October 8, 2013

This is another aside of sorts. 

At one time I was excited by the work of Robert Rauschenberg and was a big fan of the combine paintings and silkscreen paintings.  I was thinking about his later lithographs, of which there were many, and how they were essentially collages of photo images made into prints and were, to my mind, less interesting than the combine works.  Since I have been using more photo images in these digital collages and wondering about the efficacy of doing so,  I decided to try to imitate his style digitally. 

One of my other favorite collage artists was another American, William Dole, who made exquisite collages from snippets of text from old documents glued to watercolored grounds.  I also wondered if I would be able to imitate his work digitally.

Here then are two large Rauschenberg-ish collage/prints (22 X 32”) and two small Dole-ish collages (8.5 X 11”).  The Rauschenberg imitations were both made in an afternoon.  I first painted an underlay and then collaged photo images over top.  I did not bother to soften the edges of the photos or anything but just tried to integrate the photos into a workable composition.  I left these for a while as it was just an experiment but when I did finally print the first of these (Miss NASA), it printed beautifully.  The digital underpainting printed as if the entire image had been rendered in watercolor – the effect printed is quite striking.

Digital Collage #89 Miss NASA

Digital Collage #90 Orbit

Digital Collage #99 Love Feast

Digital Collage #103 Alexandria

The Dole-style collages took longer even though smaller because I had to find and snip out a lot of small bits of text from various sources.  I took a few liberties with the second of the two.

September 25, 2013

These are a series of collages produced from digital materials downloaded from the net and are, in a sense, the first real digital collages I’ve made that mirror the type of handmade collages I made from found materials.  I have been collecting a large archive of downloaded materials and still have a couple of hundred images still sitting in my downloads file.

It wasn’t difficult finding old paper or brown paper – the type of papers I always liked to use as background materials.  Images vary of course and are taken from a variety of sources.   I’m fond of half-tones and use them in various ways here.  Again, I have to type in words to find the materials.  These collages also make use of digital brushes that I was able to find.  Some creators of the brushes have asked to be credited which I would be happy to do except that I haven’t been keeping track of downloads and noticed only later that some creators have asked to be credited.  If anyone objects to my using any of their brushes or other materials, I am prepared to remove pieces from the collage or give credit.

I, of course, hope to print and possibly sell most of the collages I produce although am becoming more aware of the problems involved in using and crediting other’s materials.  I think of collage as using ‘detritus’ as subject matter so don’t actually want to use other people’s personal or artistic creations.  I don’t mind the idea of some collages merely existing online only and am thinking more about a site where there could and would be free collaboration on digital collaging with shared materials and brushes.  I will introduce the Bric-0-browser that Faham has developed when its ready and hope to provide it to other users who might be interested in dynamic collages that change as the sources change. 

Most of these files are large and will print out at 24 X 32”.  A couple of them are medium sized and I’m now finding that I create small, medium and large collages based on the size of materials downloaded.

While most collages are cut and paste (and I’m now thinking they may be too grid –like as a consequence of so many square or rectangular selections), there is some use of cloning brushes again and, as mentioned, stamps or brushes.  I had just finished "Achilles" ironically when my left retina detached and I had to go to the eye clinic.

DigitalCollage#83 RZ

DigitalCollage#84

DigitalCollage#85 Oracle

DigitalCollage#86

DigitalCollage#87 Locust

DigitalCollage#88 Crux

DigitalCollage#91 20/20

DigitalCollage#94 Pyrates

DigitalCollage#95

DigitalCollage#96 Achilles

September 13, 2013

I’ve started an archive of digital downloads of the type of materials I would use to make handmade collages – old papers, documents, illustrations, typographical elements etc.  I’ve managed to download quite a lot of stuff so far.  

