The Wonders of Muzy Collage

Reflections on the Nature of Life by 1918underwood. Click to view.

We’ve got tutorials for using the collage editor, but I wanted to post a video of the whole process of making a (fairly complex) collage that involves manipulating images, editing images, and (a little) drawing. So, I recorded a video the creation of this collage, “Reflections on the Nature of Life,” which started with a background made in Muzy’s photo effects editor for inspiration.

Thanks to all the people who contributed fantastic items to the making of this collage: qtgillie, Suntan, Tee, Miyuki, mafer, visK, smws, Cooperweb,  alynch66, leech, amagic2u, babsblueeyes, Gerbear, mike, jameegrisham, tiatodd, Riff,  and Meno. Read the rest of this entry »

Making an Alphabet

"The Alphabet" by qtgillie uses a block template as a starting place for creating each letter. Click to view.

Muzy has a number of alphabets. Making one is a large undertaking, since an alphabet has twenty-six letters, and more, if you’re feeling ambitious. That’s a lot of inspiration and perspiration. If you want to take on this task, here are some hints, tips, ideas, and inspiration.

What will your font look like?

There are many font decisions to make. Most Muzy fonts are specialty graphic fonts. On the other hand, smws’s amazing font renders a serif font beautifully in a comprehensive set of hand-drawn letters, numbers, and symbols. Read the rest of this entry »

Dealing with Artist’s Block

Oh, noes! It's the blank canvas!

What do you do when you don’t know what to create? What happens when the inspiration just flees? How do you get back in the groove of making art? Don’t lose your passion or stop drawing and creating… you know it’s what makes you feel good at the end of the day. So here are some ideas on how to break through the artist’s block and come out creating…

Don’t Fear the Blank Canvas!

The fear of the blank canvas is one of the biggest blocks to creation. Can I make something worthwhile? Will I be able to carry out the great idea I have? Will anyone care?

Throw out those questions, doubts, and fears. That canvas is blank, and your mission is to fill it. So approach it as an enemy to defeat; approach it as a quest to conquer; approach it as destiny to fulfill. But approach it! Start with a line, a dot, a splotch and go from there, because often just starting is a long way towards getting it done. Read the rest of this entry »

Drawing Dottiness

tree by 1918underwood

It’s no secret to any of you that I enjoy my dots, and Muzy’s round drawing brush lends itself to creating dotty drawings. I thought that I’d review some ways to use dots in your drawings.

Dotty Lines and Swirls

One of the ways that I use dots is to create lines, like the ones in the drawing”tree.” These lines are much like any other line you might draw, except that they’re drawn with disconnected dots. Not only does a “dotty” line give an interesting look to the picture, but the use of dots allows you to create a line of varying widths (and also opacity), similar to a line you might draw with a calligraphy pen. Read the rest of this entry »

Kaleidoscopes of Color in Muzy Collage

"Red Mandela" by Gerbear. Click to view.

If you’re looking for something truly cool to do in Muzy collage, here’s an idea inspired by and in honor of muzier Gerbear. Gerbear has made a few of these unique and fantastic kaleidoscope-like collages on Muzy. Though she is the master, I thought I’d try my hand at it, and let everyone know about my experience. A warning: this is my own personal take on the “kaleidoscope,” inspired by Gerbear. Muzy’s collaging capabilities lend themselves to creating kaleidoscope-type images, so this is a fun and challenging activity, with pretty impressive results. Read the rest of this entry »

Blending Color While You Draw

Shading is an important, even essential aspect of drawing. We all have our own shading techniques. I, myself, am a blender. Hard lines? They frighten me. After all, reality has no hard lines… it’s all shades of gray. Mostly. I mean, that’s not a hard and fast rule, either, is it? Philosophy aside, one of the techniques I use incessantly in drawing on Muzy is blending color or shades of a color as I draw. Here’s how it’s done. Read the rest of this entry »

Fun Activities: How to Make a Jigsaw Puzzle

Muzy’s collage editor gives you the capability of making a fun kind of puzzle: a jigsaw. Jigsaw puzzles are perfect for remix activities. To start a jigsaw puzzle, simply place the picture for your jigsaw on the collage canvas. The best pictures for jigsaws cover the whole canvas. Use the “Add to Collage” button to place your picture exactly in the center of the canvas. Use your own drawing, someone else’s, or an uploaded picture. You could draw an image especially for your puzzle, but it’s easiest to save the image separately to use while you’re building the puzzle. You can delete it after you’re done with the puzzle, if you prefer.

Start by placing an image in the center of the canvas.

Read the rest of this entry »

Backgrounds for Muzy Collage

Backgrounds are extremely useful items for Muzy collagers. So, here is a tour of fun and interesting backgrounds, to give you creative ideas either to make a background or to jump-start your collage.

At the most basic level, making a background is simple. Just fill the canvas… with a color, with an abstract design, with a scene… with anything that Muzy collagers might want to collage on top of. But what makes a background useful, effective, or fun?

Abstract Backgrounds

Orange background by mafer. Click to view.

Here is a background that is very simple: a bright orange with a little bit of highlight and shadow in it, giving it depth. The background is completely abstract and monochromatic.

In part because it’s so simple, this background is also very useful. It can be used in a huge variety of collages, either as a background and as a colorful element in the collage.

Its bright, bold color is also one of the primary advantages of this background. It adds a color statement to whatever collage it appears in. Read the rest of this entry »

Isometric Collaging on Muzy

Transportation City: Isometric by Cooperweb. Click to view.

Isometric drawing and collaging is all the rage on Muzy… Right now there are 116 (and counting) items tagged as isometric. So, what is “isometric”? And what can you do with isometrics on Muzy?

Isometric drawings are made from a specific perspective… an isometric perspective. From an isometric perspective, you see the top and two sides of an object, in a regular, geometric way. You’re looking at an object from the corner, and from the top down. The outline of a cube will be a hexagon with six equal sides. Read the rest of this entry »

Reflected Light and Color

When light hits an object, it tends to move around a lot, especially if the item is smooth and shiny. This white coffee mug by Gerbear, for example… Let’s see what happens when we put an orange background behind it:

Do you see any major difference? Read the rest of this entry »