Case study 09 · Photoshop compositing

Personal Worlds Collage

A layered visual environment that joins the places, animals, objects, and handmade work that matter to me.

ContextAD157 course project
TimelineFall 2025
RoleComposition & image editing
ToolsPhotoshop
Surreal Photoshop collage combining a living room, forest, ocean, animals, food, toys, and handmade objects
Final digital collage · a personal environment, not a photographed physical place

Idea

The assignment asked me to construct an environment. I started with my living room as a familiar base and placed a photograph I took at Turkey Run above it. From there, I built a scene that moves between indoors, forest, and ocean rather than following one realistic perspective.

Composition

I assembled separate visual elements around personal associations: my cat, ferrets, chinchillas, and cockatiels; sushi on the table; plush toys; and examples of my 3D-printed models and handmade crafts. I also incorporated a tissue-box illustration from an earlier Illustrator assignment and a castle image to reference a favorite destination.

Scale and placement create a deliberately imaginative scene. The project shows how I organize many source images into one readable composition, while allowing the collage to remain playful rather than photorealistic.

Takeaway

This is a classroom image-compositing exercise, not a client project. It documents my approach to selecting a visual concept, combining personal photographs with other image elements, and building a final scene in Photoshop.