Collage step by step

I've been making a lot of collages recently so I decided to document a bit of the process.

At this stage I've already made a lot of the decisions - background color, color of the sides of the panel that the collage will sit on - but nothing is glued down and I'm still playing with the placing of the various elements.

I liked the shape of this little bird, but gave it different colors to fit better with my overall color scheme.

I'll often draw on the back of a previously painted piece of paper and then cut out the shape. It's fun to see just how the colors appear on the right side afterwards.

Starting to stick the various elements down. The berries on my table were the inspiration for the now cut spray on the table to the left. The wonderful textures in the background are made with alcohol inks.

Adding the bird, along with a longer branch to sit on.

That bottom left corner seemed a bit empty even after the berries - trying to decide whether to add another plant shape there.

The finished piece. It'll go in my Etsy store once the varnish has dried and I've taken a few more pictures.