Workshop 3

In the third workshop I spent time planning out a design and experimenting with ways of making a floral based design...

We were given a large piece of paper so I decided to cut out a series of the same shape, a kind of shield shape, I cut out a few rows of this shape, cutting one out and using it as stencil so the shapes were the same and the same size...

I then cut a small shape out of the center of the shield shapes and folded the corners in to give the shape some 3D...

Next I put two together to see how I could attach the two corners together to make a bigger over all shape and to see how it could also become a repeated pattern...

I stuck 4 together in this way, but joined the corner of the first and fourth together to make a round shape, in the style of a flower, I then used the small sections I cut out of the shields and attached them behind the join where the two shields were joined to give the idea of leaves or extra petals...

I decided that this design gave off the floral idea as I wanted but the shapes were too big making the overall shape too big which made it flimsy and a bit too spread out for what I wanted, so I experimented with just attaching 3 shields together...

Finally I made 3 of these overall shapes that were made up of 3 shields and experimented with how they could fit together to make a more floral design and to also see how they could be repeated or made into a repeating pattern...

I liked this outcome so I think I'm going to try further experiments with it and more towards this design for my final piece...

Research - Primary Inspiration

After speaking to Richard Sweeney and showing him my ideas and designs he suggested that I might be interested in looking at Islamic Architecture, Moorish Architecture and Escher as their work is down the same path as where my inspiration seems to be taking me...

I started with Islamic Architecture...
I liked these pieces, I like the detail in them and how they are repeated patterns and designs without being too geometric or boring, I also like the use of colour and how the designs are fairly floral and illustrative...

Next I looked at Moorish Architecture...
These pieces are quite similar to Islamic Architecture, I like patterns and again I think they look quite floral with the repeated pattern that isn't too geometric, the colours are more basic and not as in your face but I think they still work well and make these designs interesting...



Then I looked into the work of Escher...
I found these pieces quite interesting, I like how he has made patterns up using the idea of nature and animals, but the focus is more on the pattern than the animals. I also think it's interesting how he has used different shapes to make the pattern too, he hasn't just made his designs fill a box, he's experimented further...

After looking at these forms suggested to me I also decided to look into flowers and floral design as this seems to be the direction I'm going for and these forms fit into that path too...
I would like to experiment with designs like these to see how I could manipulate the paper to a similar effect and see how the outcome would turn out...

I also decided to look into atoms, I think that atom diagrams have a similar shape to a simple flower.
I thought this would be interesting to look into as I would be able to manipulate the paper to combine both floral and atom like shapes to create an interesting and unusual shape...

 

Research - More Paper Construction Artists

After looking into Richard Sweeney's work and experimenting myself i decided to look into other artists who specialise in paper construction to see what else is out there and to gain a little more inspiration for myself...

The first artist I looked at was Jen Stark, her work is so colourful and vibrant it's hard to miss! I like the way she uses colour to make her pieces more alive and to make them even more 3D, i also like how she layers her work up and mixes her use of shapes and colours, some of her work looks like an optical illusion...

I then also looked at Peter Callesen, I found his work very interesting, even though he mainly uses plain white paper with no colour I like the way he leaves the area he's cut out in the piece to act as shadow or to show where the object has emerged from, I think it's very effective...

I also looked into Robert Ryan's work, I love how illustrative his work is, even though it's made out of paper it looks as though it could have been drawn. His pieces are also very sweet and could almost tell a story, he uses a lot of floral design in his work which gives it an almost fairytale theme, this floral design also fits in well with my primary research and floral experiments...

To further my research I found some work from Patricia Zapata, her work is also really sweet like Robert Ryan's, I like how in some of her pieces she has made small shapes inside a larger shape, I think this creates a really good effect and makes her work more interesting. She also uses a lot of floral inspiration for her pieces as well, this is really helpful and inspiring for my own work...

Workshop 2

For this second workshop I spent more time focusing on planning before I cut into the paper to create a better outcome that made more sense.

I tried to experiment with photography again to show the different angles but also to give a better idea of how 3D these experiments are...

This first experiment was designed to look like a flower in full bloom, I cut most of the shape out but than added gentle fold in places to make the flower stand out more, and to make it look more alive and 3D, I think it worked quite well but would be hard to make a sculpture out...

This experiment was more about how different folds work in different ways to create different outcomes, I cut simple lines into the paper, but instead of removing sections I folded the paper in different directions to create a more 3D look and to make the sections separate from each other...