Jerry Brommer Collage Workshop ~ First Projects

T or Tau Shape Design
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"


7 1/2" x 7 1/2" This was supposed to be a cruciform but after looking at this it needs to go off the top edge. I guess I have 2 T Shapes.


Bridge Design
7 1/2" x 7 1/2"
All were collaged with acrylic matte medium on 300 pound Lana Rough paper. Jerry likes the rough for added texture. Most paintings contain several type designs. We were instructed to make one of each of these designs in a color of our choice of darks and lights. The class didn't just start gluing down various papers and hoping for the best, we did have some guidelines for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and included movement and a focal point. Jerry said "You make the perfect composition. You don't find it."

My nice clean palette before beginning to stain watercolor papers. If I had it to do over, I'd bring some palettes I wanted to clean out and redo. I had 3 that I worked from and someday I think I'll make a cool one, greens and blues, and one warm for reds and yellows, and then I can have a lot more colors. When using white gouache, it is difficult to keep your wells from becoming contaminated. We'd tear off pieces of the Oriental rice papers (washi) and make our colors by splattering and varying colors by adding some white gouache or black. Then we'd turn over our pieces to speed drying. Jerry said he'd set aside a staining day and maybe do reds for 30 minutes and blues for 30 minutes to build up his supply for maybe 6 months. He stores the pieces by color in clear plastic bags for the workshops.
Teaching procedure:
Before we'd begin a collage painting Jerry would show us many examples of the designs cut from art magazines, then he'd show us his own paintings and post them on the wall, then he'd give a demo - all great ways for us to learn. We knew where we needed to go and what to do and if we got lost along the way, Jerry would roam the room giving some hints "make it darker at the edges to keep your eye in" or "Primo. Stop." which was the BEST compliment.
He gave us a great hint for tearing the colored strips into our needed shapes by taking a brush loaded with water and draw with the water. It weakened the area and made it much easier to tear. If we needed straight areas we cut with a razor blade, craft knife or scissors.
Jerry would caution, "Don't fall in love with a part so much you can't change it. Put in the big shapes with reckless abandon. Just cover it. Use different sizes, shapes and values. Watch your negative areas as you want it all different."
American Artist
The June 2009 issue has a six page article written by Jerry, Capture a Sense of Place with on-site Travel Sketches. Without sufficient time to create full-scale paintings on location during a recent trip to Europe, he relied on graphite and ink sketches to capture the essence of the scenes visited and added watercolor washes once back in the studio. If you enjoy sketchbook journaling, you will enjoy this article.
Next post will show a floral and he said if you put in a pistil or stamen you get an F.