Howard Faxon
Finches In Paradise – digital collage – © 2017 – Howard Faxon
This is just a straight collage of pieces from my photography archives (photos taken by me). A House Finch sitting in my peach tree is the prominent element. It appears twice. One is wrong-way-reading and reduced in size. Do they say “wrong-way-reading” anymore? When I worked doing graphic arts for a small printer chemical photography was used to make the printing plates. If the negative’s emulsion layer was on the wrong side you got a mirror image instead of what you wanted. And, that was “wrong-way-reading”. They sure hated it if you wasted film that way; but, let’s get back to collage with computer …
May I say that the computer is the best, the most fantastic glue and scissors in the universe. The scissors part is actually using the “eraser”. It is a magic eraser that can cut a crisp or a fuzzy line. And your glue is unbelievably satisfying to use. It always sticks, never sets, … you can reposition it at will and shrink or enlarge it at the same time. This is pretty convenient for a sketchpad. I would encourage everyone to play around like this every once in a while. It’s big fat fun!
Description
This is a digital collage combining elements from my personal photographs (taken by me).
Neat tricks there. Awesome piece.
I am trying to work on a post of what I do with these. I’m trying to make a video. It is very easy to do and so much fun that I want to share it.
Thanks very much.
You are so good at this, and very inspiring. Makes me want to do more with my photos. Nice job here with all the layers.
Thanks Carol. With your garden you could make some amazing flower and plant medleys. I used to make paper collages so I drifted by nature to do this.
These plants all came from a small sidewalk garden on Balboa St. in SF’s Richmond district. Nave a great day!
This is magical indeed!
Thanks so much Ellie. It’s fun – I always liked collages from cutting up magazines. It’s much easier with a computer.
The concept is very innovative. The giant finch must have been taken from the perspective of a resident from Lilliput.
I often use an element twice like this – one big one smaller. These collages can look pretty flat and I find this helps combat the flatness. That finch was sitting in the top of a peach tree so I was shooting up at it.
Very nice images……like this piece
Thanks Pamela. Plants are easy to stack in some ways.
It sound magical . Great work.
Thanks so very much man!
Thanks to software sky is the limit provided ofcourse one knows how to optimise their use. You seem to know
Thank you so much!
As Alex notes in the comment below working in layers and having an “undo” button makes experimentation very rewarding. Jump in and try stuff is kind what I do. Eventually things start to work.
I love to experiment too specially in the kitchen (lol)
with multiple layers and an undo function, it is easy to do your best work
Oh yes, the “undo” – I do, I did, … love the undo. It makes experimentation painless.
The softwares were initially designed to work the way film worked, the way animators worked, the way printmaking worked. Thus I found a pad and pencil that is more fun than Candy Crush (whatever that is)
no clue what candy crush is, don’t ask me what the birds are angry about…
This is a really nice piece. Love the finches.
Thanks very much. !
Plants are easy in some ways to blend together in collages.
Such nice collage, birds, flowers and plants look amazing!!! Great artwork!!!
Thanks very much.
The plants are from a sidewalk garden on Balboa Street in San Francisco. My garden is not so photogenic. Nice to see you!!
What you achieve with your digital collages is magical. I love watching them.
Thank you very much — Cheers!
I like the piece.
Add 3 more finches, you have the 5 finches you meet in heaven!
Cheers. Is that a movie reference to “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”? I saw a trailer for it. I have not seen this one.
I highly recommend the movie! 🙂
Couldn’t help myself with that one.
As my son Luke likes to say “the dad humor is strong in that one.”