Final Collage

Creating this collage was a process filled with trial and error, however, I am happy with my end product. I created a collage with a multitude of different images, as well as drawings and writing of mine, which I made sure to include. I think it most satisfies McCloud’s aesthetic portion of his definition. I intended to create a pleasing image filled with satisfactory colors and symmetrical images. I also believe that, especially in the cards and the two square images, they are very juxtaposed in their appearance. One side shows the fron of a card, while the other shows the back of a completely different card, from a completely different set of cards. I meant for this collage to include many things that can be seen to describe me as a person, and my hobbies and interests. I saw this collage as a sort of reflection of myself.

I attempted to use tactics discussed in John Lovett’s article many times. I used contrast of color, as well as size and direction. I made sure each image was sized to fit into certain spaces, which helped me utilize the collage to it’s entirety, and gave me a more spacious canvas. For the background, I used an original image on the left side, and contrasted the colors to create a more abstract looking image, which I then placed on the right side. I initially did this out of curiosity, however, I thought it belonged nicely within the collage. Each image I included in the collage has a special meaning to me in my life, whether big or small. I chose these specific images because I believe they are aesthetically pleasing, as well as representative of who I am. I also chose to include words in this collage, as I am a writer. I thought including words would make this look less clunky and would open it up to more interpretation. I didn’t include linguistics that were too straight forward in order to create ambiguity within the viewer. Although my collage is mostly in the visual mode, with all of the images and drawings included, I thought it was necessary to include linguistics.

This was one of the first times I had used Photoshop, and there were many struggles in the beginning. It took me awhile to figure out how each tool was used and how it could be used to it’s best ability, however, once I was able to put the pieces together, this project was much more enjoyable. I learned mostly how to make precise selections, as well as how to change the size, color, and opacity of each image to fit into the collage. The tools from the tutorial that were most helpful were the discussions on layers and layer masks. I had no idea what layers were, but after watching the tutorials, it helped me understand Photoshop a lot more. I did enjoy composing in this digital environment, however, I prefer physical more. I feel I have more tools and opportunities to create better art and colors digitally, yet I still enjoy drawing on paper more than a computer. With that being said, I did enjoy this project and I believe it will lead me to working and designing digitally more often.