The collage shown above is a painting that I did of my Dad, Maurice Sutton, who sadly passed away in 1988 when I moved to America. This was the first painting I had done of my Dad since he died and the process of creating it turned into a very emotional journey for me.

The creative process that led to this painting started in 2003 when I was working on my latest book, Painter IX Creativity: Digital Artist's Handbook. I wanted to use a meaningful example for the Collage chapter, and decided to make a portrait of my Dad.

I started with research. I collected old photos, letters, and anything else I could find that was significant. I created a new canvas at a suitable size: 24" x 30" with a resolution of 100 pixels per inch. I knew that I would later resize the image to 150 pixels per inch. With Painter, I can get away with relatively low resolution. I didn't want the working image to be too large.

My Dad loved astronomy so I started with a star scene. I pasted this star scene onto the canvas, where it formed a layer. Then, I used Effects > Orientation > Free Transform to resize the layer so that it filled the canvas. This star scene served as a backdrop, or base image, on which to build up the composition.

I then built up a portrait based on a photo taken when he and Mum visited me in California, just a few months before he died.

In creating the painted portrait, I started off by pasting the photo onto a clone of the base image. I immediately renamed this version of the image so I could identify it as the source photo. In making collages, I always paste (and, if needed, resize with Free Transform) visual elements onto clones of the current working image. This maintains the same canvas size so that everything always lines up during cloning. I am also meticulous about naming my files. This is essential in keeping track of which files are which, and being able to choose the right files to set as clone source.

I used a thick Artists > Sargent Brush to paint in the initial brush strokes. For visual and positional reference, I intermittently toggled Tracing Paper on and off (Cmd/Ctrl-T). I purposely kept my brush strokes loose and free, without constraining myself with clone color, so that the portrait would be more expressive of my feelings. Later on, I used a very small Cloners > Soft Cloner for detailing.

Next, I added various photo elements by using a combination of layers and cloning. When pasting photos in as layers, I'd first use the Freehand Selection tool to select a region of a photo. Then, I'd use Select > Feather to soften the selection edge, and copy and paste the selection into the working image as a layer. Then, I'd use Free Transform to resize the layer by reducing the layer opacity for more subtlety. I'd also experiment with the Composite Methods for the best effect. For several layers, I used Overlay and Gel Composite methods.

During my research, I found the last letter he wrote to me and wanted to include his words and handwriting into the fabric of my painting.

I used the Rectangular Selection tool to select a portion of the letter (where he signed off "love and kisses, Dad"). On the Papers Palette (Window > Library Palettes > Show Papers), I clicked the palette menu arrow and chose Capture Paper from the pop up menu. Having captured the writing as a paper texture, I applied it with a Chalk > Large Chalk to integrate it into the painting.

It was the final touch that tied everything together.

If you'd like to learn more about the process of creating this collage, please see Chapter 6 of my book Painter IX Creativity: Digital Artist's Handbook. I am also teaching a weeklong Collage workshop later this year. See www.paintercreativity.com for details.

You can view more of my work on my art site at www.jeremysutton.com.

Happy painting!

Cheers
Jeremy