Making Collages

There are several kinds of collages available today on various media. Here is a brief overview of the different kinds and how they are typically made.

Paper Collage: One of the most popular and well known types of collage is made by gluing cut-outs and pictures from magazines, newspapers, and other flat paper media to a larger piece of paper to make one whole piece of art.

Decoupage: Decoupage is similar to a paper collage, except can often be made of fabric in addition to paper. Items are traditionally glued to objects such as a lamp, furniture, boxes, and more.

Scrapbooking Many people do not realize the hobby of scrapbooking is much like creating a collage. Scrapbooking is taking pictures and other decorative elements and arranging them on pages in a book. Typically a scrapbook has a theme, such as "Family Vacation Photos".

3 Dimensional Collage: The 3-D collage often includes small objects collected together on one media to form a larger pice of art. This can be done with rocks, trinkets, toys, fabrics, or other items.

Mosaics Typically a mosaic is made by adhering pieces of ceramic tile, glass, stone, or other hard surface materials to create either an abstract design or collective picture as a whole. Mosaics can also be done with paper or photos to create a larger image. [examples below]

Photo Collage: A photo collage focuses primarily on photos with little else besides a few descriptive words and the matte backing. Photo collages can also be made with a digital camera and computer with page layout or photo software.

Digital Media Collage: This is similiar to a paper collage, but without the glue and is done on a computer. A software program such as Adobe Photoshop, Pagemaker, Publisher, or Serif Draw can be used to combine digital pictures, graphics, clip art, and other computer generated material to create one piece of art. This is often referred to as Digital Scrapbooking.

Video Collage: This is a term for a collection of pictures or video clips arranged together to form one video. They are often voiced over or feature music playing over the scenes. [examples below]

Music Collage: Probably one of the least known types...yep - you guessed it - a mix of various song and sound clips to create one audio file. This is commonly referred to as a "medley" when featuring the same theme (such as a movie soundtrack) or artist.

While it's totally possible to use random clips or objects for youe collage, repeating one common element can help unify the materials in making the finished product.

The collage shown here is one of my collages. I chose black and white as the theme because i knew it would be hanging in my living room and would compliment our other furniture nicely.

Color schemes are just one example however. Different shapes, sizes, or objects can also make a theme. You can use a "life" theme such as new baby, wedding, sports, buttons, clothes, phrases, foods, etc.

The lampshade above I made uses a botanical garden theme.

Be creative! While some find a theme to be limiting, I find it more challenging and helps to make my creativity work a little harder, usually with awesome results.

The ease and availablity of the internet makes it a little less likely you'll be a starving artist if you decide to sell your art.

Online auction sites such as e-bay and ArtByUs (See below) allow you to put your artwork up for bid. Etsy is another site for crafters to post their items for sale.

Creating your own website can help you show off your portfolio and sell your art easily as well. Be sure to list it in networking groups and include the link on the botton of your emails and posts.

The old fashioned way of craft shows, trade shows, art fairs, flea markets and more can also help as well. Sometimes you may be required to rent a space for your artwork or share a percentage of profits with the host, so be sure to check into the details for local places near you.

A Note About Copyrights
If you are selling art, you need to be very careful not to infringe on the copyright of others. While you are free to use cut-outs of your favorite Disney character for your personal use, you are not able to sell it unfortunately. This goes for just about any media.