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Michael's Working Methods
  
Ideally, pictures can be a bridge to the past, so picture books are an idyllic medium for retaining cultural tales. Each picture really can tell a thousand words thus expanding the word through imagination. I use collage partly because it adds a quality that makes each picture its own work of art. The illustrations are a mix of acrylic and watercolor paints, which I apply to large sheets of paper. After drawing out each picture, I then cut and arrange the pieces as if they were a puzzle. I aim to weave a mixture of colors and patterns into each work.
   
I usually begin by doing a few different sketches of a particular page and then select the idea I like best.  I then refine the idea into a detailed line drawing on tracing paper, a semitransparent and rough velum-like paper.
   
 
Once I have decided on the colors I will use, I paint the large sheets of paper and let them dry.  Occasionally I use origami, wallpaper, fabric, or found paper.  I then turn the painted paper over on its backside, and place the tracing paper on top of it (the tracing paper also needs to be face down with the line drawing to the back of the painted paper).  I then draw over the line on the tracing paper and it transfers the graphite image onto the back of the painted paper.  I can then cut out the shape and store it in an envelope to be glued onto the illustration later.  I complete this process for each piece of the picture.
   
Once all the pieces are cut out,  I then turn the tracing paper right-side up and mark out a few defining lines on a clean piece of illustration board that has been cut to the appropriate size.  With the marks in place, I can begin gluing down the pieces.  Sometimes I use spray glue on large pieces, but I have found that rubber cement is better because it allows me to remove the pieces if I change my mind (which I always do).  Sometimes colors will not look good together, or I decide to try a different color combination for stronger emphasis.
 
 
 
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