Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Mood Boards... Or Whatever You Call Them.

My latest Mood Board. Took approx. 2.5 hours.
Call it whatever you want. Mood boards, beauty boards, collages... Whatever you call it, the definition is a personal manifestation of whatever you're thinking of at the time in the form of art. I call them mood boards, because the way I'm feeling usually controls the finished product. The reason why I'm dedicating a post to this is because I feel the duty to inform every girl of a productive way to make a wish list, get out some feelings, create a shrine to your favorite hobbies or celebrities... Or just do it for fun.


I like mood boards because it's a real project, but not the kind that takes several days. Just a few hours and you're free to let your creativity shine through. I also find it brings me to a point of serenity that meditating has never done. Focusing on this one thing; I forget about everything else. I barely even think. I get away from the world for a few hours and when I'm back, I have something beautiful. So I'm going to give you a brief text tutorial on how to create your own Mood Board, because maybe the same effect will happen to one of you.


Steps:

  1. Get a bunch of old magazines. You can get these from friends, family, etc. (I get a ton of my mother's old magazines; I don't have the heart to cut up my own.) My mood boards always relate to fashion & beauty, and some great magazines for this are Marie Claire, Allure, Oprah, and I use US Weekly, People, Essence, and Parenting, because sometimes you find miscellaneous items in there.
  2. I usually tear out the pages first before I cut to prevent frustration and accidental multi-page chopping. After I culminate a pile of pages, I cut out my favorite parts. Make sure you have a lot of little things to fill in the gaps that come between the bigger stuff. Too much big stuff means too much overlapping, and that may cover up too much of your cutouts!
  3. I haven't made many mood boards, so I'm still at a loss to find the best way to glue the cutouts onto the board. (Use a glue stick by the way, liquid glue is too much of a hassle, and tape runs out too easily.) I like to arrange all my cutouts on the board first, and then very carefully lift a piece or two up at a time, and glue them down. This way I don't have to worry about gluing EVERY piece, but make sure the room you're in isn't drafty or you'll be very annoyed.
Tips:

  1. Cut out more than you need. It's better to have tons of pictures and fill in all the spaces than have not enough pictures and big ugly gaps on your board. 
  2. Don't be too restrictive. If you want to follow a certain theme, that's fine, but let your instinct bring you to the pieces you love. Don't say, "Oh this doesn't perfectly match my theme." You won't have enough cutouts and you'll regret it later.
  3. I don't listen to music when I do this. And I'm always listening to music. But music might influence what I'm looking for. You know when you're writing and someone is talking and you accidentally write the word they had just said? Music can influence your art like that, and I want my mind to do all the talking.
  4. Make sure you have a large block of time to do this. I HATE when I'm diligently working on my mood board and suddenly I'm called for dinner. Clear your schedule and eat first. Distractions get you out of the zone!
I dare you to comment about any mood board you've done, or any questions you have about a mood board... Or whatever you want to call it.


Loving Watchamacallits (mood boards for me),


Autumn =)

No comments:

Post a Comment