Making a Collage for Canvas Photos

Collage is an old form of art; examples can be found in the art of ancient China dating back to around 200 BCE, or around the time of the invention of paper. It saw a dramatic re-emergence in the art scene in the 20^th century, but it’s as old as time – and hasn’t lost a bit of its power, either.

Collage remains a fantastic way to decorate using canvas photos printed online; collage is simultaneously easy and powerful, and can be built from your own photos in a computer program with ease – or even assembled for you by an online service that takes several photos and lays them out for you. Here’s a quick primer on how to create a collage on your home computer for printing – and ideas for where to source your collage photos.

Making a Collage for Canvas Photos

Making a collage is a relatively easy process in a program like Photoshop or GiMP or any other photo editor on your computer. All it takes is basic familiarity with the software:

1. Start with a theme or concept (more on that later).
2. Choose a background on which to layer everything. This background might wind up completely hidden, but you should still choose something appropriate and with a neutral colour. Gradients work fine, but a theme-appropriate image can also work.
3. Make your canvas very large – no matter what the final size of the canvas photos will be, you’ll want to start off large so you can scale down, as well as giving you plenty of room to work with.
4. Choose your photos. Cut out figures from photos with the snipping tool – you don’t have to be perfect! The rougher the better. Then paste the cutouts onto your background as a new layer. Play around with placement, sizing, and rotation.
5. Repeat until the whole canvas is covered and you’re satisfied.

The end result is a powerful statement that includes so many details the eye can’t take them all in at once.

Collage Inspirations

The key to a powerful collage is a strong theme on which to hang all your cutouts. Here are a few great starting places:

• A year in review collage. Think big and start your new collage project every New Year. As your year proceeds and things happen, snap your photos, then cut them out and paste them in. At the end of the year you have an amazing visual record of your adventures that makes for an awesome piece of home decor – and awesome Christmas gifts for everyone depicted in some corner of the collage, too.
• A specific adventure. Holidays are ideal sources for collage photos – as are any other event that generates lots of photos, like a wedding, a graduation, or a Christmas or birthday gathering.

Collage is always powerful because of the detail – the more images you include in creative and fun ways in your piece, the more interesting and powerful it becomes. That makes it easy to get lost in the process, layering on more and more – and allows you to use all of your photos, without having to cut any out.

When you’ve created your collage, save your file and click here – and we’ll turn it into a crisp, eye-catching piece of art!