"sketches" in collage

If you have been following my posts at all lately, you know that I have been doing LOTS of experimenting with images (I eventually hope to start cranking out finished pieces ;-). In a way, I suppose this is analogous to a painter doing sketches before executing "the real thing". I absolutely enjoy manipulating interesting images for possible collages. I thought I would share a particular collage "sketching" strategy/process. I came across this image in a 1893 volume of The Illustrated London News. What a beautiful engraving! For collage purposes, I was particularly struck by the 3-D effect seen in the horse at the center of the composition. I'm still not sure what I am going to do with this element. At first I thought I might use it as a background; but I was also considering "extracting" the horse as a foreground element. Remember, I am an analog collagist and self-impose the restriction that I will not use photocopies of images (or digital manipulation) in my collages. So I only have the original to "work with". I decided to make a couple of photocopies of this image and do some "sketching" with the photocopies. I show here the original and the "extracted" image. Then I did some experimenting with placement on a couple of interesting backgrounds. I'm still not sure how I will use this image; but I wanted to share with anyone who might be interested, how this collagist works with collage "sketching". BTW, I don't use this particular photocopying strategy often; but with an image like this one, it works well.