All the Lonely People (and One Dog) in My Collage for LMAC #126

I kept hearing the echo of Eleanor Rigby as I made this collage for LMAC #126. The template photo presented by @shaka this week seemed desolate and cold to me.

Here is the photo:

I'm not much for crowds and cityscapes. Even the water in this picture seemed to lack vibrancy. I noticed the building in the corner and thought of the people who might live there, who might watch the boats going by and pedestrians on the pier. I decided to look inside the building, to look for, as it laments in Eleanor Rigby, all the lonely people

Lonely People, in Art
Loneliness, by Hans Thoma, 1880

Credit: Hans Thoma (1839-1924), at the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts, Wrocław. Public domain.

Edvard Munch, Two Human Beings-- The Lonely Ones, 1896

Credit: Edvard Munch, (1863-1944). Public domain.

Rembrandt von Rijn, The Blindness of Tobit, 1651

Credit: Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Public domain*

Making My Collage

I made a much larger building out of that small piece and then moved the pedestrian path (barely visible) on the right hand side of the picture. I removed everything from the picture, except the building and the pedestrian path.

At this point I started to look in the LIL Gallery for different images. I needed a jogger to put on the walkway. Thank you @edgarafernandezp. I had to add some color so the jogger would be more visible from a distance.

I needed personalities in my windows. Two of these came from @ddn688 on LIL, Woman Counting Money and Black Girl. In my collage, the lady is playing solitaire, not counting money.

I needed another figure, a quiet figure. I went to Unsplash and found a woman reading. This image is credited to Kelly Sikema.

I found a stone wall and a dog on LIL, both my contributions.

Finally, I needed atmosphere. A dramatic sky provided by @muelli, again on LIL, offered that.

I added a bit of the water from @shaka's template and ran the water plus the stone wall through a very light Lunapic filter. I reconnected that to the collage, made many frames (I had trouble synchronizing) and finally had an acceptable, though not entirely satisfying result. Gimp, Paint3D and Paint were used to manipulate the images. I hope I give the impression of distinct lives, separate from each other, each in a sphere alone.

LMAC, LIL and Hive
For me, Hive, LMAC and LIL are all intertwined. Each supports the other. Each thrives because of community involvement. Each is very important to many people.

LMAC sponsors collages. See our announcement for this week here (I don't compete in the contest). LIL is an outgrowth of LMAC, but also independent because anyone on Hive may borrow from and contribute to the gallery. Find out how here. And Hive--without Hive I wouldn't be writing this blog, there wouldn't be an LMAC or LIL. We are all connected, unlike the individuals in my collage.

I thank everyone who contributes to LIL and who participates in the LMAC contest. I thank especially the team that keeps LMAC and LIL running smoothly: @shaka, founder and administrator; @quantumg, coder and developer; and mballesteros, bilingual moderator/curator.

Thank you for reading my blog. By all means, Hive on!