Digital Collage #61 The Beagle

Digital Collage #62 I Am a Man

These are the first two collages I’ve made with purely digital materials.  The files are large and print at 32 X 24”.  I’ve discovered, as I’ve been making collages from digital downloads, that I don’t like the look of materials that have been enlarged beyond their resolution as they produce a vague ‘photographic’ effect.  I like the highest resolution possible for prints and like the textures to be as literal as possible.  I’m now making small collages, roughly the size of handmade collages (book page size), printed on 8.5 X 11” paper; medium size collages which print on 17” wide paper; and larger 32 X 24” prints.  The size of the digital downloads determine the size of the collage in which they’ll be used.  I’m looking forward to creating and printing really large collages on 44” wide paper.

More Google Collages

I apologize to my few readers - I had intended to catch up on the blog and improvements this summer but suffered a detached retina and had to have surgery.  I've been recovering over the summer but I've been unable to do much on the computer.  Anyone who is actually following the blog, I thank you for your interest and hope you'll return now that I'm posting regularly again (I hope).

These collages are more Photoshop lessons.  I was thinking more about having to type in words in order to get images and materials for collage so was trying to think of words that were less specific such as generic, detritus, commodity etc.  I was also continuing to ask myself why I am attracted to certain kinds of materials or have certain kinds of "affectations".  While I like the idea of collage art made from cultural detritus and am interested in its connections to human memory, I wonder if it always has to be about "old" stuff.  I am currently collecting a lot of "old" stuff in my archive - mostly old paper and documents and old images of various kinds.  Do I need to be more contemporary in my ideas and activities in collage?  I thought about the Pop artists who were contemporary in their day (Eduardo Paolozzi and the English Pop collage sensibilities as well as the American artists) and thought about trying something in that vein.  Again, the work relies heavily on downloaded photographic images that have been manipulated with PS effects.

I've also added one of the still-lifes I was composing at the same time.  Again, I think of these as experiments or lessons and, as much as I admire Pop art, don't see myself really heading in this direction.

Digital Collage #63  Generic #1

Digital Collage #64 Generic #2

Digital Collage #68  Commodity 

Digital Collage #74 Still-life

Digiral Collage #82

These are more Photoshop exercises learning to use cloner brushes.  I do consider these as lessons and not how I see my work and interests in digital collage developing.   They are small files, made from small jpegs found in quick Google searches so I think of them as ‘Google Doodles’.   I didn’t realize that Aryan had disabled the cloner brushes he had installed for the lesson and I ended up having to use just the circle clone tool and created the collages using my finger on the pad on my MacBook.

While I’m not taking the images here seriously, I really like the cloning process and will use it more in digital collage making in future.  I especially like the combination of cloned images and mixer brushes which paint into the images using and smearing together their own colors.

 They are significant to me as lessons but also bring up a couple of things I’ve been noticing while learning to make collages from materials found online only.  I’m aware, first, of having to type in a word in order to get an image – a process significantly different from choosing materials for handmade collages (sort of).  Secondly, most of the images that appear in a Google search are photographs – something that never interested me much as a material for handmade collages.  Where I have used photographic images before, I was more interested in how the image was printed (halftones etc.) on cheap paper than an image on photographic paper.  I’m currently compiling a large archive of materials for collage that I have downloaded from the web and have been looking more for the type of materials I would use in handmade collage – old stained papers, ‘printed’ images etc.  More on this later.

I’ve noticed that when you do type in a word or phrase you’ll find images relating to your request to some degree but always a ton of cultural schlock.   Even if you type in “war” you are still likely to receive images of Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga.  I’m not sure yet what to think of that enormous layer of cultural poop that essentially surrounds the entirely of the internet.  I hope I’m learning ways to cut through it in my searches for ‘interesting’ (???) digital cultural detritus.  The opposite end of the spectrum seems to be schlocky ‘vintage’ stuff for collage.

Anyway, these are a few of the Google Doodles.  As you’ll notice I typed in words or phrases such as ‘War’ (Clonecollage 11); ‘Cities at Night” and ‘Cities from Space’ (Clonecollage 10 & 13).  I think for Clonecollage 12 I just typed in ‘miscellaneous’.

Clonecollage #10

Clonecollage #11

Clonecollage #12

Clonecollage #13

Clonecollage #14

Clonecollage #15

Clonecollage #16

Clonecollage #21