I love making digital collages and art in Photoshop. I feel it is one exercise in creating in graphic design where I’m not as controlled. My overall design sense is pretty controlled layout and type-wise. When I take a photo, I am also very controlled in how I take it. I usually play by the rule of thirds rule. It is very hard to break away from thinking so structured when your mind just goes there.

That’s why I love making these little “explorations” as I call it. It takes me anywhere from 5 minutes to 30, but basically, I layer several images on top of each other in Photoshop, then choose different layer styles (whichever one looks best to my eye) as well as airbrush and erase areas as needed.

Here’s one where I merged these two photos from my Flickr stream…Shoes and More and Me N Ed’s and Sparkles in the Grass.

As you can see, I added in additional orange and red coloration, but a lot of it was just the layers saturating over top of each other. I think it turned out to be cool graphic art. I would totally make frame this. It makes a bold statement.

Here’s another one I did where I merged Silvia and Joshua take on the Fun House, aluminum christmas tree color wheel light, and SSSSSSSSSSSSSS. I think it turned out pretty cool too.

As you prob. can tell, I gravitate towards the brights and saturated colors. I can’t help it, I just do.

Here’s one I did last year that was a little more subtle and probably a little more thought provoking.

I find that creating these little works is a very satisfying process. I always complete a finished project that I’m happy with. I can’t always say that about some of the crafts or graphic design projects I’ve worked on.

Off to bed!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa