Tuesday, October 22, 2013

SPECIAL FEATURE: Collaging 101

Art is like misery (in that it likes company).
So for those of you who would like to join me in putting collages into the world, here is an introduction to the craft, based on my two-years' experience in service of this blog:

First-off, there are 3 basic approaches which I have found myself using to create collages.
All 3 use the basic steps of (A) having an idea/experience/emotion that you want to share; (B) gathering images that, in combination, will convey said inner-state; and (C) blending those images together to achieve that evocative visual representation.
But within that generic frame, the strategy of each approach is slightly different.

1: HAVE IMAGE IDEA, FIND PARTS
For instance, in "Fickle the pickle," I knew what image I wanted (a girl bleeding over a sandwich), and so I found parts that I could build up to create that picture (little girl, lettuce, bread, pickles, "meat," tiled diner floor, etc.).

2: CHOOSE MEANINGFUL PARTS, MAKE INTO IMAGE
When I made the collage for "Trickle-down," I had no pre-set composition, but just a collection of images (headless girl on bed, open head, blood-red flower, men & planes plummeting, etc.) which I shifted and sorted around until they cohered well.

3: TAKE STRONG IMAGE, FILL IT IN (like a bowl)
For the collage of "Safe enough," I knew the image that I wanted to make central, so I cropped it aesthetically and then went about texturing/coloring/complicating it with other enriching images (fire, glass beads, excavation site, trees, a dog rescuer, etc.)

_ _ _

No matter what approach (or blend of approaches) you take, 
there will be some basic steps to the process of creating a cohesive collage:

Compose – for eye-flow
(note how the elements in “Undersides” are placed to draw your eye in a clockwise expanding wave around the page …)

Build and Adjust – for texture and interconnection
(note how the pill-shaped elements in “Vitamins” draw a line of connection from the man to the woman, and texture his muscles, and how the white ingredients-list beside the man compliments the white health-info beside the woman …)

Layer, like watercolor – for light and depth
(in “Camel,” I layered the center-image several times over, blending each with the last until it was prominent at it center – yet integrated at its edges. You can see the same multi-pass staining happen with the dark image at bottom center, of a nephew's hand on an uncle's arm …)

Fill and Blend – for wholeness and subtlety, i.e., focus and no-distractions
(I revisited “Tiny-Brief” a year later because I was so irritated by the prominence of the falling man's and the hill's silhouettes overpowering the lovers' kiss above and the violent rocks below … so I filled in the man with a rusty can and cobbled rocks, the hill with an ocean wave and a toothless laughing baby. The result is much more balanced and so invites the eye to explore its subtle details …)


So there's what I've learned about collaging, thus far, in a nutshell. Go make stuff!

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