TUTORIAL - Creating a Digital Collage | Summer School 2021: Week 2 ART CLASS

Welcome to our Summer School Series and this week our class focus is Mixed Media Arts!
This week it's all about Art Journaling + Mixed Media, Ephemera, older M3 products as well Brushes + Stamps - and having fun some fun with learning how to use them to create a digital collage.
Plus all of these are 30% off this week!​

Hi everyone, and welcome to Week 2 of our Summer School. This week we will be playing around with various mixed media and art journaling type products to create a digital collage (although you are not limited to using just these type of products, anything goes!). The collage itself can also be used for any type or style of layout, be it an mixed media, art journal, clean or pocket styled page. After you have gone through the tutorial there is also a fun challenge for you to do, using this technique and it can be found here ----> DIGITAL COLLAGE CHALLENGE

In the dictionary, a collage is described as "a piece of art that is made by sticking various materials such photographs, pieces of paper or fabric onto a backing." In this tutorial I will show you how you can make a quick and easy 'shaped' clipping mask to create your collage. Once you have made your digital collage you can then use it to create your layout in any style you wish.

A fun way to create a clipping mask is to use a silhouette of a shape, which effectively becomes our ‘backing’. Various pieces of ephemera, papers or anything else will then be clipped to this mask. The clipping mask shape can be of anything you like, a flower, a person’s face, an animal, a tree etc etc. The main thing to remember is that it needs have a clearly defined outline to it.

I chose a dolphin shape for my page, SECRET OF THE SEA and went for a dreamy and whimsical layout:

​

(Credits are in the gallery)


The following steps will take you through the process I used:-

1 Select appropriate silhouette (or photo):

To create a simple background/backing, I started with a simple shape of a dolphin which I downloaded for free from the Clipart Library (simply type in Silhouette in the search bar). Or you could use an element from a kit you already have, or a *photo if you like, but whatever you choose it needs to have a clearly defined outline so it forms a shape.

*If you choose to use a photo you will need to apply the Threshold filter to it (Photoshop), which is an Adjustment filter that converts a photo to pure black and white, removing all tonal detail - virtually creating a silhouette. So whatever shape you use, make sure that it has a clear outline all around it.


2 Creating section masks within your silhouette

This is the dolphin shape I will be using.



- Using a grey background layer, I first duplicated the dolphin layer and filled it with white (turning off the visibility for the black dolphin layer) - the white against a grey background just makes it easier to see the outline.
- I then used the polygonal lasso tool to draw sections within the dolphin silhouette and filled each section with black, each on a separate layer so they each become a clipping mask (as shown in the diagram below).



- Depending on your own preferences, you can either go with drawing large sections or smaller ones, totally up to you.
- Just remember to make sure that each section/clipping mask is on a different layer - having the section/clipping masks on separate layers enables you to clip various things to different sections as shown below.



- You don't have to be exact with your section drawings as you can fix them by adding or subtracting parts using a Layer Mask, or you can enlarge, merge or separate some of these sections when you get to the next step.


3 Creating the collage:

Now the fun part! This is where you go in search of various papers, ephemera or elements to clip to your various section clipping masks and remember, you do not need to use mix media styled products, any kit can be used, it just depends on the type of collage you want to make.

I normally open the paper in a separate tab in Photoshop and then just use the Marquee tool to select a part of the paper to copy and then in my main file I paste the selection above the section layer/mask I want the paper to clip to.



You can use whatever you like to clip to a section clipping mask, in the screen shot above, the dolphin's flipper comprises a little dress element and a stamp on top it, both clipped the shape/clipping mask below it. Pieces of paper have been clipped to the other section/clipping masks.

During this step you can refine your individual sections and either separate them to make them smaller or merge them to make the area larger. It all depends on what you are using to clip to them.

Just have fun and try out different things to clip to your masks like word arts, paints, stamps, elements, ephemera, papers etc.

Once you have your sections filled out, you can even go back and just place other bits and pieces on top some layers, not necessarily clipping them.

I added a pretty little flower to my dolphin to pretty her up.

Remember to keep saving your collage as you work!!



4 Finishing the collage

Once you have clipped everything you want to the various sections, you can go ahead and add some shadows if you like but you only want them to enhance your individual sections so keep them small.

After I had finished with creating my collage I went ahead and deleted the white dolphin layer so the black, original layer acted as my outline for the dolphin. You can always clip a contrasting colour to the whole shape to give you a different coloured outline if you like, and that is what I did with mine as I found the black to be a bit too bold, clipping a darker paper to the whole shape gave me a nice strong outline without it being too noticeable.

When you are happy with your collage go ahead and save it, either as a PSD or export it as a PNG file. As a PNG file you can then go ahead and use to create another layout with it, one which suits your own style of scrapping.

I kept my collage as PSD as I was going to create my layout in the same file. As I use Photoshop I moved all the collage layers into a folder so I could keep them all grouped together, and then worked on the background by blending some different papers together. (Please refer to the gallery for all of my credits.)

-------------------------------------------------------​

Before I go, I just wanted to add a couple more examples, just show you how you can get different effects, based on the types of items you use to clip to each section mask:

Never Give Up - using a variety of products from retired TLP designers Sissy Sparrows:

​

Be the Beacon - using a variety of products from Rachel Jefferies:

​

That's it! All done! I really hope that you give this technique a try. If you do please make something, be sure to pop into the DIGITAL COLLAGE CHALLENGE thread to post it so I can see it.

 

It looks like you are including the main shape, in your case the white dog, in every layer. The white layer of the dog is your base...... so on your white dog you draw your shape, fill it with black, then use CTRL+C to copy just that selection, then create a new layer and on that layer use CTRL+V to paste just that black bit on a different layer. So each of your black selection layers will be on separate layers by themselves, without the white dog shape on it. Did I explain that properly? lol! sorry. Please let me know if that makes sense.

 

@nfenchak

 

I need to head off to bed as it is 1.05am for me Downunder, so if you get stuck, please ask your question and I will answer it when I back tomorrow. Have fun guys! xxx