Digital collage is freedom—from the physical, from perfectionism, from time, and from tradition. It’s a rebellious, expressive, and deeply modern form of storytelling. Digital collage lets artists juxtapose different eras, geographies, and realities. A photo from childhood can meet a mythological beast from a museum archive.
Creating a digital art collage using Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator is a layered, creative process that combines photography, digital painting, and graphic design techniques. Here's a structured overview of how Devnenski typically goes about it, especially when he is using a mix of his own photos and royalty-free/copyright-free images:
Brainstorming & Moodboarding:
Devnenski defines the concept, theme, or emotional tone of the collage and uses a Photoshop to assemble a moodboard.
Story or Message:
A harmonious co-existence between the modern society and any other from mankind's past.
A mixture of modern and classic imagery, with a glimpse of vintage and retro, leaning towards pop-art.
Own Photography:
Original photographs are reviewed and selected for their relevance to the theme, composition, and quality.
Free Image Resources:
High-resolution, copyright-free images (from sites like Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay) are collected.
Organizing Assets:
Images are named, sorted, and often converted to high-res formats (e.g., TIFF, PNG).
Cleaning & Adjustments:
Basic edits include cropping, color correction, contrast, levels, and removing unwanted elements (using tools like Spot Healing, Clone Stamp).
Isolating Elements:
Subject cutouts using tools like the Pen Tool, Select Subject, or Layer Masks.
Non-destructive Editing:
Adjustment layers and Smart Objects help keep changes flexible.
Layering Elements:
Arranging images in layers. Foreground, background, and middle-ground components are established.
Blending Techniques:
Layer masks, gradient masks, and blend modes (Overlay, Multiply, Soft Light) has been used to integrate visuals.
Textures & Brushes:
Grunge, paper, or paint textures has been added, using custom brushes or overlays to create depth and cohesion.
Creating Shapes & Graphics:
Illustrator has been used for clean vector work like geometric shapes, lines, symbols, or stylized text.
Fine-Tuning Composition:
Spacing, positioning, and interaction between layers has been refined.
Color Grading:
Unified color grading using Gradient Maps, Color Lookup Tables (LUTs) and Selective Color has been applied.
Lighting & Atmosphere:
Digital lighting effects, shadows, and vignettes to enhance mood has been added.
Resolution Check:
All artwork are print-ready (300 DPI).
Export Formats:
Images are save as PSD (for future edits), and exported as high-res JPEG and TIFF files for sharing or printing.