At the beginnings of 2021 I attended an online art course, Fun with portraits, with the talented artist Sasha DeWitt.
I have some past experience in making portraits with oil colours on canvas, graphite and soft pastels, but this course really opened my mind: we explored new – for me – approaches to portraiture, from collage to clay, from scribble portraits to colourful faces with text.
I found out that I love the torn paper collage technique. I like the idea of recycling scraps of paper into something else, in this case into portraits. I re-use packing paper, wrapping paper, magazines, newspaper and old books. It takes a lot of time and patience but for me it is relaxing and rewarding: piece by piece a face come out in an unexpected way.
I enjoy adding personality to a portrait, gluing scraps/images in the background and/or thinking of a text that in some way refers to the person portrayed, using sometimes non-natural skin tones. Playing with colours and texts gives me great freedom of expression and satisfaction.
For my latest artworks head over to my artistic accounts on Instagram and Facebook.
I am available for portrait commissions. Please contact me if you would like information about sizes, materials, prices, shipping and delivery details or visit my Etsy Shop.
Activity for kids – Make your own self-portrait
My daughter, looking at me making portraits, was so intrigued by the collage process that she wanted to do one too.
So, after a careful study of one of her photos of her, I prepared an under-drawing where I mapped the different skin/hair tones, labelling them with numbers. Any number corresponded to a different coloured paper. She tore off the pieces of paper and then she glued them on the under-drawing.
Here is her self-portrait. She did it!
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