Tissue paper painting

The sky is the limit when it comes to collage paper. One of the interesting things I've done recently (again, in class) involves very thin tissue paper and it makes a really pretty, unique pattern. It's so fragile just a drop of water will dissolve it so care must be taken in preparing it. Finished paper is shown in photo to left.

To get around that problem you can use these steps:
1. Scrunch the tissue and then flatten it out onto a plastic surface but leave some interesting hills and valleys for the paint to run into/out of.

2. Mist with water lightly to help the paint to spread on the tissue.

3. I pre-blended two acrylic colors in squirt bottles - golden fluids indian yellow and quinacridone burnt sienna. I dropped this paint onto the damp paper and misted to increase the paint spread here and there (see photo). Do not move the paint around with a brush or you'll be ripping the paper. It's fragile.

4. Keep some white areas if that's what you need for your collage - don't wet the tissue quite as much and keep some higher scrunch peaks.

5. Leave it alone until completely dry. The back of the paper will be shiny in places as more medium will settle and dry against the plastic.

6. To attach to collage cut the piece to size, apply the medium/glue to the support and lightly, gently press the tissue onto the surface and smooth gently. Once dry I coated it lightly with medium so that it didn't dissolve when I over painted on it.

Enjoy!