newspaper collage

I came across this image on www.pbase.com. The work was credited to "Aunt Cathy." I think this is a really good example of the type of work we are doing right now on the self portrait newspaper collage. It is interesting to me that pictures can be represented in a very simple manner. In this case the picture is only based upon the form of each piece and the value. These two thing, although somewhat simple in concept, make a really great picture. Even though the concept is somewhat simple the procedure is not. It takes a lot of work. This type of work requires attention to detail. It is also really important to have a large range of values. The larger the range, the more three dimensional the image will look and consequently the more realistic. I especially like using newspaper for collage. You never really know exactly how it is going to turn out. Some times the words on the paper can really add a lot to the picture. I really like how the artist altered the direction of the words in the snow. It gives each piece a different direction of motion. However, the trees are all oriented vertical. This is a simple strategy that can be easily overlooked but it adds so much to the overall picture.