Cosmic dandelion

an introduction to collage

May 25, 2026

"I was thinking about the relationship between collage and mark making one day when at the exact moment, Juliana tagged me in a post saying that one of her methods would be of interest to Ten Minute Artist, I think it is, so I asked het to write a guest post, and here it is! Enjoy! And remember to follow Juliana for more collage goodness!"

- Adam Ming

Collage is fun, low barrier to begin with, forgiving, a rebel and a storyteller. Take a piece of paper and make a cosmic dandelion with me.

Put mindlessly colours on the paper. Feel the colours, feel the paper, listen to the scratchy sound of crayons on paper. Don’t rush it, take your time. Let your brain connect with your hand.

If you feel attached to your drawing and don’t want to cut it, don’t do it. Put it aside and make more abstract drawings with the same colours, but different proportions. Let a white space in the middle. Make one piece with less colours. Experiment.

Choose one of your abstract drawings for the dandelion. Turn it with the paint to the table and draw with a pencil the shape of a dandelion.

Cut it out. The freedom of mind not knowing through which colours you are cutting is wonderful. Surprise yourself.

Play with the backgrounds.

Black backgrounds let the colours pop up insanely beautiful.

If you are not happy how your background performs, change it. The white shape in the middle of the background is too dominant to the dandelion.

Layer colours over colours until it works out.

Use the white side of your dandelion.

Choose a background for the negative space of the dandelion.

Cut some more dandelions, white or colourful and make a collection.

Listen to the story collage is telling you. If it says pink, add some splashes of pink. Cut them into geometric shapes. Make some houses. Follow the story.

Can you spot the pink house below? Comment with 🌷 or write me so if you like to have it. It’s a GIVEAWAY. I will announce the new owner of this collage next Monday.

The next live drawing session via zoom will be on Thursday 28.05.26. The theme is cosmic flowers. The links will be send to you on Thursday at 7:00 (UCT +2).

9:30 (UCT +2) Time Zone Berlin, Amsterdam

14:00 (UCT +2) Time Zone Berlin, Amsterdam

22:00 (UCT +2) Time Zone Berlin, Amsterdam

If you are not sure which time this is where you live, please write me a note in the comments or at info@julianapenkova.com

Love * Juliana

A guest post by

Adam Ming

Adam Ming is a startup co-founder turned award winning children’s illustrator. He writes about building a daily creative practice, and breaking into publishing as an illustrator at 40.