Collage is not meant to be the finished work of art, it still has to be beautifully painted over.

Collage is a a way to build out a scene, out of objects that have more information than a sketch.

It is very difficult to do in a way that meets the artists vision, unless done on a computer, and projected onto the canvas.

As with all art rules are many to be broken, so is someone splurges on a 1,000 works of collage.

They are saying, look what wealth, what marvels, I could paint, if I wanted to.

Collage is great for when working with portraits, where capturing a person’s face is a matter of respect.

You start by learning a program like Krita, you make a canvas, and place you best portrait reference photo in the middle.

And then you go hunting for other photos that you can splice in, and here the collage does not need to be perfect at all – as you must paint over it.

Aside from proper shapes, whatever cutouts you add to your work, will upon some adjustments, provide color information.

If an artist chooses not to use a wall projector, and instead keep the work digital.

They will just add a new layer, and begin painting over, with color picking, at least at first.

Various adjustments and semi transparent layer, can push colors far and beyond the original reference snippets.

Collage is an incredible way to prepare for paintings and portraits, and if you take it easy, you can have several project going on at once.

Where you splice in various little bits you find on the internet across months and months, then as you get to the painting layer on top, you get to make everything fit and flow perfectly.

Collage is amazing, and digital collage lets you plan out all your colors, for weeks an months.

There may not be a more powerful way, to start a painting.

And there may not be a better way, to arrange breathtaking color reference from a thousand different places.

Collage, is power, the scaffold and foundation beneath the masterpiece.