How to Make a Rainforest Collage

Things You'll Need

Color photographs of rainforest scenes
18-by-18-inch beaverboard
Drawing pencil
Tracing paper
Carbon paper
White glue
Scissors

Rainforests make striking subjects for collage art.

The term "collage" came into use in the early 20th century, derived from the French verb "coller," meaning to glue. People have been making collages for a lot longer, though. Collages are pictures made by gluing various kinds of materials to a backing to create an interesting whole. Collage artists may like the natural beauty of the rainforest and its variety of artistic subjects. Rainforests exist on every continent except Antarctica, and each of them is unique. Artists also may want to use their art to promote the preservation of these endangered ecosystems.

Step 1

Collect color photographs of rainforests from magazines, journals or photographs you and friends have taken during visits to a rainforest. Choose photographs that show the plants and animals that inhabit the rainforest, such as palms, acacias, ferns, blossoms, giant tree trunks, frogs, birds, snakes, fish, tapirs, big cats, monkeys and lemurs.

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Step 2

Place carbon paper on the beaverboard, carbon side down. Place your tracing paper over the carbon paper. Draw a line drawing on the tracing paper of your overall composition, with trees, shrubs, flowers and a stream as the background. Set aside the carbon paper.

Step 3

Cut up into pieces your most generic green scene photos, sky scene photos, and water scenes. Separate them into those categories.

Step 4

Cut out pictures of your animals, flowers and fish. Set them aside.

Step 5

Glue the sky-scene pieces onto the beaverboard background where the sky will be, above the tree line. Trim the pieces to make interesting and harmonious designs. Overlap them and make sure to glue the edges down well.

Step 6

Glue the green-scene pieces onto the portions of the composition where you want vegetation. Trim them to make interesting designs. Overlap them and glue them down firmly.

Step 7

Glue the water-scene pieces over the composition where your stream will be. Trim them and ensure they are glued flat.

Step 8

Glue flowers wherever they seem appropriate. Glue fish onto the stream. Glue land animals and birds in the forest.Cut flower and animal images to make them emerge from behind and around items in the background. Let the composition dry.

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