Collage Techniques

I used a part of this collage in my Eat Man Drink Water post last night titled Faces of the Dead...a rumination on how sometimes I see the essence of people who have died, or who are not well, in the faces of others.

Some of you might think it a bit odd or macabre, I just see it as a different view into the life/death cycle. Or, perhaps it is some type of psychological projection.

This collage, though in keeping with my surreal style, uses different materials than most of my other works. I made this collage as a demo in my class, and it was so odd how it all worked. The kids were blown away too...and perhaps it was just a bit too weird for all concerned, but it happened, and I really like the piece.

The background was an advertisement or fashion photograph, the boy cut out from a National Geographic. I have not tried this method on anything but contemporary printing inks; I do not know yet if it will work on antique prints.

Those were the only two elements of paper in the collage. The rest was done with masking and using a product called Never Dull. I rarely use this in the class as it has fumes, but this advanced class was eager to use it, so it was one of those spring day projects to do with copious amounts of ventilation.

Never Dull is used in auto body and I believe dissolves grime etc from chrome surfaces. It also dissolves the inks used in the printing process. By masking out areas such as the pyramid and sections such as the leg, and the boys eyes using cheap removable labels cut into shapes, I rubbed the inks around till I got the desired effect, then pulled the labels off. The areas affected by Never Dull became faded and I was able to move the inks around in a painterly fashion. Behind the masks the ink remained untouched.. Each kind of paper is different, and there is only a certain amount of control one has over this method, but the unpredictability of it is the fun part.

After I was done I scanned each piece, then re sized the boy, and finished the collage in Photoshop. No filters, just scanning and playing with size.

I won't sell this collage or publish it other than here as I am using copyrighted materials that may or may not even be cool to post here, but since it was for educational purposes, I may be covered under fair use. Copyright is quite tricky and I try to do the right thing.

Any questions? Comments? You can leave them here or go through my email address found on my profile page.

Patti