Today I'll be sharing some tips for collage-making. I'm not a pro or anything, just here to share some of the lessons I learned (the hard way) while making picture collages of my friends and I.
(I know it's not the best example, but here's the one I made most recently)
1. You can't use one type of glue for everything.
Yes, clueless as I was, I so naïvely thought I could use that almighty UHU glue for everything, bearing in my mind the thought that I "just gotta make 'em stick together!" Bad way of thinking.
UHU is strong, yes. But it maybe a tad too strong for film and paper. It can MELT or PENETRATE horrifically through stuff that is not thicker than cardboard. Be especially careful with recycled paper because it is very fragile (you can rip it off just the way it is with your bare fingers). Use stick glues instead for super thin paper. I usually use double-sided tape for paper and photos because it is fast, secure, and usually leaves room for slipping in other pictures under corners. Use a glue gun or UHU for bigger, 3D decorations like flowers, leaves, and bows.
Don't even get me started on how many times I dumped my head into my pillow when I misplaced something or accidentally dropped a fully-UHU-glued whatever on top of the collage.
2. We don't want to see your greasy trademark all over those pictures.
Your fingers make the work, but they can ruin it all the same.
Fingers are naturally oily - can't do much about that. But you can reduce the amount of fingerprints left on your pictures. I left hideous stripes all over my friends' faces the first time I tried making a collage. And my fingers had just been hard at work dealing with glue. Yes, I wiped them like the clueless rookie I was (and still am) with toilet tissue -_- Needless to say, it was not super effective.
If you're working with paper, good for you. Bring out those greasy little fingers. You're working with film? Take care. Consider working with paws. Make sure your fingers aren't super oily or wet because film eternalizes your identity. We get that you want to watermark your work, but there are certainly better places to display them than your loved ones' faces. Plus it just makes your work look downright sloppy. Not-so-nice.
3. Be patient
Collage-making (or any form of art, really) is not for the impatient. Obviously I'm not one to talk, because this being included here was based on mistakes caused by my own hastiness. Ha. （￣ー￣）
When making collages you have to plan your every move. It's like military planning those generals do before heading to war. Take a wrong step (e.g. hastily paste a picture that wasn't supposed to be overlapped at all first), and you've got yourself a flaw. Flaws range from minor ones like the failure to paste the picture at the perfect angle to the majorly-disturbing unintentional covering of someone's face (ouch). The most religious of perfectionists may never recover from the damage.
アリシア
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