Assembling a Collage

Ok, so now you know how to choose a surface for your collage and choose the glue for your particular project. Now it's time to put the actual image together.

I usually begin with creating my backgrounds first. My backgrounds simply consist of torn decorative papers and vintage text with a layer of paint over top. I then paint in my clouds and add any additional painted areas to help complete my background.
Creating the backgrounds for my 2D pieces is the same process as creating the backgrounds for my sculptural pieces. For a little refresher on that process look here.

So now I have my background all ready to go and it's time to add my images.

I usually have somewhat of an idea of the kind of image that I want to create, but sometimes this is not the case. For these unsure days, I will often spend some time looking through my collection of images and choosing pieces that speak to me. It's funny how a simple image can spark an idea.

Here I have found a collection of characters to use in my collage.

I don't bother cutting the images out perfectly at this point. I want to lay my images out on my canvas first to see if I like the way they fit with my background.

If I like what I see, I progress to cutting my images out and gluing them onto my surface.

Here my images are cut and glued onto the surface. I have also altered the layout of my images a bit. 

One of the things that I love about collage is that I can put together my image and rearrange my images in order to get an idea of what the finished piece will look like before having to glue anything down. Collage is great for us commitment phobes. :)

This piece is almost complete. I still have to add my hand-drawn details  and fix a few boo boos, all of which I will discuss in an upcoming post.