Creating Digital Collage Art: Collecting Materials
And keeping the digital piles organized.
Today I want to talk about two different things that can really help you with your digital collage work if you are just getting started and/or getting overwhelmed with the chaos of photos on your phone.
Collecting digital collage materials
Keeping your materials organized
COLLECTING MATERIALS
It’s important to have a variety of digital materials on hand and easy accessible if you want to create digital art on the go- which is the beauty of doing digital art work. The easiest way to do this is to always be shooting images for your work. Not only items that might be your subject, but also other elements that you can use in your compositions. We’ll talk more about what those are in a minute.
Whenever I’m traveling I try to always build in time, especially if I’m in a city, to spend a little time grabbing images for my digital work. Yesterday I flew home from Anchorage and spent three hours in the morning before my flight just cruising the downtown, alleyways and streets looking for things I thought I could use in my work.
Here are just a few of the 300+ images I collected to give you an idea of what I’m talking about:
A couple of points here:
Consider taking images of the same thing in multiple orientations so that you have more options when working with it later. I usually work in landscape orientation, but not always, so I like to shoot some things in both orientations.
When shooting up, leave a little space around your subject so that you have enough room to fix the geometry later (sometimes I fix it, sometimes I don’t- it just depends on what I’m using it for). If you shoot your subject too tightly, you won’t be able to correct the geometry later without losing a portion of your subject.
You don’t need to shoot technically correct photos. Most of these I took out of the car window with my phone handheld. Digital collage work is very forgiving. You can make adjustments later. Just get the photo. After all, you’re about to go nuts with layering and tearing the image up anyway:)
I don’t just collect these images when I’m traveling or making a point to go out and shoot images like this. I am always shooting images like this. Sitting in a restaurant? I’m likely shooting the texture of the table, overhead lights, text off the menu, any shadows I can find, wall decor details, etc… Visiting a friends house? Grab a few detail or texture photos.
Maybe people think I’m weird, but mostly they just seem to be curious about the why. Some of my friends will text me images now “Hey, the shitty peeling paint on this falling down building seemed like something you would like”. Hell yes I’ll use it.
Other places you can get images:
Shoot photos of old magazines & newspapers. I already collect these for my analog collage work and I like that I can use them for both.
Look around your own house. Textures are everywhere! Trying shooting them in macro mode on your phone. They become unrecognizable and useful.
Nature. Nature has the best textures. Again, macro mode is your friend.
Anywhere you are that you have to ‘wait’ for something. Spend the time collecting new materials. Oil change shops often have good fonts in their signage, the grocery store has ridiculously colored items near the checkout, the dentist’s office has terrible art that shot in macro gives good textures, etc… Once you start looking for them, you’ll find things everywhere.
KEEPING MATERIALS ORGANIZED
Now that you have a million elemental photos, it will make your work easier if you can keep them organized. I know this is really basic, but it is a game-changer when you can easily get to the elements that you want to try. I try dozens of different things in each composition, many of which don’t work. If I had to scroll through 3000+ photos to find ‘the one perfect shadow image’ that I know I took last year, it would take forever and I would probably scroll right on past it.
Albums are your friend.
I work on an iPhone so I don’t know what the options are with Android phones but I am sure there is some version of this that you can implement- folders, albums, whatever they might call it. Just do a little googling on your phone model to find out.
First, come up with a few categories so that you can easily sort things in a way that makes sense for you. I’ll tell you my categories, but these won’t make sense for everyone. Do whatever you want that will work for your brain.
I shoot elements for my work with these categories in mind. Basically, these are the things that I’m always looking for:
Lights. This doesn’t need to BE a light necessarily. It could be an image of something dark with a small shape of light color that I can use to shift the light in an image when I layer it in. Often, images in this category do have lights, lamps, string lights, sun, etc…
Textures. Everything you encounter in life has a texture. Layering textures into your work gives it depth and richness. It keeps your work from looking too flat. You can never have too many textures in your collection. Sometimes I collect textures that are too sharp for my purposes and then I go layer a few other things in to blur them up a bit and then save that image too as a new texture to be used.
Elements. I like to add in little elements and there are certain things that I collect a lot of. Yours will be different than mine but these are things I’m always on the lookout for: leaves, water towers, street lamps (old ones!), anything with good graphic lines, power line towers, doors, windows with broken glass, etc…
Text. Look for good fonts wherever you go. I also include graffiti text. Magazines, junk mail, newspapers, shop fronts, etc. Text is everywhere. Take those photos!
Shadows. I use a lot of shadows in my work and am always on the lookout for new & interesting shadows. Things like fences & curtains make great shadows. Look around your house at different times of the day to capture different shadows in the same place. I live in the woods and the tree shadows on the wood floor is constantly changing. I never stop taking photos of these shadows.
Color. Shoot the colors you’re drawn to or that will make good contrast with the colors you’re drawn to. I tend to shoot all colors. Faded buildings, old magazines, fruit. Color is everywhere.
Subjects. I try to find things that might make for a good subject in my art. These are a little harder to find so when I do find them, I like to separate them out so they are easy for me to find later.
CREATING ALBUMS- SIMPLE STEPS
Here is how you create albums with an iPhone:
Go to the ‘Albums’ page and click the + button:
Give it a custom name:
Then select the photos you want to add to that album (you can always add more photos later):
Boom. You’re done. You’re o.r.g.a.n.i.z.e.d. Doesn’t that feel great?
I have albums set up for these categories:
I also create albums for some projects so that the source materials are all in once place. I also have an album to save all of my final compositions in so that I can easily find them when I need them:
To reiterate why organizing is important, for this image I used 10 source images:
They came from all of my different albums. It took me about 2 hours to put this collage together but it would have taken a lot longer if I didn’t have things organized and a way to easily find what I was looking for.
A couple of final notes on organizing:
You don’t have to immediately put photos into your albums. I will do it after a big collecting session, like yesterday while I was waiting around at the airport after collecting images in Anchorage. Otherwise, I try to go in around the 1st of the month and sort any images into their element albums.
You can put the same photo into multiple albums. I often know exactly what image I’m looking for but I might not remember exactly how I categorized it. If something has multiple cool elements to it, then I will often put it into multiple categories. For instance, the ‘CAFE’ image above is in both my Text & TextureColor albums.
Once in a while you DO need to clean things out. A week ago I pulled all of the images off of my phone and then re-imported just a few basics in my collecting categories to get me started. But basically I’m starting fresh. Which is fun! Your phone will fill up quickly and if you’re like me and save 20 or more iterations of each composition, then they build up fast. Give yourself a fresh start occasionally but clearing the old stuff off of your phone.
Ok, I hope that was helpful for anyone that is just getting started or wanting to find a way to keep organized. If you have other methods or tips- please leave them in the comments. I’m always looking to improve my methods too!
I love digital collage!
I absolutely love this! I create moodboards/storyboards for my writing projects (instead of outlines) and your article is very very helpful 👍