Collage combines like materials to create paper or decorative arts and crafts. It's the predecessor to the current craze of 'found' arts and crafts which mixes spare bits and pieces in an eye-catching way. A little background: collage is from the french term collar which means to glue. Collage using mixed materials is referred to as 'assemblage'. Interesting historical fact - collage really took off an an artform with the artwork of Pablo Picasso.
Collage or assemblage requires no special tools or training. Want to get your arts or crafts feet wet in collage? Here are some fantastic free and relatively cheap resources:
1. Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine
While I have quite a few subscriptions, I love buying different arts and crafts related magazines at bookstores – especially when I’m traveling. A couple of months ago I purchased an issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. This one issue included the following – plus much more:
- A dummies guide to silk-screening
- Step-by-step instructions for burned glue and paper artwork
- Totally cool sculptures made from as the artist puts it – ‘junk’
- Another dummies guide – this time to making sun prints
2. Shape Collage
Shape Collage is a free online automatic photo collage maker. Given a big thumbs-up by MacWorld and PCWorld, it is free for personal use with no trial periods. If you try it and like it, the commercial version is available for $45.
3. Digital Collage and Painting
Authored by Susan Ruddick Bloom, Digital Collage and Painting, explains how to use Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter to digitally manipulate images. While the book assumes a working knowledge of these two software programs, there is no better excuse to get up to speed with them than the step-by-step guides in the collage chapters which show you how to create a diversity of images.
4. Collage Art.org
This website is your one-stop shop for all things collage from listings of exhibition opportunities to links to tools, supplies and technical information for collage artists. I highly recommend this website for the novice collage artist as it provides a good starting point to become more familiar with this art form.
5. Copyrights and Collages
This link takes you to a very interesting article which explains the legalities of using copyrighted images in your collage work. Spoiler alert - it's not ok unless the portion of the copyrighted material you are using is deminimis.6. Adobe Photoshop
Follow the above link to compare Adobe Photoshop versions and purchasing options. For some cool examples of what you can do with the software, check out these free Photoshop tutorials. These tutorials provide a great base image for your mixed media collage.
7. Corel Painter
Follow the above link to compare Corel Painter versions and purchasing options. Want to test drive it before purchasing? Corel offers a free fully functional 30 day trial of Painter 11 for either Macs or PCs.
