2021 January Art Dare

“PAPER TRAIL COLLAGES”

Make a personal map of how you read a newspaper using traditional or digital collage. (or combine them!)

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ART DARE LEAP
Each week, create 2 different maps from 2 different newspapers.

PROCESS

1.
Examine a newspaper; you can use a physical copy or use images of the digital version.

2.
Note what sections attract your interest, the order in which you read them, and the sections you linger versus the sections you skip.

3.
Using the physical newspaper or images from the digital version,  create a “map” of your journey through the newspaper.

4.
Try designing the map on a single page as if it were for a walking tour, with the different sections of the newspaper represented as physical locations.

EXAMPLES

Alexia Towle
@alexiatowle

“This project took me out of my comfort zone, because usually I am not a fan of collages. Now I think that it might just be my hatred of glue, because this was actually really fun!

Using Photoshop to make the collage map of how I read the news instead of the traditional paper and glue gave me a lot of flexibility, and I could play with really thin lines without having to cut really thin lines of paper. Nowadays, a physical paper copy of the news is not as needed because of the digital world we live in, and sometimes we can find ourselves down a rabbit hole of scrolling and scrolling. I wanted to play with that idea to do a less traditional version of how I read the paper.

While I might have had to use the Wall Street Journal for this collage instead of the New York Times, I think the effect is the same!”

Ruth Lee
@ruuth_lee

“I absolutely love reading the New York Times, and I find myself always getting lost in the ocean of content available online (I hardly ever read the paper version).

My curious hyperactive mind gets a full-course meal endlessly scrolling and clicking through every single section on the website (except sports and N.Y. because I just don’t find those as interesting somehow). I literally feel like every time I click on a new side panel or tab or article I get lost in a rabbit hole of information, and I get completely absorbed reading about completely random things I never knew about before–thus I illustrated my spiral-like way of reading the times as a literal series of downward scrolling rabbit holes.

I made it using Illustrator; first taking screenshots of content snippets on the site, collaging them and making it into a clipping mask with a hill shape (drawn with the pen tool), and then adding low-opacity shapes over it to make the green grass.”

Ro Antia
@letraset

“I actually used to read the New York Times before making this. Unfortunately, I read it digitally and was really not excited to create a digital collage, so I asked my friend for a copy. I read through it, and realized that the front cover page is very much a road map to most of what you’ll find in that edition of the Times.

I then used the cover along with the section headers After creating the collage, I decided it might read more like a map if I put it in the context of a phone navigation app, so I recreated the frame which I feel like I could have done more efficiently. As a graphic design student, I’ve worked on a few layout teams for varying newspapers, and I usually get distracted looking at the layout and type when I read a print copy.

If I were to do this again, I think I’d play more with layout and type and the ways it is used in the New York Times.”

TO SUBMIT

Post your artwork on Instagram, tag us @art.prof  w/ #artprofdare.
Please know that if you use #artprofdare, you are automatically granting us permission to repost your art dare artworks on our Instagram!

Submissions close on Thursday, December 31 @ 11:59pm EST

We are no longer accepting submissions via Facebook or email. We prefer submissions via Instagram, but you can also use the upload form below.

Please do not use the upload form if you submit via Instagram.

PRIZE GUIDELINES

We award prizes and honorable mentions.
To be eligible for a prize, your artwork must be an original artwork created specifically for this Art Dare, and follow all guidelines.

Honorable Mention
Artists in the US can choose either Prof Lieu’s book, or Cat Huang’s middle school comic, “The Comic Journal of Cathy Rox.” International artists will receive 3 months free in our Discord Voice channel.

ART DARE WINNER
Choose from a portfolio critique, an artist website critique, or an artist Instagram critique, or 5 months free in our Discord Voice channel. Artists in the US can also choose to receive both Prof Lieu’s book + Cat Huang’s middle school comic, “The Comic Journal of Cathy Rox.”