Clip Art Mosaic - Fun, Easy, and Creative!
By Jess, age 24, Massachusetts
Sweet Designs Staff Intern
Here's a simple and creative way to design a one-of-a-kind art piece about anything you choose, using your own abstract interpretations.
All it takes is a lazy day, a pair of scissors, and gel glue, or preferably a glue stick. The point of this project is to be as free with the image as possible, yet see the image for what it is and make it something of your own creation in a very abstract way. Every girl has old magazines laying around, and that's basically all this project takes.
Step 1
Round up all your old or unwanted magazines you would like to cut from. (Tip: If you don't have any old ones or ones you want to cut from, use the advertisements in the magazines for your pieces to cut from. This way you aren't losing any of the articles you want.)Step 2
Decide what image you want to portray. It could be anything from a person you know to a cartoon character, a beach scene to a famous musician or actor you admire. If none of these inspire you, then just go for an abstract theme of a color you like or a theme you are interested in, such as fashion or hockey.
Step 3
Lay out how big you would like your piece to be. It could be anywhere from a regular size piece of copier paper to as big as poster size, if you like. It also may depend on what the image is and how detailed you would like to be with it.Step 4
Envision the picture of what you are doing. Think about it in your mind in a way that's outside the box. Think about the colors associated with it. If you are doing a beach scene, think blues, tans, yellows, sand color, and greens. For each of the colors you've figured out, you'll want many shades and tones of each. Find different styles, textures, and patterns of each color. (Tip: If you are doing a face or have skin tones in your image, cut out the real skin colors from models in the magazine, real lips, eye colors, etc. If your person is wearing jeans, cut out clips of real denim. Doing the ocean? Cut out real clips of the sky or water.)
Step 5
Organize your clip art. Create piles for each point of interest in your picture. Example: If doing a beach scene, put all the clips of the blue you want for the sky and ocean in its own separate pile, with another pile for sand colors, and so on.Step 6
Start glueing! It doesn't have to be perfect; that's the point to remember! You are not replicating a photograph, making it look exactly like the subject. You are creating a different take on the picture through different textures, colors, and patterns. Think almost like a claymation type of artwork, or Tim Burton's odd, artistic, warped way of looking at things.Here is an Edward Scissorhands mosaic I created for a class. This piece is a good example to show what is meant by textures and color patterns. I clipped a lot of black leather, black textures, and belts and clips I found to mimic his outfit. For his "scissor hands" I clipped silvers and gray tones (different shades of each) to give the appearance of shadows and shining silver. For the scars on his face I used clips of zippers. His eyes are simple black cutouts, his lips simple red. His face is a flesh tone cut out from a model, and the rest you can see for yourself! You may look at the image and not see what I see, but that's the point! It's for your own visual interpretation, and everyone's will be different. Just be creative. It's an abstract piece, and there is no end to the possibilities! Just have fun with it!!
