Digital Collage - New Beginnings
Title : New Beginnings
Medium : Digital Collage Size : 36 x 24 inches Date : November 8, 2021 Exhibition Text :
My intention with this piece was to create something out of a childhood daydream, and show how I've grown into who I am today because of it. I was inspired a lot by the work of Marcel Lisboa, who creating works with elements of surrealism and collage. His artwork combines a lot of nature things, such as plants and nature, with more unnatural things, like jellyfish swimming in space. I used these elements throughout my own piece, using a lot of the same ideas as Lisboa, but changing them to meet what I was envisioning for myself. To create this piece, I took photos of things I found within and outside of my house. A lot of what I used includes plants, colors/textures, and lights.
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Essay :
Up until fairly recently, I haven’t really felt like I had anywhere I belonged. Even when I was very young, I stuck with no more than two or three friends and felt very uncomfortable when I was put into new and unfamiliar situations. I didn’t feel any sense of belonging or self-identity, and I was scared that things would change at any moment. Because of this, I clung to the things in my life that I knew would always be constant- stories, whether they were in the form of books, movies, or artwork. I’ve always loved art, and it gave me a way to express how I felt when I couldn’t with words. This was amplified especially when I started reading. Even though my mom had been insisting that I read Harry Potter for months, I finally started it in 3rd grade when my best friend started to read it as well. Always a follower, I wanted to do all the things that my friends were doing, including reading this book series. At first, I was skeptical, I mean my mom was the one who originally recommended it so how good could it be. In no time, though, I was in love. I would spend hours reading, using it as an escape from the real world. Although I had always been good at reading, I never fully enjoyed it, and this was just the beginning of my love for it.
After Harry Potter, I was reading all the time. For years, my favorite books were Percy Jackson, and I made sure that I owned and read every book in the series. Each week when we went to our school library, I always asked if I could check out extra books, and would always have them done and ready for more by the time the next week rolled around. While I was reading, I would always base my art on the crazy and mystical worlds where the books took place. I loved creating my own fantasy creatures that I thought would fit perfectly into the story, and would draw them for hours on end.
Looking back at this time in my life, I can see how much it shaped me into who I am today. Without these experiences, I wouldn’t be the same person. It showed me that it was okay to be creative and not everything had to make perfect sense. Even now I find it difficult to figure out who I am as a person. It seemed so easy to just escape into another world as a kid, and now that isn’t something I can do. But, I can look back on it and realize the impact it had on how I grew as I got older.
After Harry Potter, I was reading all the time. For years, my favorite books were Percy Jackson, and I made sure that I owned and read every book in the series. Each week when we went to our school library, I always asked if I could check out extra books, and would always have them done and ready for more by the time the next week rolled around. While I was reading, I would always base my art on the crazy and mystical worlds where the books took place. I loved creating my own fantasy creatures that I thought would fit perfectly into the story, and would draw them for hours on end.
Looking back at this time in my life, I can see how much it shaped me into who I am today. Without these experiences, I wouldn’t be the same person. It showed me that it was okay to be creative and not everything had to make perfect sense. Even now I find it difficult to figure out who I am as a person. It seemed so easy to just escape into another world as a kid, and now that isn’t something I can do. But, I can look back on it and realize the impact it had on how I grew as I got older.
Inspiration :
It took me a really long time to find an artist that I wanted to use as inspiration for this piece, and it wasn't for a lack of options. When I started, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to make. While I didn't have an exact plan as to what the piece was going to be of, I did know that I wanted it to have a very dreamy feeling about it. After a lot of digging and research, I found the artist Marcel Lisboa. As soon as I saw his work, I knew it was exactly what I had been looking for. I really love the way his work combines aspects of surrealism, along with many other movements. One of the first pieces to catch my eye is called "Between the Lines," (far left). It focused on a woman sitting down, but she is surrounded by dreamlike and surreal elements. I really liked how the entire thing feels very somber, but still as if it could take place in a storybook. After seeing this piece, I continued to look at what else he had done and found "Ritual"(middle) and "Sleepwalking,"(far right). Once again, these two felt like they took place in some far off place that can only be reached in your imagination. Throughout all the pieces, I noticed the contrast between things that we see in our everyday life compared to things that would not normally be there. In "Ritual," for example, the woman in focus is shown standing with her umbrella, but as soon as you look around her you can see she is surrounded by jellyfish in space with flowers everywhere. Another element that I noticed throughout the pieces was Lisboa's use of repetition. In all three works, there are elements that are repeated throughout the space and give a sense of unity, even though the objects in question don't seem like they should be put together. For example, in "Between the Lines," Lisboa uses repeated geometric shapes seemingly floating around the piece in combination with the more realistic elements, such as the woman, the sky, the water, and the trees in the background. Lisboa's use of repetition and contrast help to create very surreal pieces that are peaceful and dreamy, which is exactly the feeling that I'm going for. In my own piece, I want to combine there surrealist elements with my own photos that I will use to create the collage. I also want to take inspiration from the large array of seemingly random objects to combine them into a piece that looks dreamy rather than unnatural. Overall, my goal is to create something that will be portrayed in the same dreamlike and whimsical feelings in the same way Lisboa does.
