Carl describes Collage Illusion as “painting with paper.” The process begins with flipping through magazines in search of shades to collect for a color palette. He has learned that thick paper with rich colors makes for the best raw materials. When a particular shade stands out, he uses an X-Acto knife to carve out his selection, distributes the scraps into bins organized by color, and repeats this process until he has enough paper on hand to start piecing together an image.