A Journey Called Collage

Week 4: April 3, 2007

Organizing the Workspace
Revisiting Revealing From Clone Source
Revealing Paper Texture
Subtracting From Layer
Applying Paper Texture

The Process:

I have, I think, developed some fairly decent habits about the workspace. Having all my brushes for a project ready, in a palette, sure takes the frustration of hunting for a brush when in a hurry away! lone Source, layer masking and Applying paper texture are all fairly familiar tasks as well. But, the big idea for me this week is crating paper texture! I see a great future for that idea for work I will do in Painter!

I had to arrive at my paper texture a different way than directed. When I used Equalize on my image for texture, it gave out all different colors and not the desired black and white. I then tried Express texture and got my Black and White contrasting image with controls to govern the contrast.

The Collage

Inspiration again came slowly and the collage I wanted to do involved so much work that I was ready to avoid it! But then, the idea became so haunting that I had to go with it and dig up the materials! I was going to create a collage based on my Aunt Hattie, who wasn't really my aunt, but a neighbor who lived next door when I was born. She became one of the most loving, and loved, persons in my life!

Elements: I have but one photo of Aunt Hattie, which I had to find from among a whole lot of old photos stored away. I then needed a photo of a crocheted teddy bear bed spread she had made for me when I moved from a crib to a big bed (it was also packed away and needed to be dug out), a photo of me wearing a coat she had crocheted for me, another of the Light of the World which I remember looking at as it hung in her 'parlor' while I wondered how a child could be the light of the whole world, only a boy! I also needed to scan a note which I have kept since I was 12 years old, a birthday note...that would have been written in 1949! I decided it would be worth the work and dug in.

Process: I gathered the photos and scans, edited the sizes, corrected color in Photoshop. The photo of Aunt Hattie and me was a black and white and so before placing it in the collage, I 'hand tinted' it in Painter.

1. Open photo
2. Add a new layer above it, make it Color blending mode
3. Choose a brush and color and tint each part of the photo. (I used separate layers for hair, face, sweater, etc.)

I then placed it in the collage along with the other elements. Then came the fun of creating the texture for the grainy brush! The teddy bear bedspread! I love this paper texture and for me it unites the whole collage!

The Collage

Clicking the image of the collage will open it in a larger view.