How to make a cityscape collage?

[michaelvs]

Hi there!


I want to make a photo collage which consists of a bunch of New York's well known buildings, merged together. E.g. something distantly similar to what they do on refrigerator magnets sometimes, see attached.


Can anyone recommend me how to approach this? Maybe you know how other artists do this?


It should be realistic to some extent, but on the other had I want to combine some landmarks located in different places.


I guess, there might be two options -
1) to combine images with similar perspective and keep it realistic
2) to combine images with different perspective and make it unrealistic, e.g. like cartoon/pop art


Thank you

 

[IamSam]

Hey Michael, this boils down to using a variety of techniques mainly separating buildings/structures from their backgrounds and masking. Accomplishing perspective is about placement and using transform. Lighting is always a big issue. Finding references with similar lighting will be a problem and this is where I would start.

 

[michaelvs]

Hey, thank you Sam! Yes, I understand that the buildings should have the same lighting, the same color scheme, etc.


I am trying to figure out first what common approaches exist. E.g. organize it as a skyline, or as a 2 point perspective or a bird's eye view. I guess, in case of a big city (New York) there should be some high-rise buildings in the background.


Probably I need to research how other artists do it.

 

[IamSam]

I am trying to figure out first what common approaches exist. E.g. organize it as a skyline, or as a 2 point perspective or a bird's eye view.

Well, only you can answer that question. Do you want a 2 point perspective or a bird's eye view? The most common approach is that you have to have some idea about what you want before you get started regardless of what other artists are doing.

I find reference images will have the greatest influence on what approach you will eventually take. If New York is the is the city you want to use, start gathering references and you will get an idea of how they will mesh together.

There is not an easy answer for this.

Here's an interesting one http://ggeorge2814.deviantart.com/art/A-Cityscape-100784045