Classes begin on September 26th if you have never enrolled in an Open Studio class now is the time. Enjoy the expertise of many fine digital artists in a supportive and creative venue and learn how to create beautiful digital collage.

Instructor: Karen Bonaker
Skill Level: Beginner to Advanced
Class Length: Four Weeks, September 26th -October 23rd.
Software: Corel Painter 9.5 or higher

Enjoy a preview of digital collage.

geisha

The process of collage can be simplistic or extremely complex, but how it makes us feel is the most important part of this journey. Come along and enjoy this time together as we begin our Journey Called Collage!

Before class, begin organizing images, textures and patterns. Create a folder where all your images are organized and can be found quickly when needed. Organize meticulously from the beginning. During Week 4 we will work on our own personal journey, so be thinking about this project and the images you want to include. Consider subjects such as family members alive or deceased, pets or anything that has great meaning to you.

Collage the Concept:

Inspiration:

You never know when inspiration will hit you. For me it often strikes sometime around 1am in the morning! This is why I keep a note pad on my bed stand, because just as quick as inspiration comes..it can be gone just like that! Where ever it happens to take hold of you, it usually is the beginning of a wonderful journey.

Once the thought is planted, where do we go from there? Collage doesn’t just happen. It requires that we look at the total concept. How can we integrate images into the completed work that might enhance the that beginning concept. What additional imagery do we need and to visualize how it will all come together.

During the next four weeks, I will refer to assembled images as collages, keeping in mind that in the field of art, assembled images could mean many different things, in two and three dimensions. Also realize that our imagery will be digital in nature. I am granting you complete artistic license. If you feel that a scanned in bubble gum wrapper is what is needed to complete the image, then by all means use it! We will begin using basic concepts and continue later with more complex approaches.

Before you begin an exercise it is important to think through the intended project. What tools will you need? What photos, textures, and other imagery will be required? Keep notes! Sketch out your ideas. And most of all, what is it you want to say? Are you trying to evoke emotion or mood? Take digital photos of all kinds of things, from rocks to dirt, you will be amazed at the spectacular textures you can create from your digital photos. If you own a scanner begin scanning a creating files for the objects you will be using for the four week session.

Welcome, everyone, to the new Digital Art Academy. We’ve been hard at work for the past few months to improve the site for you all and make the experience a a lot richer and easier.

There are a ton of new features including:

1. Redesigned Interface
2. Global Gravatar support
3. Global “Sticky” Navigation
4. Personalized Student Menu with quick access links
5. Reorganization of the main site sections
6. New and improved course catalog
7. Tabbed course descriptions
8. Student Blogs – use this feature to share your work with other students
9. Image display resizing in case you forget to resize
10. Real buttons in forum topics
11. Multiple image attachments in class forums (max. 5 attachments per post)

Of course there’s more – navigate around and see if you can find everything. The site as a whole should be a lot easier to use.

As with any brand new site, you may run into a bug we didn’t catch during our private beta test. Please feel free to report those to us using the contact form (please do not put bug reports in the comments section, but do let us know what you think!). Also, don’t be surprised if things change from time to time as we continue to add enhancements. This giant first step is only that – the first step – in the continued growth at DAA.

With that – have fun exploring! Registration for Session 5 classes is officially open.

I’m just thrilled with some of the work being done in this class. The students are following the lesson instructions and then taking the steps well beyond the lesson. The final results are very gratifying and I think I’m having as much fun seeing what the students create as they are having in the creation. Here’s an example of some of the work being done. This scrap collage was created by Enny Jameson. Way to go Enny!

Never ending or beginning