Guided by Melbourne-based artist, Rob McHaffie, learn about the use of collage to make references for paintings that explore narrative and the world we live in with an emphasis on portraiture and its relationship to the built environment.

The first half hour is to introduce the participants to the use of personal collage to construct a reference for their finished painting work, then look at various collage artists and run through Rob's own personal practice of collecting and reimagining scenes using both found and personal photographs. Participants will then construct a collage assessing composition and narrative possibility’s while they work and adjust imagery before fixing it in place for a final reference. Participants will then be taken through watercolour painting techniques, before using their collage reference as a guide to creating a finished watercolour painting. Through painting their own collage students can use the effects of watercolour to vary colour, composition, and focal paints of the painting. 

Image: Courtesy of the artist.