The Walls are Closing In #letsmakeacollage #diabolic

Final Result

Hey, hivers! It's been a long time since I made my last collage.

Why did I make this? For the past few months, I have been quietly volunteering my time to support people in my city, Karachi. By using OSINT and Reddit, I try to reach out to individuals experiencing severe distress or dark thoughts, offering them a safe space and a compassionate ear. To make sure I approach these sensitive conversations responsibly, I’ve read up on men’s mental health and occasionally use AI as a sounding board to help me structure empathetic responses. While professional helplines exist in Pakistan, many people unfortunately hesitate to use them. I am deeply mindful of legal and moral boundaries; I am not a professional counselor, so I never attempt to diagnose anyone or interfere in acute crisis situations. My focus is strictly on providing peer support for everyday struggles like relationship distress or isolation, ensuring I provide a safe outlet without overstepping. Recently, during a late-night session, someone shared a surreal, unsettling story involving themes of demons and black magic. That creepy atmosphere stuck with me, and it inspired me to stay up and revisit my collage-making skills to capture that exact vibe.

Recap

For anyone interested HERE is a collage I previously made.

If you notice, that previous piece was made out of six images. I really liked the way I turned a literal angel into a devil. With this new project, I was just trying to get back to being as good as I was before, though I honestly don't think I did as good of a job this time around.

What was the most challenging part?

The wall design I picked was incredibly stubborn; nothing seemed to look right on it. Because of the prominent texture of the bricks, I wasn't able to just drop an image in and have it fit naturally with the background. Everything felt slightly out of shape and mismatched. I tried working with shadows, but on such a dark background, the depth just wasn't showing up well. I originally wanted to add more mirrors to the scene, but I failed to find anything suitable on copyright-free image sites. I kept searching, but nothing was matching my specific taste or making sense for the composition.

Another major difficulty I faced was the process of cropping, removing backgrounds, and shifting colors to match the overarching environment. Adding the clock took multiple failed attempts, changing the asset repeatedly until finding something that actually fit the perspective. Furthermore, standard background remover tools completely cut out the shadow of the hand, forcing me to figure out how to compensate for that loss of detail.

Assets Used:

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