Pablo Thecuadro

"The collages I make express the duality in the human being, who we want to be versus who we really are and what part of us we want to show to others. ‘Collage Art’ is a never ending process, you can put as many images you want together over and over again.”

CONTEXT:

Pablo Thecuadro was born in 1992 in Zaragoza, Spain. He is a fashion photographer and collage artist who works for both commissioned and self initiated projects. Pablo Thecuadro uses fashion editorials, some photos shot by himself ,some shot by other photographers, to create his collages. He crafts abstract art by cutting given picture compositions digitally, as well as physically. In this way he builds extraordinary imagery that captures viewers eyes. His contemporary, abstract works of art capture his talent in collages and create new eye-catching works of art.

I find, when looking at his work, Thecuadro incorporates different uses of materials and pieces of clothing that form together to create one final piece of art. I think he is an intriguing, unique fashion photographer as he doesn't just take exceptional photographs of models in clothes; he further explore and experiments with each photograph to make each photograph a work of art.

Pablo Thecuadro uses studio lighting to capture his photographs as he is a fashion photographer working with intricate pieces of clothing. As Thecuadro uses both physical and digital editing techniques, I think he can express his creativity through collage. Pablo uses either blank studio background or different sets depending on the clothes/pieces he is shooting/capturing. Pablo Thecuadro uses objects such as fabrics, jewels and flowers to fill his collages creating more interesting, abnormal collages that are almost becoming abstract.

I will be exploring his method of collaging digitally and physically to further explore my understanding. I am interested in how he not only covers the face with other objects however also completely cuts out parts of the face/body. This relates to my theme identity - hidden identity- where he hides parts of his image and in this case the identity behind the objects and cut outs. For my first photoshoot I will be dressing my dad/brother up in shape forming clothing, so that I can later have enough space to collage my portraits onto.

Photoshoot Inspiration

Photoshoot PLAN

Contact Sheet

These are my contact sheets for my first photoshoot inspired by Pablo Thecuadro.

My objective for this photoshoot was to capture portraits and full body images illustrating the movement from the use of flowy materials. I think my main challenge within this shoot was to create images that can interest the viewers by questioning the composition and use of different angles to later collage together. I think this was a successful first photoshoot for Pablo Thecuadro . Next time, I want to dive more into his collages using different objects such as pieces of jewelry and flowers, combined with cut out pieces of fabric.

series of digital developments

These are my first digital developments inspired by Pablo Thecuadro. I wanted to firstly try out experimenting with digital developments first as I thought this would be quite a similar method to Pablo Thecuadro. However, as much as I liked the idea of these physical developments, I think these developments did not turn out successful therefore I will be continuing with physical experimentation.

These are my physical developments inspired by Pablo Thecuadro, where I have printed and cut out parts of each image and collaged them together.

PROCESS LOG for a digital development

STEP 1: First of all, I brought up an image that I found was successful in both composition and angle. This will be my base for collaging parts of the face onto.

STEP 2: I then bring up another image with the same composition, however different angle of the face. I select and draw using the lasso tool and copied the image onto my base image where I can then repeat the process once modified. I then select a part of the face that I want to copy and collage with. I use the automatic select tool and draw the section I want.

STEP 3: Then once I copied and pasted the segmented face onto the base; I use ctrl T to drag, draw and adjust the size and angle of the face to align it and make it seem fluid with the base photograph. I then delete the excess image so that I only have two layers thus far.

STEP:4

Here, I am copying different segments of different photographs onto this base portrait - Using the same techniques as beforehand and repeating the steps 1-3 a couple more times. I also adjust the angle and area being copied so that the collage looks smooth.

STEP:5

My final step after completing the collaged face, is to use keys -edit- then, adjust layers, to use the drop shadow effect which makes the edges of the layer look as though they have shadows and look more 3D. After this, I adjust the saturation adn in this case change it to black and white.

PHYSICAL Developments

These are the first set of physical developments using the above photoshoot. In order to create these developments, I used the same layering technique digitally however this time I collaged physical developments where I selected and printed, successful photographs and cut out parts of them to create abstracted collages. This process is much more successful as I am allowed to cut certain parts of a development without it looking glitched or with ridged edges. This technique also gave me freedom with how creative I get. As my project has been mostly physical final developments. I will now be further editing digitally to enhance the different cut out shapes of the face.

FURTHER EXPERIMENTING - OVERLAYING/COLOURING USING FIRST PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENTS

This is a series of further developed edits where I used my past knowledge of editing. I used techniques such as overlaying two developments and using the layer tool to adjust the transparency of the images. I also changed parts of the development black and white, as I think this creates a needed contrast between the different cut outs of the face/body. When creating these developments my only goal was to enhance each development and not to over edit and completely change the colour, therefore the adjustments are gradual. Overall, I think this photoshoot helped me figure what type of dvelopemtns suits my project the most; in addition I think I have created some abstract, unusual- looking collages.

REDRAFT PHOTOSHOOT

These are my contact sheets for my redraft photoshoot inspired by Pablo Thecuadro. Within this photoshoot my main object was to take portraits of the face, incorporating hands and arms to abstract the image. I also shot a few of these images using a ring light to add extra artificial light on certain angles. However other than that, I used natural lighting. To compose this shoot, I firstly took portrait angles and then more the camera gradually to get different compositions. I think this was a very successful photoshoot and am excited to further develop these in the style of Pablo Thecuadro.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENTS

These are my first physical collaged developments for my redraft photoshoot. With these developments I tried to used more curvy cut out's and lines, as I have seen Pablo Thecuadro use this technique to create these almost smooth layers in his collages. I think working with the portrait and the face has really improved my work with inspiration from Pablo Thecuadro. With these collages I use my own creative freedom in what my final result becomes fro a few images from the photoshoot. I think this photoshoot was very successful as I was able to create almost architectural collages of the face. To further enhance these developments I will be overlaying and changing the colour of some digitally to mix Pablo's work together.

Experimenting with digital overlay and monochrome colour

These are my physical/digital developments where I have used photoshop to adjust the saturation and colour of different developments, then overplayed them together to create these mitstified versions of the previous raw physical collaged developments. I used techniques involving the layering tool (where it blends and distorts two images together), mirroring (copying the image then moving it around to mirror the original image, then adjusting the opacity). I think these are successful further developments in which I was able to both physically and digitally collage my photographs together in the style of Pablo Thecuadro.

reusing colour within my work

As a final further gallery, I wanted to re-dive into the idea of colour. Previously in my page on Angrette Soltau, I experimented with the two toned colouring on my developments, therefore I wanted to re-experiment with these developments above inspired by Pablo Thecuadro. I think this is a good experimentation gallery of developments that came out successful.

HIGHLIGHTING SUCCESS

These are my final highlighting success of work that I have created whilst inspired by Pablo Thecuadro.