Two Freestyle Collages for the LMAC Community

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All You Need Is Love
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Living Dangerously
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Another week of freestyle collages. This week I was inspired by a stove, believe it or not. I remembered a stove from my own childhood and that was quite evocative. Both collages began with the stove.

I had the idea of looking through an open doorway and seeing a dynamic scene beyond. One of my collages is a still picture and the other is a fun animation.

All You Need Is Love
The first collage shows a derelict building. An elderly man owns little. He lives in a hovel, but has his dog. The two of them make a family. With love, they can face almost anything. Without it, their lives would be empty.

I had to change the position of the man's head and the dog's head to show them looking at each other. The fly wasn't a pretty addition, but was important to prevent the picture from being too kitschy. A very light canvas filter was added (from Gimp) to give the collage the effect of being a painting.

Here is one of the early steps in making the picture.
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Living Dangerously
When I look out my front window I see birds swooping down from the roof and stealing food from the cat dish. I caught pictures of several of them through my window screen.

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Is that a bluejay? I don't know. There were several swooping down and stealing. The birds can be quite audacious, but last week one of them ran out of luck and we found its body under the bushes.

After these rather large birds had eaten their fill, a smaller bird with an orange beak crept up on the dish, cautiously. Here are a couple of shots of the bird (circled in red), barely visible, caught again, through my screen.

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Here are two cats that habitually eat from the dish. This photo was taken a couple of years ago.

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Mid summer there were more birds in the area. I guess they migrated. They used to swoop down in great numbers and even bathe themselves in the water dish. Quite audacious indeed !

Here is a very early frame for this collage, as I was beginning to plot my path forward.

freestyle doors for blog.png

Making the Collages

As you might guess, I used this exercise to relax and take my mind away from more pressing matters. Sometimes it seems I'm stealing time when I do this. But, it is a great way to unwind.

Many of my sources were borrowed from colleagues who contributed to LIL, the LMAC image gallery.. I also borrowed from Pixabay and I thank those contributors.

All You Need Is Love Sources
LIL

Pixabay

Living Dangerously Sources
LIL

Pixabay Sources

LIL and LMAC

You can see that LIL, the LMAC Image Library, was an essential part of my collage-creating process. Anyone on Hive can contribute to the library and everyone can borrow from it. Learn about the procedure here.

LMAC contest is on a summer break, but the community is buzzing with collage creations offered by our artists. We are also receiving many LIL contributions. The contest will resume in September.

Peace and health to all.

Thank you for reading my blog

Hive on

letsmakeacollage art love fun proofofbrain creativecoin cats birds nature
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16 comments
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You are right @agmoore . Nice relaxation making the collages.
Can you make free collages once a week?
If so, do you also recommend using images from the LMAC library?

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(Edited)

Hello @katleya, Thanks for the comment.Yes, relax with a collage. The freestyle may be made more than once a week, if you like. I just don't have the time, or I might do that:)

I hope to see yours soon. Using LMAC images is always appreciated by the community.

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These are great. What a creative mind you have. The man and his dog brings back a memory of an elderly widower friend who lives alone with his faithful companion, the dog. The dog is getting older and having some mobility problems. It will be sad when the dog passes over the rainbow bridge. Your collage shows the love between the two.

Thanks for including my lil image of the vase. Perfect how you have the animated cats around it and the one peeking out by the wood stove.

No stray cats around here these days, mainly because of the coyotes but I have the skunk and raccoon making the rounds in the evening, 😊 🦨

Enjoy the rest of the weekend my friend A.G.

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Thank you my friend. We have had the experience of a relative with a much-loved pet. The reverse happened. First the wife died, and then the husband. The poor dog was bereft. My son adopted it and loved it, but I'm sure the dog never forgot.

I felt the love when I made it so I guess that came through ;) I do like including animals in my collages. Thanks so much for appreciating them. Your vases were perfect!

Have a wonderful weekend. The realtor is showing the house this weekend but I'm leaving it to the kids. I'm staying away and pretending nothing is happening 🌼

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I hope the new owners are animal lovers too and will leave food out for the strays. Are you downsizing and going to a condo or apartment? There does come a time when looking after a large house and yard can be too much.

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The strays are a problem now. My neighbor who has cooperated is ill (5 years older than I am) and her husband no longer mobile. We will have to figure out what to do. If the new owners don't want the cats, we'll have to find a way to take them. There are only 3 left, and two are very, very old.

As for downsizing--No! We're going bigger. We're making space for my granddaughter to live comfortably there. It's quite a challenge finding a place, but we will be a truly multi-generational home--that is, until time decides something else is appropriate for us :))

I just answered in the wrong place and upvoted my own comment 😅

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Looks like an exciting adventure A. G. with the new place and your granddaughter close by. I’m sure everything will work out with the cats.🤞

Hubby and I often talk about moving into a place where not so much yard work for him but then we carry on. 😆

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Splendid artwork. You really need a Special talent to combine all these photos into collage and make this beauty.

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Thank you!

I certainly don't have a special talent😄, but I have been doing this for several years now so I learned tricks. It's a lot of fun. Very relaxing...no pressure, ever.

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I must congratulate you on your recapitation skills. Seamless! I love the painting effect. And the fly...what can I say:)

It took me a minute to find the stove in Living Dangerously but after staring at that cat 50 times it suddenly revealed itself to me. Great work...of course!

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recapitation

😅

And the fly

That gave me pause, but it had to be.

it suddenly revealed itself

It's a little like writing a story...you focus on the theme but then add the details, stuff in the background. That makes it real (that's the idea, anyway).

Thanks very much for the comment. I love that dog and feature her in several of my pictures. She has a lot of different poses so is highly adaptable. She can't take a bad picture😁

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She has a lot of different poses so is highly adaptable. She can't take a bad picture

Something like meself!:)

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