Planning :
At the beginning of the planning stage, I already had an idea of what I wanted the piece to look like. I wanted to make sure I included lots of whimsical and dreamy elements. This would include clouds, butterflies, planets, and waterfalls. I didn't want it to look like some place you could visit in real life, only in daydreams. Since this piece is about how I used books and movies as a form of escapism as a kid, I wanted to show that wherever I was, it was inspired by the stories I was consuming. With these ideas, I came up with an idea of having myself sitting in the clouds among the stars. I liked the idea at first, but the more I looked at it, the more it felt a little too childish and playful, when I was hoping it would have a more serene whimsical feeling. After scraping this idea, I started sketching some new ones. I really liked the composition of "Between the Lines" and "Ritual," so I used that as a reference as to where to start. I started with a version where I was further to the right and in a sort of sky-like environment. It had flowers and insects and clouds all around. I also tried to do something similar to "Between the Lines" with the cubes floating around, but having pictures of younger me instead of the eyes. I didn't love how that part came out, but I thought the newer composition was a much better start.
I made a couple newer sketches just working off of and improving upon the first one until I found something I liked. It had me in the middle, with a sky with clouds and planets in the background. I also wanted to add water elements in the form of waterfalls and rivers in the clouds. I also took inspiration from "Ritual" with the jellyfish in the sky and "Sleepwalking" with the plants coming from behind the figure. From this point, I took pictures of all the things I needed from "the real world" (myself, plants, sky, etc), as well as played around with the aspects that I had to make myself (jellyfish, planets, etc). From this point on, all I had to do is put it all together and edit the pictures into the final collage. |
Process :
STEP ONE
At first, I wasn't exactly sure where I should start with making this piece. It was my first time ever using photoshop outside of a couple times playing with it. To get past this sort of art block, I decided to begin with the background. I was inspired by Lisboa's piece "Ritual," where he used two different pictures of space stacked on top of each other. For mine, I used two different pictures of the sky. At first, the pictures where very washed out and it was extremely difficult to make out the difference between the sky and the clouds, so I played around with the curves until it looked how I liked. I also added the plants that I wanted to go behind me in. The background pictures I got my taking pictures of the sky I my backyard. and the plant pictures I got from various plants I had outside and in our house. In order to "cut out" the plants from their background, I used the quick selection tool and then went back in with a soft round brush eraser to soften the edges and fix what was missed.
At first, I wasn't exactly sure where I should start with making this piece. It was my first time ever using photoshop outside of a couple times playing with it. To get past this sort of art block, I decided to begin with the background. I was inspired by Lisboa's piece "Ritual," where he used two different pictures of space stacked on top of each other. For mine, I used two different pictures of the sky. At first, the pictures where very washed out and it was extremely difficult to make out the difference between the sky and the clouds, so I played around with the curves until it looked how I liked. I also added the plants that I wanted to go behind me in. The background pictures I got my taking pictures of the sky I my backyard. and the plant pictures I got from various plants I had outside and in our house. In order to "cut out" the plants from their background, I used the quick selection tool and then went back in with a soft round brush eraser to soften the edges and fix what was missed.
