Collage Experiments

Black Clouds SurroundI have always enjoyed collage illustration, and over the past year or two have been developing the style of my ‘random poems’, incorporating watercolour (simulated in Photoshop) with the collage, on a vintage paper base.

Here are a couple of recent experiments in pure illustration (that is, no dada-style or random poetry as I call it). The illustrations about different aspects of mental health are portfolio samples, the concepts for them developing and fermenting in my head as I leafed through magazines, cutting out likely photographs, amputating an arm here, a head there. They were very fun to assemble – there is often an element of humour in my work (black or otherwise), and so much potential for it in this kind of collage.

Don’t Be Who You Aren’tI am also experimenting further with more traditional pen and ink incorporated with collage. There are pros and cons to both traditional and digital illustration, but I enjoy the different freedoms of both.