Exploration fun!

When folks ask me about my "creative process", I often say that I am "an explorer", and "an experimenter", and "a recognizer". I rarely (if ever) start my creative endeavors with some preconceived composition idea in my mind, which I then try to create. Rather, my process starts with foraging/exploration of images from various magazines or books (often vintage, but sometimes contemporary). Once I have found interesting images, I then experiment with juxtapositioning. I refer to these experimental combinations as my collage "sketches" -- and I like to post these intermediate sketches to share the process with anyone who is interested. I continue to experiment, until I "recognize" a collage composition that I think will really "work" as a final product. Although I did some prep work last night in the studio coating a box I will be using for another assemblage work, I spent most of my time exploring and "harvesting" images from the "Illustrated London News" magazines from 1893. It was SO much fun! Interestingly (I think), this publication, as well as many publication that are from this era, includes two types of images -- some are based on drawings; some are based on etchings. I rarely use the images based on drawings, but am compelled by the higher quality of the images based on etchings. Here are some examples of the images based on drawings:

Although the images are often interesting, they lack the quality and resolution that etching affords. You can really see the detail and high contrast in the images based on etchings, so that it enhances the quality of any collage composition in which they are integrated. Here are some examples of images (from the same publication) that are etching-based: