Into digital 'collage'

Having found a range of further practitioners using digital 'collage' as a creative and illustrative medium I have begun to develop some of my own work along these lines. Whilst the images are digitally assembled I have aimed to ensure that the majority of the texture and image resource comes from my own collected ephemera which has been scanned in together with textures and 'distressed' surfaces that I have recorded photographically. This digital approach is not as much fun as the hands built collage but does allow for considerations of textures and overlays. Equally I feel that it would be all to easy to overwork images and create too many conflicting layers and elements in building the image. For this reason I have tried to keep the number of layers and elements used in the compositions limited. My initial exploration of the medium is shown in the illustrations below.

Initially I was resistant to the digital approach to collage. However, in response to my research into the work of others' and contemporary approaches to producing work of this kind for publication and editorial purposes, I felt that it was important to investigate my own creative responses using this medium. I am pleased with the initial outcomes and what is clear to me, is that without my initial research and experimentation with hand built collage over the last year I would not have had the same self-critical awareness in respect of image building with digital processes; my understanding of space, balance and aesthetic apreciation has come from getting back to basics.

'There were days when it was important to be heard on the radio'

'Some are gone... '

in progress