STEP TWO
After finishing the background, I added myself and then more clouds. To take the picture of myself, I used my phone and had it in selfie mode. I used the self timer and then looked through the live photo settings to find a frame that I liked. To make the clouds, I took that same pictures I used in the background and used an airbrush eraser to erase around where I wanted the clouds to be. I didn't have any real guidelines to follow, so I just went around the natural highlights and shadows in the photo. I moved it around a bit until I found a spot in the piece where it looked how I wanted it. I also duplicated the curves layer I used on the background and put it on a clipping mask above these clouds. When I did this, it looked a lot less like I had just airbrushed gray all over the bottom. |
STEP THREE
After getting the main elements of my piece in, it was time for the details! As I was taking photos for this, I decided to scrap the idea of drawing things to add in, and instead I wanted to use things that I found outside or around the house. That sadly meant saying goodbye to the jellyfish, but it meant I was able to be more creative with what I already had on hand. I was super excited when I found a ladybug outside, and took a couple pictures from different angles to use for my piece. One part of many of Lisboa's works that I really enjoyed was his use of geometric shapes. To mimic this, I took pictures of different things I found that had fun colors or textures. I then cut out circles of each one and turned the layer to multiply to give it the transparent look. I also found these cool star things that were hung up in out kitchen, so I added those as well. I was finally nearing the end, and added the finishing touches. I would say that the majority of the time I spent on this piece was in the last details. I spent a lot of time moving around different elements until they looked right, but I eventually did come out with something I liked. I added in a couple more plants and flowers, as well as some light bulbs that are hanging outside my house. Also, instead of adding a planet-like element like I had originally planned, I cut out a flower shape from the pattern of a pillow I found and put it behind me. I played around with the layer modes until I found something that looked cool, and I was done! |
Experimentation :
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Digital collage is a completely new medium to me, so I had to do a huge amount of experimentation in order to get to the outcome I did. The first part I had to experiment with was taking the photos themselves. My mom is a photographer, so I had a little bit of background from watching her, but nothing else to really go off of. I wasn't exactly sure where to start, so I just took a lot of random pictures until I found some that I liked. I made sure to take a lot of pictures of things that might get washed out easily, like the sky and clouds. Throughout taking the pictures, I got the hang of it a little better and was able to figure out what was and wasn't working. For example, when I was photographing the sky, I needed something else, like a tree, in the frame so the camera would focus and take the picture. Since I was using a nicer camera and not my phone, I had to play around a bit with how exactly it worked and the best ways to get a clear and usable picture. After taking the pictures, I did a lot of experimenting within the final piece as well. I've done digital art before, but never using Photoshop and never to make a digital collage. One of the first things I started playing around with was the different selection tools. One of the most helpful things throughout this piece was the quick selection tool. It took me a while to get used to it and how it worked, but once I did it was a huge asset. I was able to use it to get very precise edges around pretty detailed elements, like the leaves and flowers. One part I did struggle with though was figuring out how to make the edges less harsh. I eventually figured out that I could use the eraser tool on a soft airbrush, and I used this to soften the edges. Another tool I found really helpful was the marquee tool. I was able to play around with different shapes and sizes to put into the background. I looked at most of the shapes available, but settled on the circles. With this tool, I was able to cut out circles from photos I had taken of different colors and textures. Overall though, the main experimentation I did was in the layout of the piece. It was really difficult for me to find a composition that worked well and also included everything I wanted it to include. As you can see from the bottom two images on the left, although they have fairly similar elements to them, I messed around a lot with where to place everything. I wanted to make sure it had an asymmetrical balance and wasn't the same on both sides, but I also wanted it to feel even as far was how much stuff was on each side. I didn't really have any sort of strategy to make it look how I wanted, and I mainly just messed with different parts until I thought it looked good. Overall, I experimented a lot with this piece, and it really helped me to figure out how to make it work as well as possible within what I was trying to achieve.
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Critique :
For this critique, I will be comparing my own piece to the three by Marcel Lisboa above.
Similarities May Include :
- We used the same medium to create the artwork. In my own piece, as well as Lisboa's, the art was created using digital collage. This was done by taking images of many different things and putting them together in digital format to create the final piece. When using the photos I took, I was able to create a whole new picture. While it isn't a photo in itself, it is compiled of them and looks closer to a photo than it would to say a digital drawing.
- The use of geometric shapes. In "Between the Lines" in particular, Lisboa uses repetition of geometric shapes such as circles and diamonds. I wanted to replicate this in my own piece, and used pictures of different colors and textures to do so. My shapes contrasted with his in that mine were made up of photos of different objects, whereas his are made up of solid colors.
- A combination of natural and unnatural elements. For example, in my piece, I used lots of plants, light bulbs, and shapes I found around the house, and placed them in a way that is very unnatural, as you wouldn't usually find them in the sky. Lisboa does similar things with his use of things like jellyfish or fire in space.
