I have to say that doing these digital collages has become something of an addiction. The two fairy images were the inspiration for this new collage. The collage is made up of approximately 19 layers consisting of: a handpainted background, images, and a variety of photoshop brushes.



The initial background layer was a solid sheet of black. I followed this layer with a handpainted background I did on a stretched canvas. I usually photograph or scan in my backgrounds so that I can reuse them. This is the painted background that I started with.




The next 7 layers were made up of different photoshop brushes ranging from nature (plants) to techno (bursts). The full body fairy was the next layer followed by another layer consisting of photoshop brushes. The next layer was an ellipse I drew and filled with color onto which I applied another layer consisting of the upper torso of another fairy. The colored ellipse highlights the face of this fairy. After the fairy torso, was another 5 layers of photoshop brushes. The final layer was the text which I toned down by using a light grey.

I switched between black and white for the various brushes I used and I altered the opacity of some of the layers which ranged from 55% to 100%. I try to use "free for commercial use" photoshop brushes in the event that I would like to sell these pieces. Finally getting the layers the way I liked them, I flattened the image and saved it as a jpeg.