(3.1) Digital Collage

These images are sourced from google images for educational purposes only.

     I wanted to explore the idea of a happy place and how everyone has their own place where they feel safe and able to relax. Usually, it's not their mind but this piece explores the idea of a happy place being more introspective. The floating island is the physical outer being and the lush green land is the path to inner being and peace. I think I was thinking about this idea mainly because I've been sick for the past week and it has been hard to feel at peace.
     While creating this piece, I really learned a lot about photoshop. I even took a couple of online classes, which in the end had nothing to do with this experimentation, but could take this piece further into the realm of digital drawing and painting. The most helpful thing for me was a book by Adobe called Adobe Creative Suite Photoshop CS3 Classroom in a Book, and Lynda's classes on the fundamentals of Photoshop. It is completely outdated, but the tools I used were basic and still the same from CS3--I used an old trial version of Photoshop. One thing I would like to learn/ improve on is removing the white space on an image to make it more cohesive. Right now I think the floating tree is ruining the illusion that I was trying to achieve. Overall though, this was a successful attempt for me.
     This lesson of collaging together images they deal with in their daily lives to create an idea is a great way to get children, and even adults to think more analytically and conceptually. After having a class focused on a digital collage, they can then convert those collages to digital paintings. If your classroom has iPads or some sort of tablet, then it can easily be done. It can also be translated into a traditional drawing, depending on budget. I have recently discovered an app called Astropad. This app is a great alternative for those who have photoshop but can't afford one of those giant drawing tablets (Wacom). It cost $30 and projects your desktop screen onto your iPad. There is quite some lag, but the at $30 v. almost $4000, it's a steal.

Below is my only previous attempt at digital collage and drawing. Itt was used as a mockup to create a physical piece not pictured here. I'm sure everyone is sick of seeing it by now but it's cool to archive my differet ways of working (and it mght honestly be my favorite creation ever). It was a lot easier working with a flat image so this experience was challenging to say the least.

Also my banner image