Differences May Include :
- The color palette. Lisboa's work shows pretty heavy contrast in his colors, using bright pops of color against more muted tones. In my own piece, most of the colors are somewhere in between the bright and muted colors, and don't have the same contrast.
- Manipulation of the subject. In Lisboa's work, he changes certain things about each of the subject, such as adding a third eye or making it look as though they are "made up" of some sort of galaxy. Instead, I opted to keep my photo that same as what I took, and only changed the colors.
Reflection :
This entire piece was a challenge for me from beginning to end. Though I've grown up with my mom being a professional photographer, it isn't something I've ever really gotten into on my own. I don't dislike the medium, but it was definitely not my favorite and something I had to get used to. I had to change a lot of the original plans I had made, but I think in doing so, I pushed myself to be a lot more creative with how I created different elements. For example, the circles I have in the piece were originally supposed to be hand drawn and the photographed and put in. Instead, I went outside and look for different things that had interesting colors and textures. Using these, I was able to create much more interesting shapes in the background than I would have having used solid colors of paper or something similar. Another challenge I faced was having to learn a completely different medium. I do a lot of digital art for myself, but I use the program Procreate, which is extremely different from Photoshop. I recognized a lot of things like tools and layer modes, but the ways they are used and formatted is a lot different from what I'm used to. I developed as an artist in this piece by proving to myself that I am able to overcome challenges in order to come out with the best outcome, even if my plan had originally seemed like it was going to work really well. This connects to my inspiration, as I used a lot of similar elements to Lisboa's pieces. I took inspiration from his surrealist and nature filled artwork to create something of my own that is similar. My favorite part of this piece was probably using different layer modes and the curves settings. I knew what all the layer modes meant already, so it gave me a sense of normal and I liked knowing what exactly would happen if I were to change something. As for the curves, I'm still not exactly sure how they work, but I really liked being able to change and mess around with the colors until it made the entire piece come together to look cohesive. If I hadn't added this, not of the photos would've gone together, and it would've just looked messy. Overall, I hope viewers see my art in a sentimental way, like growing up out of the day dreams you had when you were a little kid.
ACT Questions :
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
My inspiration for this piece was Marcel Lisboa, who used elements of surrealism and repetition of geometric shapes in his work. I tried my best to get the same effect using images of things I could find around the house.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Growing up can be greatly impacted by what you enjoyed as a child, whether it is art, books, movies, or so many other things. Oftentimes these aspects of your childhood carry over to your adulthood, even if it is in different forms.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I found more out about myself and how I used stories and books as an escape when I was young, and how doing that affected me as a person today.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
Creativity and imagination is something that you can see so clearly in young children. This "childhood bliss" changes and evolves as you get older, but it is always still there.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Using a contrast between natural and unnatural elements in a piece can make it more appealing and evoke more emotion to the viewer.
My inspiration for this piece was Marcel Lisboa, who used elements of surrealism and repetition of geometric shapes in his work. I tried my best to get the same effect using images of things I could find around the house.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Growing up can be greatly impacted by what you enjoyed as a child, whether it is art, books, movies, or so many other things. Oftentimes these aspects of your childhood carry over to your adulthood, even if it is in different forms.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I found more out about myself and how I used stories and books as an escape when I was young, and how doing that affected me as a person today.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
Creativity and imagination is something that you can see so clearly in young children. This "childhood bliss" changes and evolves as you get older, but it is always still there.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Using a contrast between natural and unnatural elements in a piece can make it more appealing and evoke more emotion to the viewer.
Citations (in MLA Format)
Lisboa, Marcel. Between the Lines, 2015. https://www.behance.net/gallery/30606467/Between-The-Lines
Lisboa, Marcel. Ritual, 2019. https://www.behance.net/gallery/77490733/Ritual
Lisboa, Marcel. Sleepwalking, 2019. https://www.behance.net/gallery/78768833/SleepwalkingLisboa, M. (2014). Marcel Lisboa on Behance. Behance. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://www.behance.net/marcellisboa/info.
Lisboa, Marcel. Ritual, 2019. https://www.behance.net/gallery/77490733/Ritual
Lisboa, Marcel. Sleepwalking, 2019. https://www.behance.net/gallery/78768833/SleepwalkingLisboa, M. (2014). Marcel Lisboa on Behance. Behance. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://www.behance.net/marcellisboa/info.