How to Make Text and Image Collages

Thanks to Photoshop, reality is fluid and easily hacked. But before every desktop had the tools to digitally manipulate images, collage artists armed themselves with scissors and glue. Sure, that kind of paste-up is old school, yet it remains deeply satisfying to hack reality with carefully controlled scissors and your own sticky newsprint hands.

Things You'll Need

• Newspapers and magazines
• Scissors and/or precision blade
• Heavy paper or cardboard (for backing)
• Glue stick
• Pencil
• Pencil eraser

Instructions

1. Browse the newspapers, magazines, catalogs and junk mail flowing through your life. Collect elements that appeal to your sense of art, amusement or outrage.

2. Categorize these elements into themes. Photos of shelving plus long text blocks of random words? Catalog models and public figures all making the same hand gesture? Headlines and photos chronicling the scandal, disaster or pet peeve of your choice? Once you start looking for themes, you'll see them everywhere.

3. Spread your materials on a level surface in a well-lit, draft-free room. The area should be free of dust and pet hair and available for a day or two if necessary.

4. Forget any design plan. Lay elements on your backing, move them around, and see what pleases your sense of art or order.

5. To put a finer point on your message, tinker with your layout to enhance the theme you envisioned in Step 2.

6. Once your design is complete, trim individual pieces to make them fit better. Cut backgrounds out of photos and margins out of text blocks. Remove parts of images that are in the way. Snip excess words from headlines. As you reduce your details to their essence, keep an eye on how they fit into the whole.

7. Make light pencil marks on the backing to show where the first pieces will be glued. If you're overlaying one piece on another, mark the bottom piece to help you place the top one.

8. Start gluing things into place. Unless you have a photographic memory, preserve your layout by moving as few pieces as possible.

9. Prevent your collage from curling as it dries by putting it under something heavy. It won't stick if you were neat with your glue.

10. After your collage is dry, spray it lightly with a fixative or mount it under glass. Although glue has a surprisingly long life, these strategies will help your collage last many years longer.

Tips & Warnings

• Feel free to change your mind mid-design. Nothing is permanent until you glue it down.

• Glue sticks are preferable to liquid glue, because a near-solid adhesive is easier to control. To apply, lay your cutout piece face down on clean scrap paper and cover the back completely with glue. Always use a different section of the scrap paper and replace it frequently. Wash and dry your hands frequently, too.

• If you get dirty fingerprints on your collage, a light rub with a pencil eraser will remove most smudges.

• Photocopy your artwork to share with others. Copies of your finished collage can be re-colored or cut up and repositioned. The possibilities are endless.

• If you mix newsprint and glossy magazines, it's not always possible to get an accurate photocopy.

• If you have to leave your workspace, put your collage pieces back in their envelopes or weigh them down with a book. Accidents happen!

• Go easy on the fixative spray. It can soak through paper and make images on the reverse side more visible than you want them to be.