You’re receiving this newsletter because you signed up for my free collage guide, subscribed via a blog post, or bought a collage resource from me. If you don’t want to receive these, no problem - you can unsubscribe here!
Hello and happy autumn!
I’ve been busy prepping for market season, but I made a collage this week that I didn’t like, and wanted to share. It’s an inevitability and failure can be useful.
What making something you don’t like teaches you about what you do
I experiment often in my work so it’s not uncommon for me to make something I don’t like. This week I wanted to see if I could incorporate these interesting pink and orange textures into a piece, which is something I wouldn’t normally do.
Here’s the result. I knew half way that I didn’t like where it was going. But I finished, trimmed, and scanned it anyway so I could appraise it as a finished piece and understand why it wasn’t working for me.
There were three reasons:
My focal point (the piece with the figures on the road) is too low contrast to hold its own in a busy image. The values in general are just too similar for my liking.
While visually interesting, the textures just look zany to me rather than contributing to a cohesive story world. There’s a lot going on, but to what end?
The piece is narratively empty but visually overloaded. Normally that would lead me to swap pieces out and make something different, but I was challenging myself to use these textured pieces so I stuck with it this time.
I won’t make prints of this or even post it on my feed, but it was a useful exercise. When you make a piece you don’t like, appraising it critically can help you take something positive from the experience.
And if you have a loud inner critic, understanding why specifically you don’t like a piece will redirect that energy constructively. “I don’t like this collage because it’s busy and there’s not enough contrast” is not a judgement, and doesn’t make me feel any particular way about myself.
If you need help with this in your own practice, you can book a coaching session with me here.
New prints & bestsellers
In my head, anyone who buys The Empress is either a David Lynch fan or owns multiple tarot decks. This is completely unsubstantiated and based purely on vibes. Still, nobody has disproved it yet either…
Shipping to the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand!
I’m working on the plan for my next workshop, so will be in touch soon about that. And as always, I’m open to suggestions of workshop topics you’d be interested in!
Other things I’ve been enjoying this month
I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, a memoir by Hu Anyan
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, the cosiest but most difficult game I’ve ever played
It finally being cool enough to sleep with a weighted blanket
The rhythmic, production-line type zen of making bookmarks
Upgrading my phone for more storage, so I can finally film content again without having to delete 10 videos first
Speak soon,
Lily
