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Writer's picturejessica moritz

how to create collage and improve your creativity

Updated: Mar 26, 2023

collage can be a great boost to your creativity and introduce so many ways to process an idea.

working with paper or two dimensional surface makes your eyes focus in composition or dynamic, but by working as collage, you can overlay, strip, use pattern, fill. Imagine you are in photoshop or illustrator but in real life.

One good thing about collage, you can use what you have, recycle paper, upcycle gift paper wrap, cut, extract packaging, you chose your materials without having to buy new ones.



About Materials for collage:

Paper, all kinds, all sizes

plastic wrap, gift wrap, receipts, packaging, it can also be textures, magazines, brochures, newspaper, books, catalog, ad from mail box, no limit

Tools for collage: exacto, scalpel, twizzors, scissors, glue stick, smudge lodge,cutting mat, pencil, rulers, compass.


creating analog collage, About style?

in Collage Art, there are different style, surrealist, figurative, abstract, surface pattern. you can find more sub style by looking the hashtag #collage on Instagram, can also be a starter for your inspiration.



In collage Art, you create your own rules and develop your own vision.

surrealist art can be so fun and inspiring, it will encourage you to use different scale, create new characters by interchanging their bodies, or placing them in unexpected locations.


Rhythm in the composition is game changing. Let's say you have 6 elements:

background of a location, very basic, 2 characters, and some smaller elements.

By placing them and playing with the different elements, you can create a completely different dynamic in the collage.

One composition will have a dramatic tone because characters will be hidden or covered (for example)

and One other composition will be funny by creating an illusion with the character becoming a super hero by adding a cape.


playing with your different cut outs before giving a definitive shape to your work.

take picture or why not film your process to document your work, and also be able to come back to the best composition.





how to organize the workspace when you do collage?


Lets say it's the first day you do collage, so you have a scalpel, some magazines, paper, maybe some painting and it's all over the place!

yes this is also part of the process but what if you need to work on something else, or also you want to make a pause?

organisation can help you to create and make a pause when necessary.

How ? storage! you can classify the different elements of your collage in envelopes, folders and keep them flat and protect them from wind, sticky hands or family running around.



it's always easier to work by serie, create a narrative around the work. It will encourage you to keep some rules and same direction and also help your audience to relate and connect with your universe.



Story telling can be from abstract to being very personal; keep in mind that you are the narrator and you can chose what to keep for you and what story to tell.


Collage Art is playful! mixing media, textures, patterns, colors, paper weaving, transparency, covering, everything is possible!



let's talk about abstract collage, you have difference surface of papers, different colors, sizes, textures, etc

you can start by working in a grid and create geometric shapes to compose simple shapes and play a little place them and then paste them.

you can also mix with catalog or magazines images and create a great contrast by a solid color block.

Again, you can create your own style, and develop your creativity with what materials you have available.


We are in a period of our life that we consume a lot of images, digital or analog.

the covid situation, being in lockdown, we can create some art made from these images, and invent a new landscape inside, everyday.







Now sharing with you a sketchbook project based on collage i started, based on geometry and text based inspiration.





After i started to create some geometric collages, mixing color block, playing with papers, drawing and creating layers, I started to see the shapes becoming a 3D shape and started to create new ones as they could become a collage in 3 dimensions.






i hope this blog post about analog collage will help you create a new body of work and escape the pandemic pressure;


happy to read your creative initiative and talk about art process, comment or write me moritz.jessica@gmail.com



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