The concept is a portrait cut into a coarse grid of paper squares, slightly misaligned and pinned to a wall, and the prompt sells it with physical details: curled edges, lifted corners and the tiny shadows they cast. Handwritten words on four squares, plus sticky notes scattered around the edge, turn a portrait into a story. We filled it with a fictional retired lighthouse keeper and four words (tide, salt, light, home), and the slate-blue wall plus pale-yellow notes gave a moody, cohesive palette. Keep the grid coarse (4×5 or 5×6); finer grids lose the collage feel. It works for character posters, memorial pieces and book covers.
How to adapt it
Variable
What it changes
Examples
[Character Name]
who the portrait shows; use a fictional character
a fictional retired lighthouse keeper, a jazz pianist, a mountain guide
[text1, text2, text3, text4]
four handwritten words on the face
tide, salt, light, home
[Color] / [Sticky Note Color]
wall and note colours
slate blue + pale yellow, terracotta + white
Tips
Choose four words that tell the character's story; they read as the poster's tagline.
Contrast the wall and note colours; similar tones make the notes disappear.
Avoid real celebrities; an invented character gives you full control.
