Digital Collage by Christie Bryant

About the Process

This digital collage was inspired by the words, “delicate” and “juggler.” I started by gathering different photographs of delicate things (i.e. teacups and dragonfly wings), along with photos of jugglers.

After a bit, I gave up on photos of actual jugglers and thought that it would be fun if the jugglers themselves were delicate and opted for the idea of fairies. I love vintage photos and ephemera, so I created the fairies using vintage photos of dancers along with the delicate dragonfly wings.

While researching different types of buildings, I fell in love with the colorful Dutch-style homes. I was going to use photos of Dutch homes (shown above) but in an attempt to add color to the composition, I decided to illustrate them instead.

I changed up the grey-blue background for a brighter watercolored blue. Then, I added clouds to the sky using vintage book pages.

To keep with the juggling theme, each Fairy juggles delicate porcelain tea cups while walking on a high wire connected between the buildings. For the final touch, I added some leafy trees.

What I Would Change

If I was to attempt this same collage again, I would use more shadow to give some dimension to the composition…shadows underneath the paper clouds and shadows on the buildings cast by the fairies. I would also put interesting people/items/scenes inside random windows of each building.