Design Process: Paper-Cut Collage

Every mural design begins with a paper-cut collage…

From a young age, I found it easiest to communicate through the language of shapes, colours, and forms.

As a neurodivergent artist, this visual expression is crucial for me since using words has always been challenging. I find comfort and joy in my tangible, playful, and tactile design process, where I arrange coloured materials to express my ideas and creativity.

Setting up in various spaces with my paper cut shapes, I bring a piece of home with me, drawing inspiration from many different environments.

Creating a portable art practice isn't just a method—it's my sanctuary, offering both safety and security.

Transforming paper cut collages into mural designs

The moment I discovered collage as part of my design process, it felt like a huge relief. After always struggling with digital design software such as Procreate and Photoshop, I found starting with a paper cut collage process incredibly freeing. Often, I felt frustrated that I couldn't physically manipulate shapes on the screen to my satisfaction, but this new approach has given me much more creative freedom to design my large, abstract murals.

Enjoying my analogue ways, I get out my printer and scan in my artworks. Occasionally, I use Photoshop to tidy up my grubby glue fingerprints, but often I celebrate the scuffs and scratches that appear along the way!

Digital collage mock-ups

I still use Photoshop to digitally impose my collages onto the surfaces where I will create murals. This creates an enjoyable process of surface pattern design for architecture! Unlike most of my collages, which are rich in textures, my mural painting primarily features block colours. One day soon, I hope to explore ways to make my murals feel more like my paper cut collages.

Sharing the joy of collage

Creating a design process that I can share with others is very important to me…

Through my "Drawing with Scissors" workshops, I've shared the calming, meditative practice of collage with others. There's something truly special about coming together collectively to focus on creativity. Sharing what I usually do in solitude with others brings a magical element to the process and adds immense joy.

In collecting materials, I find inspiration in the items I use—tape, stickers, textured papers, and old magazines—to create captivating collage worlds…

Sometimes I feel my collage work may seem chaotic, but I view these pieces more as mood boards. They help me create and enjoy tiny fragments of forms, which I can then incorporate into my mural designs. This method of playing with materials often leads to happy accidents, resulting in layouts and patterns that I couldn't achieve through drawing or digital creation alone.

Collage to wall mural…

Without saying can you spot the shapes… can you spot the cut-out shapes dancing across the wall in Germany?

Celebrating play

There's a satisfying aspect to the mess I create when crafting collage artworks. My mural practice demands precision and accuracy, so it feels liberating to embrace messiness during the design process. I encourage play in my practice, and collage is a significant part of celebrating this. The freedom, fun, and feelings that come with the simplicity of coloured paper bring me a great amount of joy.