Van Gogh Tissue Collage

The tissue collage was another creative project that was an extension to our Van Gogh finger painting. We created a Van Gogh inspired cityscape using the same ideas of Starry Night for a background. We cut different shapes and designs out of  several colors of tissue paper and glued them to a 12X18 sheet of paper. Once the tissue paper was glued, we used a glue-water mixture to cover the whole paper that blended some of the tissue paper and created different colors. After the mixture dried, we used oil pastels and a silver marker to create bold lines to show the flow and structure of colors, similar to Van Gogh's Starry Night. To finish the project, we had to cut out a silhouette of  a city or a farm which was much like the foreground in Starry Night.

As an extension activity, teachers could use this same activity but use different mediums for an early elementary class. The students could use the oil pastels, crayons, markers, colored pencils to show movement of the "wind" in the background. Instead of using tissue paper cut outs, students will have the choice to use string/yarn, fabric, beads, miscellaneous items in the class, to show a more creative side but still focus on the lines and movement of the picture. For the foreground, students can choose a setting in which they are familiar with or interested in putting on their art work. This type of activity is still following the Van Gogh Starry Night concept but allowing the children to come out of their comfort zone in creativity.

For my tissue collage, I chose to use a white cityscape because of the busy, bright lights, never resting, city life. The background shows the different flows and movement of the night sky in the distance.