"Bear, Moose, and Warbler" is a current work in progress. In fact, none of the pieces have actually been glued down yet. So the shifting and organic progress can continue until I find a scene I want to keep. Sometimes, I have a hard time committing to a final image so I don't adhere everything but use photographs of the scene to develop an illustration. I store the left over pieces in a ziplock or envelope in case I decide to adhere it all later or reuse elements from the scene.
Collaging for me is a very organic process. It changes, evolves, and changes again. I tend to come up with ideas, move elements around, remove things, add things, and accept surprises as they come.
Stages of making "Bear, Moose, and Warbler
Step 1. Find magazine pages that fit colour scheme.
Step 2. Cut out some elements and hand tear pieces for collage.
Step 3. Draw characters with fineliner and paint with Watercolour. Cut out leaving a white border.
Step 4. Layout elements of collage. Take photograph.
Step 5. Isolate portion of image for illustration and use photo editing in Snapseed and or Lightroom. In this case I chose a vignetted border on Snapseed using an ipad. I like this composition but, I am not 100% satisfied with the lighting in the trees, as there is a lot of reflection. This sometimes happens when using glossy magazine paper.
Step 6. Reassemble collage and photograph. In this photograph, there is a round glow on the top which is the overhead light reflected on the paper. I tried to place just above trees on the lighter side of the branches. The paper I used was old photographic paper so it has a natural sheen. Unlike the reflection in the last photograph, this is more appropriate to the scene and well placed.
Step 7. Isolate the illustration and edit to achieve a desired look. In this case I used glamour glow in Snapseed using an ipad and a controlled vignette in Lightroom using a Macbook Pro. I prefer the outcome of this image more in terms of the reflection but might continue to play more with this image.
8. a)Glue down to page. Use puffy stickers for characters to let them pop out of page. b) Or reset the scene and start again. c) Store pieces until next time.
