Magazine Collage Commission 'Hogben-Smith Family'

This magazine collage was a lovely piece to work on. It is an A2 piece made entirely of ripped and cut magazines, on recycled board using non-toxic adhesives.

Magazine Collage Commission 'Hogben-Smith Family'

The composition was made up of several photographs, making the required changes to clothing and placement. I also had the added request of a rainbow!

Original Photographs

I always roughly sketch out before beginning to collage

Rough Sketch

There is quite a lot of detail in this piece so I was able to play with technique, using cut and ripped magazines to emulate the landscape and subject features.

I spend quite a lot of time adjusting the height of the figures as some of the images were old and didn't reflect the correct scale.

Detail from Commission 'Hogben-Smith Family'

I absolutely love the little girls colourful unicorn dress and so spent time making sure this was as accurate as possible.

Detail from Commission 'Hogben-Smith Family'

The beautiful caravan made a wonderful feature,

Detail from Commission 'Hogben-Smith Family'

I was quite liberal with my artistic license when working on the shelter as the exact details were a little difficult to make out.

Detail from Commission 'Hogben-Smith Family'

I love this ladies hair! I had to cut lots of tiny pieces of magazine in varying shades to capture the lovely curls.

Detail from Commission 'Hogben-Smith Family'

Did you spot the duck?

Detail from Commission 'Hogben-Smith Family'

I was asked to take lots of photographs during construction so that the family could see the way the piece was built up. I put them altogether in this video

The piece was framed by Alan at Roaring Tree using reclaimed weathered fencing to make this gorgeous frame.

Framed Commission 'Hogben-Smith Family'

Countryside Adventure Magazine Collage

This upcycled magazine collage 'Countryside Adventure' is a revisit of an early piece. It is based on an image of my nephew and daughter walking along the path to the local woodland.

Inspiration for Countryside Adventure

I first collaged this in 2010 when I was starting to develop my technique, this piece seems extremely crude to my eyes now but was an important stage in my development.

'Countryside Adventure' 2010

My Mum is the proud owner of the original and now new version of this. Until recently the first one was hung in the same room as 'Over the wall' and the striking contrast in technique made me want to recreate it in my current style.

'Over the wall' magazine collage 

When I resketched this out I decided to go with a portrait composition, filling in the rest of the path from memory. I want to illustrate the path to the woods and feeling of adventure.

Rough Sketch 'Countryside Adventure

I wanted to give the shadow more definition in the new piece

Detail from 'Countryside Adventure'

I also tried a new technique to create the grasses bordering the path, I'm using more and more cut magazines mixed in with the ripped than I did previously. Mixing the two methods gives me much more accuracy in depicting scenes.

Detail from 'Countryside Adventure'

I'm really pleased with the way my technique is developing and I am looking forward to further exploring the possibilities in this medium.

The new version of 'Countryside Adventure' has been added to my eco print range and I hope to add to my greetings cards designs before the end of the year.