Donna B Miller

Torn Between Two Loves

I can be very fickle when it comes to creating collage, bouncing from traditional cut-and-paste techniques to digital art and back again.

What do I love about digital collage? 

• All of my materials are in one place. There's no fumbling around looking for that photo that should have been filed, but instead ended up in a box of old paints.
• It's neat. When I'm done, I simply close my Mac and walk away.
• It looks professional. My mistakes are easily covered. There are no miscut edges or ragged ink lines. You don't get to see how bad my handwriting can be.

But then, there's cut-and-paste.

• Getting messy can be fun. Give me a box of crayons or watercolors, and I revert to my childhood, creating with an abandon than I can never master digitally.
• An hour in a Dick Blick store is my idea of heaven. I admit it. I'm adicted to art supplies, especially to paper. Buying the materials is half the fun of creating traditionally.
• There's an authenticity about cut-and-paste work that is difficult to obtain in a digital environment. Digital textures and shadows, even professionally done, simply cannot match those created in a traditional manner.

Luckily, Marsha Jorgensen of Tumble Fish Studio creates collage materials for both types of art. As a member of her creative team, I get access to both her digital kits and her more traditional collage sheets.

For those doing traditional art, she has a new collage bundle just in time for your Halloween creations.

I used the bundle to create Three Witches, a Halloween triptych, for my fireplace mantle.

Materials: Tumble Fish Studio's amazing Fall Bundle from Deviant Scrap, a Creative Imaginations triptych, Zing glitter embossing powder, Sharp markers, and oil pastel crayons.

Wiping the glue from my fingers (seriously, forensics will never be able to find my fingerprints), I turned back to the computer to create this piece using Marsha's new It's Official kit. I'm calling it Dirty Rat. Apparently, I've been watching too many mysteries on Netflix about dirty cops.

Materials: It's Official kit by Tumble Fish Studio at Deviant Scrap.

The wonderful thing about being torn between my love for digital and traditional art is that I don't have to choose. There is room for both types of art in our world, and in my heart. The only decision I have to make is which one embrace each day. 

 

 

Which Comes First?

There are times when I start a collage piece, and the idea is fully formed in my mind. At other times, the piece seems to create itself. With this piece, using Tumble Fish Studio's brand new UNpredictable kit, I began my making the background. Then I tossed on the lady, and added a fish.  The work looked incomplete, so I went to a search engine and typed in "fish quotes." And even though I adore my husband, this quote was just too perfect to pass up.

Everything here is from the UNpredictable kit by Tumble Fish Studios at Deviant Scrap.

Feeling Creative Again

I guess even muses need summer vacations, because mine has definitely been out traveling this summer. Let just a little stress creep into my world, and creativity flies out the window. But school is starting, the trees are beginning to brown, and once again, I have the urge to pick up the computer and see where Photoshop leads me.

I have been dreaming lately, wild, exotic dreams full of strange imagery. I think that's what inspired this piece. If you looked inside my head right now, it might resemble this (that's a joke, I think.)

Everything here is from Midnight Reverie, with the kits from Tumble Fish Studios, Rucola Designs, Holliewood Studios, and the Deviant Scraps designer collab.