Create a Collage Source Image for Painting

I’ve very recently joined Renee Mueller’s “Artist Collective”, and I’m learning so much already! I have only taken a few fine art classes over the years. So far, I’m incredibly intrigued with the idea of taking selfies, making still life’s and other ways to create a source image for a painting. Sure, I’ve used Google Images and my phone for years as a source, but approaching creating my own source imagery intentionally is turning out to be such a fun creative adventure.

Here is a fun way to create a source image! I was trying to do a pastel painting activity for class, but wound up spending the last hour creating my source image instead! I’ve done magazine collages here and there for years, but with the lessons I’m learning in the class, I see entirely new potential for those collages. This is a combo of something learned along with something I came up with! With art, it is always my motto to put my own spin on whatever I’m doing…so it is in my own style.

This method is similar to the digital layouts they do for magazines and print. Magazine images have a copyright, which is why you typically cannot use them in your art. However, when you use them as a source image and then infuse the artwork based on the image with your own ideas and style…magazine images can be such a wealth of creative inspiration!

print out of a magazine page from Vogue Summer 2024

Step One: Using your iPhone, zoom in on a magazine page and take a photo. Then print the image out with your printer.

Step Two: Grab a magazine, and find imagery that is all in the same color family. For me, that was the current Vogue magazine, and it had a lot of pages that had blue tones. So I tore out all the pages that were predominantly blue.

Collage with magazine pages from Vogue Summer 2024

Step Three: Lay the print out on your art table, then create a collage with the print out as the backdrop. Tear out bits of the magazine pages and arrange them into a pleasing composition, then glue everything down.

Step Four: Now use that collage as a source image for an artwork! It can be a work in any medium of your choice. Use it for color/texture inspiration, or use the idea as the basis for a painting or fabric collage. You could even get out some fabric paints and paint the image onto muslin or the back of a jacket or t shirt!

Follow my journey on Instagram to see the works I am doing that are inspired by this collage! http://www.instagram.com/art.kat.sews