"Tropical Dream" Duo

Both of these photomontages began with a photo I took of brown paper on which I'd wiped some white gesso.

After I photographed the paper (which is the third photo in this set), I used it as the base of the physical collage you read about in my previous post -- "Bird-Watching in the West."

Because I'm a collage artist as well as a photomontageur (!), I can use and re-use these sorts of things with impunity.

©Carol Leigh, photomontageur extraordinaire who wishes she could speak French ...

Thought process behind "Planetary Shift"

When I begin making a photomontage, I usually have no map, design, or plan in mind. I'll often start laying down various textures or elements in my photo stash to see how they begin working with each other (or, more likely, fighting among themselves). Gradually something comes into view, a little "aha" moment that leads me on to something else.

Invariably I'll make a "mistake" that turns my piece another direction entirely and, for me, that's a huge part of the fun.

In this case, before I put the "planets" on, and the strings, I was thinking about the long, ragged "tear" I've got running the length of the image. I was thinking "fault zone," "rift," and "aerial view."

But the piece looked too empty. It needed some sort of focal point.

The concept of "aerial view" made me think of outer space and so I thought maybe I'd put a planet or a moon down toward the lower right. I used a piece of metal to create the round form. I drew the strings to sort of rein it in, to anchor it.

But where does the eye go from there? If there's nothing else in the piece (especially in a piece this tall), the planet is kind of lonely by itself and our eye tends to glance upward, see nothing, and then move back down to the moon/planet.

So I put two more round things in the upper left corner. I also drew some strings to hold them in place.

The strings make me think of orbits, maps, and movement. The smaller "moon" in the upper left makes me think of it orbiting the larger "planet" right next to it. Thus the name of the piece, which I call "Planetary Shift."

So what do I have now? I have a number of vertical background elements that encourage our eye to move up and down. I have the three moons/planets that catch our eye and that become focal points. Their shapes are the same but their sizes are different. Their patterns are similar, but different. Our eye recognizes patterns and shapes, so our eye now flickers diagonally from lower right to upper left.

By using strong vertical elements, I've created movement. By using strings, I've created movement. By using similar shapes in two different parts of the piece, I've created movement. My viewer's eye has places to go and things to see, and now you know why.

©Carol Leigh

P.S. If you'd like to see this image much larger, and if you'd like to see parts of it at 100% resolution, you can do so here at my art website: http://carol-leigh.artistwebsites.com/featured/planetary-shift-1-carol-leigh.html

What's It Made Of? "Eclipse"

This is a photomontage I created that makes me feel l'm looking at a Pacific Northwest headland that extends out into the ocean with a huge moon or planet or some sort of celestial object in the sky.

Here are the elements I used:

A photo I took of some metal embedded in a sidewalk in La Jolla creates the "headland." Weathered metal on the side of a fishing boat creates the little rolling waves on the "ocean." Up at the fishing boat docks, someone had spraypainted something white. The overspray looked to me like a glow or a halo, creating the "eclipse" look. And then finally, some trees I photographed at sunset in Humboldt County appear to be growing out of the top of the "headland."

My composition was originally a rectangle, but I decided to squarify it because it made the "planet" look bigger and just condensed everything into a tidier package.

I like the "ocean waves" at the bottom, which create an anchor or base for the picture. And I also like how the overspray and the texture of the dock come together to create a Milky Way effect in the "sky."

My purpose in showing you the components is not to teach you how to make a photomontage, but rather to show you my thought process, why I shoot the things I do when I'm out and about, and how I end up putting them together to create something completely new and completely different.

©Carol Leigh, encouraging you to look at your photography a little differently