“Climb d'em mountains & Strut like Beyonce”
After endless hours of sketching and cutting {10+ hrs}, I've finished my first papercut. I've created and dedicated the quote "Climb d'em mountains & Strut like Beyonce" to Daniel and Alex {rock it out!}. I chose to hand letter with sans-serif and cursive type to create a humanist feel. I think one of the most challenging things about papercutting was deciding on what to do first. Since this was my first time papercutting, I began sketching on a scrap piece of paper to map out my hand lettering and illustrations. I made refinements and then moved onto cutting. Feel free to take a look at my process below and stay tuned for more papercuts!
Images of my process
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| Tools I've been working with. |
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| First sketch was a little busy and exaggerated the quote too much. |
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| From the first sketch, I simplified and spaced out my illustrations for more negative space. |
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| After I finalized my sketch, I taped it onto a shimmery black cover stock. I felt that the shimmer effect resembled attitude and confidence, out there and proud of it! While I was cutting, I realized that I forgot to plan about the counter, bowls, eyes (holes within letters like e, r, b), so I was forced to cut them out.Then I started cutting away and...broke many blades in the process...haha. |
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| Mind you, I've never papercut before, so I didn't realize how challenging cover stock was to cut {painful too}. My first cuts involved smooth slicing, but I found it a bit hard to control... |
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| So, I tried a different cutting technique. Instead of smooth slicing, I used the tip of my blade to jab at the fine details which helped create clean lines. |
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| I placed the papercut on the wall to create a shadow effect. I became interested in how different backgrounds communicated different experiences with the quote. |
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| Close up |
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| Close up |
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| Here's the papercut on a marble texture. |
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| Placed on a window to use outside imagery as background. |
Hey Victoria
ReplyDeleteI love the detail of your first iteration of paper cutting your project. It definitely gives off this message of the contrast between the choice of background that you've chosen. I understand how difficult cutting card stock can be because it is more thicker than original or bristol paper since i've worked with it myself. I'm wondering for your 2 other iterations, are you going to use cover stock the whole way through? Good luck
What a nice start ! I know how hours of x-acto knife can be painful on the hand. You could try thick paper instead of card stock. Also a smooth paper is usually easier to work with than a grainy one (not sure if you considered that). For aesthetic you could also consider on your next iterations to leave the counters in your letters by leaving a connecting point. It would enhance the delicate feel and the elegance of the overall type, avoiding those big "empty space" like on the "B" or the "R". The result on the "outside view" background looks really good. Looking forward to see the next ones !
ReplyDeleteThanks guys! I will be using a softer and smoother cover stock for sure. Thanks for the advice Milene :DDD! I will try connecting for my other two iterations!
ReplyDeleteI love your project so much. The quote encourage and inspire me. It looks different to cut in this thick paper also I found you drew reverse. That is so hard. But your final turn out really good, all the harmful can get away.
ReplyDelete<3 thanks Emily :3
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