Composing pictures
Work from the previous exercise ‘Cut ups’ but instead generate your own images and visual material, either by drawing, photography or design.
Cut out coloured shapes.
5-10 images of people, super heroes or characters.
5-10 landscapes.
Random visual elements ie. bus, flowers, table etc.
Photocopy these at different scales and sizes.
Cut them out individually so you have lots to work with.
Work on an A3 size paper or card, create 10 composite images, fantastical, representational, singular, or a story.
I started this exercise by finding some pictures of the different categories from above, I found some plain coloured paper and cut out the shapes to begin with. I then went on to find some people, some from real life, some TV characters and some famous people. Then onto the objects, I found a VW camper van, an apple, a bunch of flowers, a table, a vase, a sculpture (bust), a bat made up of mince meat and a egg!! and a folly building, and some dice that look like cherry!!
I started to cut all these out, but I must admit I did find this the most tedious part of the exercise, it did take quite a long time to cut out with both scissors and a craft knife all the different elements, especially as there was also the enlarged copies and the smaller copies to cut too!
Once all the elements were cut out completely I started to arrange then on the backing landscapes, I did find the exercise brief a little unclear in what direction it wanted us to go? Although it said they could be Satirical, political, comical, horrific or Polemical, I felt it was slightly unclear of what to achieve, but I went with the slightly comical and fantastical route, I felt this worked best with the people, objects and backgrounds I had chosen.
I expected this exercise to be fun and creative, but I did find it again difficult to structure in the plain coloured shapes, as they didn’t really sit well with my images, I did my best incorporating a few, but I didn’t use the whole lot, and mostly used the circles and squares.
The first collage I created was this one:-
Again I had trouble creating an A3 sized image, due to my printer not being able to print that size, so I stuck with A4, but also used smaller background images, which I thought worked well with some of the collages.
This background picture was actually A5 in size, so the apple is quite small, here is where the plain shapes didn’t quite work as planned, I was trying to create a sun feel.
This background picture was even smaller A6 in size, but this helped the larger elements stand out more, like the table and vase.
This background image was A4 in size, and a fantasy style theme, I feel the sunset worked better here, and using the mince meat and egg bat made the design more comical, I think the table with the jelly gold fish works well, I’m not sure about the girl or the scene through the cliff?! I feel as though they are gradually getting better though.
This one is smaller again A5 in size, I went for a simple option this time to see if I could get a atmospheric effect with little collage.
I kept down the simple route for this one too, again on a A5 sized background image. I think the difference in style between Goofie and the architecture is a nice contrast, add to that the jelly goldfish again, makes it comical.
This is another one where the plain shapes didn’t quite hit the mark! I originally had the lady on the pink square on the pavement in the foreground, but chose on the last minute to have her floating in the pool, but it didn’t quite work. Luckily the dice cherries worked really well. I think if I could find an image of a float or boat for the lady to stand on would have worked better.
his collage was A4 in size, and I like this one quite a lot. I like the boy jumping over the fruit and the lady standing there rolling her eyes, makes the image funny. The camper van in the foreground I’m not sure if this adds much, but thought the eclectic mix work well. Maybe having the lady a lot smaller in size would have made it more funny, the two people are similar in size.
I found this image quite poignant and atmospheric, in this collage I feel the plain circle worked better, I think it helped having a similar colour in the background image, so it tied it together better. This one to me tells a story, of maybe the man going to visit his wife grave, where he buried her in the countryside with the lovely views.
This is the only collage that I thought didn’t work at all, I can’t think of a story to go with it, it’s not funny or comical, or a fantasy. I think the vase of flowers should have been stuck just slightly more forward, so it was lined in conjunction with the shadow on the floor, I think it would then embed more into the picture. The guy coming down the steps is slightly oversized but not enough to make it odd. And the folly building in the bottom left corner, doesn’t really say a lot or is noticed much in the composition. This collage needs some more thought to get it right.
This design I tried to make quite different and fantastical, I’m not sure it works, but I do like it, its a bit funny and a bit weird!
You could make a really funny story out of it.
This design is my favourite, it just makes me laugh purely because of the little girls expression! I think the colours really work here, the oversized camper van on the mountain, and the natural stone of the folly, against the pastel colours of the moon and mountains really makes it come together. I think having the girl quite oversized and in black and white also makes the image funny and comical.
Reflection
What went well?
I enjoyed putting together the collages, and working out how to make stories or things funny, comical or fantastical. I really like some of the designs, some need more work, and some need a total re-think, but overall after the cutting out hours, I did enjoy this exercise.
It has made me think more about images on the own and how they can work with each other in different ways, sizes, colours, backgrounds and feelings behind them.
It’s a great way to improve your imagination skills, layering skills and story boarding skills.
What would you do different?
I think I might have tried one of the other options instead of the collages, like the drawing option, the cutting out was really tedious!
I think it would have been better to plan out the images and backgrounds first, but having spent so long cutting out, I was running out of time to complete the exercise.
Although having less time on some of the collages gave a more immediate effect and reaction, that I feel wouldn’t have worked if I had spent longer thinking about them.
After this exercise I must admit I am not keen on collage any more, I find it too time consuming and doesn’t give the same feeling I get with drawing and painting. I guess collage is just not for me, but it was interesting having a go and coming up with more final pictures and designs.
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