This is based on a hike I did at the end of last autumn 2020. I hiked along Lake Chuzenji in Nikko, Tochigi.
For this piece, I really wanted to focus on the reflections of the mountains on the surface of the lake. Which turned out to be the most challenging, but also the most rewarding part of this collage!
When I first started making this piece, I
firstly decided what colours I wanted to
use, then cut out the shapes for the mountains. This was probably the easiest and simplest part of this collage - which was only two layers. I ended up going with pink and orange.
At this point, I was aware that some of the imagery in the orange layer was a little distracting and overall was a little flat. So I planned to draw on some details over the top, which I hoped would add more depth to the image. I would do this later in the process, right at the end. Check out the finished image here.
Similar to my last couple of collages, I made sure not to glue down the paper first. Gluing down would be one of the last things I would do. I cut out the layers first because I can lay them down on paper to get an idea of how its going to look, and plan how the rest of the image is going to look.
Next up was figuring out how to do the lake and reflections. I had several ideas of how to do the lake floating around in my head (pun intended) at this point. For example, I was thinking of painting the lake and collaging the reflection over the top; or painting the reflection over the top (which I knew nothing about or how to do). I decided against collaging over the top because I thought it would simply take way too much time. Instead, I ventured down the painting rabbit-hole.
As I said before, I had no idea how to paint a body of water. But thank god for YouTube!! All I had to do was search "how to paint water" and follow along with a few tutorials. I experimented around with some different styles of painting and washes, lighter and darker blues, and blacks and greys to try and add more depth.
But as you can see on the left, I think I was too impatient to properly learn how to paint the water texture and as a result it didn't have the appearance I was hoping for. And it just looks a little childish. At this point, I didn't know what to do.... How should I make the lake?!
What I ended up doing is a technique called an 'ink bleed'. Which I had totally forgotten about! And looks really cool too. It sort've looks like dried up water. There are several different ways you can do this, but how I did it was by firstly painting an area with plain water and then I would load up my brush with A LOT of ink and lightly dabbing or painting on to the areas I had just painted with water. When I add ink to the water, the ink will naturally spread out wherever the water is (bleed), and become lighter and darker in certain areas. It'll pool in some areas, and it others the ink will hardly touch the paper. As the pooled areas dry over time, it leaves a really beautiful water-y texture.
Here's a visual, as an example. The blobs below, on the left is a still-wet ink bleed and middle has dried. Right is a detail of what I actually did.
Next was to put down the first coat of painting on paper - the sky and the base layer of lake.
I like to haphazardly paint the sky. Some stokes are light, some are darker; some areas are bleeding, while other areas have a sharper, more defined edge.
After this, I painted the reflection of the mountains, using the bleed technique I described above. I got way too carried away with this and totally forgot to take a picture of this step! But you can see it below in the finished collage :)
Now it was time to put all the main pieces together - Lake, sky and mountains!!
Lastly, it was time to add the fine detail to the mountains and sky. I used black pen to draw the mountain sides and valleys, and light and dark green pastels to add more depth and also to help it stand out more. Using black ink and a very fine brush, I painted the delicate clouds floating off the mountain tops (which kind've ended up looking like birds?).
And finally, I cut up my original attempts at trying to paint water (and some green paper), and sprinkled them on to the lake.
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