Rod Judkins 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 075 1

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Byron Howard for writing the foreword. Special thanks to all my family, This book is dedicated to my daughter Scarlet and son Louis who have contributed a great deal of work and paintings. Their enthusiasm and constant experimenting have hugely inspired me. Thanks also go to Peter ODowd for contributing such strong imagery and agreeing to be interviewed. Im very grateful to Beverley Mason for letting me interview her about her amazing Burlesque series. I am indebted to Monika Malyjasiak for allowing me to plunder her sketchbooks for images and for talking about them in such depth.

The wonderful thing about painting with collage is that it is not intimidating. People who have struggled with many aspects of painting and drawing suddenly discover untapped ability when they discover collage. There is no right or wrong way to create collage, just guidelines that can be followed if they suit you or tossed aside if they do not. Collage elements can be torn off and pasted over if the work is not developing well. It is unpretentious because it takes the discarded, the leftover and the unwanted scraps of paper and transforms them into a new image. Little equipment is needed for painting with collage apart from the most basic art materials. There is no necessity for especially expensive materials or costly glues, papers or paints.

Collage is an excellent medium for the timid beginner to build up their confidence as a preliminary to painting. It is also an exciting medium for the skilled artist who can manipulate it in a serious way but also reinvigorate their work and thinking. If your work is in a cul-de-sac then collage with painting can offer a number of possible exits. Collage techniques and materials can also offer the key to resolving failed paintings that have been stacked away for months. Painting with collage also enables artists who have been trained using more rigid principles to approach their art with a more playful, less precious attitude.

This book is strongly influenced by the Contemporary Collage short course I teach at Central St Martins College of Art in London, the worlds most prestigious centre for the arts. On the course I encourage the students to explore every possible collage technique and method in order to find the approach that suits them best. The book is the product of a passion for figurative painting with collage as a way of discovery and creativity.

Painting the human figure is the most rewarding artistic experience because other human beings are the most fascinating subject. Using painting and collage together invigorates the depiction of the human figure because of the unusual associations and dislocated imagery created in the dialogue between the two mediums. Collage and painting are the most accessible of mediums, and contemporary collage has brought about a renaissance in the way figurative paintings are created.

Fowarding, (gouache on paper) by Rod Judkins.

Collage has been at the forefront of most new developments in art and new ways of visualizing the world - from Picasso and Braques Cubism through to todays artists such as Neo Rauch. Contemporary collage has become a significant part of our visual landscape through its use in fashion drawings, the fast cuts of music videos, graphic design and book illustration. The fusion of disparate and juxtaposed images provokes questions and provides us with shocks that shake up our expectations of what an image could be.

In the following chapters we will examine the many diverse ways there are of painting the human figure with collage. There will be demonstrations of the methods and techniques that can be used to stimulate or direct the making of images into new and unexplored areas.

What to Expect

The book will:

• Reveal the multitude of different ways to experiment with painting and collage techniques that can lead to powerful work
• Encourage the reader to undertake practical experiments while taking into consideration the most important theories in contemporary art
• Demonstrate that using painting and collage together invigorates the artistic process because of the unusual associations and dislocated imagery that can be created
• Show how painting with collage can enliven and invigorate your work
• Open the door to a wide range of skills and approaches
• Contextualize collage within its art historical framework but also consider its impact today

In the early chapters of the book we will examine how figurative painting with collage is simple enough for the most tentative and inexperienced adult, yet challenging enough for the professional artist. Collage is an excellent medium through which to learn the fundamentals of human proportion, colour and composition. At the same time it can express wild flights of imagination, depict the human figure in new and challenging ways and be a vehicle to experiment with unlimited freedom. I have discovered through my teaching at Central Saint Martins that painting with collage is an excellent way to introduce students to depicting the human figure in a less daunting and anxious way than is sometimes the case when painting the most difficult of subjects another human being.

Chapters 1, 2 and 3 aim to encourage the reader to produce their own painting with collage and arm them with the means to do it. It combines practice and theory. We will examine the many diverse ways there are of thinking about painting with collage. The chapters will therefore reveal why and how modern artists use collage as a means to make their work more inventive and to direct their work into new areas. It will demonstrate a myriad of methods and techniques that can be used to stimulate or direct the making of images into exciting, unexplored areas. To achieve this, the book touches on all the important art movements that have used painting combined with collage, as well as a number of contemporary artists.

Collage is the twentieth centurys greatest innovation.

Robert Motherwell

The Techniques and Beyond

Call Centre (oil on canvas and paper) by Rod Judkins.

This book, and in particular Chapters 1 through to 4, will reveal the practical techniques used in painting with collage - from the most effective glues to the most suitable paints. For instance, we will explore techniques like those I used in