Behind every really artistic product is an artistic mind – not a web-based graphic service advertising “personalized collage art.” Look a little closer and you’ll see that what these services actually promise are art effects, not art.
When you want original, custom artwork made from your photos, and not off-the-shelf art effects created with software, stick with real artists. Graphic artists are employees unlike artists who run their own studios so they can think freely, out of the box. That’s why when you want to do something artistic with your photos, it pays to locate a digital artist-for-hire who can:
-
critically select photographs on the basis of quality, not quantity
-
extract elements, re-juxtaposing them for aesthetic/conceptual reasons
-
give special thought to hierarchies of lighting and scale
-
search for fresh images for geographical/historical accuracy
-
inject meaningfulness and a goal into the artistic composition
Digital Artists Who Do Art For Your Sake
Let’s say you want a custom photo collage made from your personal photos. You’ve got three options. If you go to a graphic service company, they’ll take your order (as long as it’s listed in their website drop-down menu of special effects). If you go to an artist who only does art for art’s sake, they’ll want you to leave them alone so they can create their own idea of what’s art (but at your expense, and in their own sweet time).
But if you’re lucky enough to find a digital artist who takes commissions – who does art for your sake, you’re in business! She’ll ask you questions that go above and beyond the call of duty:
Is there a special message you want to convey? Or a take-away impression you want to leave with the person you’re making it for? Should the collage concentrate on the past, present or future, or all three? What about adding some wishful reality to the piece, adding landscapes and objects that are rich in meaning?
The digital artist-for-hire who creates custom artwork for your sake is serious about the images she selects and combines for you, because she is always raising the bar for herself – and the art world at large. Commissioning an artist specializing in custom photomontage to make you a personalized photo collage portrait or custom photo gift is kind of like hiring a world class artist, photographer, curator and confidante, rolled into one.
Is Hiring a Digital Photomontage Artist Costly?
When it comes to personalized digital photomontage, my advice is to always hire an artist who 1) has a considerable digital photo collage portfolio; and 2) takes the time to look at your photos and talk with you before you take out your credit card.
There are not so many of us; so consider yourself incredibly lucky to have found us!
