seeing red

I like to give myself restrictions when creating, which for a collage usually means limiting the source materials and/or following a very specific technique. Today I decided to start a new collage using the same process I used for "Silver Lining"—pasting tears on a stretched canvas and then painting a grid over it—but this time using only cuts and tears from the latest issue of W Magazine.

I chose these restrictions because that's what was immediately in my view when I walked up to my drafting table. Nothing scientific about it—hanging above my work area is "Silver Lining" and on the table was the December issue of the magazine.

I got to tearing at the pages, pleased with the red and silvery-blue tones I found in a spread shot by fashion photog faves Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot. This would be my color scheme. There is also a fantastic spread with cover model Marion Cotillard shot by Tim Walker. It features Cotillard wearing lots of shiny black which I'll use sparingly and red backdrops, which will work well.

I got to the last pages of the magazine and started to get a little worried that I wasn't going to have enough material, so I grabbed the October issue. So quick to break the rules! I rationalized this wasn't truly a breach of the restrictions because the October issue had been sitting there on the table too, right under the December issue.

Thumbing through, to my disappointment I wasn't finding the jeweled red and blue tones I was looking for, but to my surprise I did find the same weird black plastic dress Cotillard was wearing in the latest magazine:

Black plastic fetish much, W? 

Seeing this odd same-but-different-repetition somehow sealed it for me—I'm not going to break my own rules so easily. It also made me laugh—W had done what I was about to embark on: reworking an older idea into something new.

I will use the December issue only in today's attempt of my previous process. Now: get collaging.