A Journey Called Collage

Week 2

Elements of Choice
Setting Your Strategy
Techniques to Beautiful Collage Through Layer Masks and Composite Methods

The collage features a scan of a plaque of fairies which I use as part of the decor above the basin and beneath the mirror...it is a reminder to those who look in the mirror! it seems to say 'groweth young'.

The Process: I had always wondered the origin of the words on the plaque and so went in search of their meaning. I found it was a poem written by Cicely Mary Barker about the world, fairies and spring. This, then, gave a wonderful reason to create a collage.

The collage consists of the scan, a scan of a ribbon, 2 photos of the beautiful grounds of the apartments where I used to live and some vines and daisies I painted in Painter and captured as patterns for the Pattern Pen, Masked.

The collage was layered on a background which an auto painting of the ribbon which succeeded in making a blended spri nglike background. It is the first time I had used auto painting and found it a great way to blend a background. I then layered the scene and placed the fairies scan, water and several layers of daisy paintings along the perimeters. The Pattern Pen was also used to create the daisy crowns for the fairies. I typed in the poem and then going back and forth through the layers, trying different blending modes until I was sure I was finished...well, almost sure because I had already spent too long!