Create Fantastic Collages with These Five Tips

The beauty of collage art is that you will never run out of ideas. There is no limit to what you can create, and you can express yourself in a thousand different ways. Anyone can create a collage, if you have the ability to cut, glue, and arrange paper into some type of design.

But collage art can be so much more than just cutting and pasting. You can really create some unusual, unique, and impressive work that goes beyond the basics. Here are five awesome tips for creating your own fantastic collages.

Don't Cut : Tear

If you want your images to blend well, it's better to tear paper than to cut it. The paper's edges will flow into each other more fluidly, leaving less abrupt seams. You can try different tearing methods. Folding and tearing works better on straight edges. You need to be slow and careful with odd shapes and curves, but practicing before you try it on your real work will improve your results. You can also use the water technique on thinner collage papers. Dip a pin in water, and outline the shape you want to tear on your paper. Be careful with this tearing method, as you run a greater risk of ruining your paper and making it unusable.

Using the Right Adhesive

Sometimes, with collages, you need to do a bit of experimenting to know which type of adhesive works for different types of paper and other collage material. I mostly use Mod Podge, it holds well, and dries clear. But it doesn't work for everything, so I often try different glues, and experiment with using things like acrylic paint, gels or gesso as an adhesive.

Contrasting

Go for contrast as much as possible when layering your images in your collage. Contrast colors, light and dark, materials, textures, size. Contrasting will help you create visual interest just where you want it.

Collecting Images

Sometimes I will go through a stack of magazine with the intent of finding images or background patterns for my collages. But any type of paper can be used for collages, and shouldn't be overlooked. You can find images in books, old postcards, advertisements, junk mail, newspapers, travel brochures. Keep an eye out in antique shops, used book stores, thrift shops, and yard sales for sources of collage materials to add to your collection. The bigger your collection, the more ideas you can come up with, and be prepared for when you feel like creating art.

Be Unique

Try to go beyond what you see everyone else doing. Be different. Art that really stands out is often something that hasn't been done before. Try different techniques to come up with your own personal style. Try using different materials that no one has thought of in a collage. Use a different item for a collage base that hasn't been used before by anyone else. Not every idea will work out, but the process of trying new ideas can be fulfilling, and exciting when some new idea really works.