Final Poster

I was pleased with how my final poster turned out. Although it is nothing compared to Rob Ryan's incredible work it does reflect some similar techniques and style. It also clearly reflects the celebration of GF Smith Paper so the aim of the brief has been successful.

These were some photos I took when testing out different locations and views from windows. 

Below is the image I used to create my final poster. Unlike the other two it was taken in the morning when there was more sunlight and this is why my cut out turned into a black silhouette. This is the effect I was trying to achieve so I am glad this happened.

Rob Ryan is able to create much more intricate designs than I have on my poster as he works on a much larger scale. Unfortunately I have no where near enough room in my student accommodation to do anything on this scale.

 When creating my final poster I learnt from the near mistakes with my sculpture and made sure I has happy with the design and had drawn it all out before starting to cut out the image.

Cutting out my poster was a lot harder than the design for my sculpture, as it was a much smaller and more intricate design. It also had a lot of text which had to be very precise unlike in the design for my sculpture. It took me a lot longer to make the poster, almost double the time.

This is the image that inspired me to take a photography of my finished cut out against a well lighted window to create my final poster, as it would add colour and really emphasise the detail in my cut out.

Rob Ryan

Rob Ryan is an amazing designer who is famous for his incredible paper cut outs. I researched him at the beginning of the project, and there are some similarities between his work and my final sculpture. However it was when I came to create my final poster that I was truly inspired by Rob Ryan's work, helping me come to my final design. I decided that I wanted to create my own paper cut out, based on the style of Rob Ryan but obviously focusing on the brief and '100 Years of GF Smith Paper'. By using this technique I knew I would be able to create a poster that was relevant to my brief, rather than a photograph of a paper sculpture with some text next to it. By doing it this way I would be able to combine the two. The images above are a few of many of Rob's designs that inspired me and helped me to create my own design.

Final Sculpture

I am very pleased with my final sculpture as I successfully created my design and the effect I had hoped to, despite my fears that after cutting out my image the paper would not be able to be manipulated into a 3D sculpture. I was unsure as to whether my design would work in practice, but I was gladly surprised at how well it turned out. I really like the way certain parts of the sculpture breakaway from the spiral shape  as they have been cut in a certain way so that parts of them are not connected and have the freedom to not have to bend in connection with the rest of the paper. If I were to make the sculpture again I would add more intricate detail and perhaps have a wider variety of small illustrations rather than such large ones. I would also like to experiment with a square piece of paper as I feel the symmetry of the shape would make shaping the final design into a 3D sculpture much easier.

Creating Final Sculpture

 When creating my final poster I was sure to consider William Morris' work, to ensure that my image flowed well and looked like one whole image rather than a series of individual illustrations. I also worked hard to make sure that a large percentage of the border was connected to part of the image to ensure that my final sculpture would be structurally stable.

I started with just drawing part of my final image, and then cutting this out as I wanted to ensure that the design was working as I had planned. It was at this point that I learned to take great care with what I was cutting and not to cut too much as this may hinder the connections within my image and therefore make my sculpture weaker.

I then made sure I had drawn the majority of my design before continuing to cut unwanted parts out. In this image you can see that I have begun adding some detail to the left of the sculpture. I have cut small slits to show the edges of some of the shapes thats overlap with other, for example the flower in the centre on the left which overlaps with a leaf. I also cut out larger areas, particularly on the smaller flowers where I have cut a large part of the petals out of overlapping shapes. I am really glad I did this as it creates a very interesting effect, with the contrast between the paper and the blank space.

When I had cut out the entirety of my design I was able to make sure that it was structurally stable and that there were enough connections made both within the image and to the border around the image. Now that the basic shapes had been cut out I was able to add more detail to create my final design shown in the image below.

William Morris

William Morris is famous for his intricate floral patterns, with the images flowing together with no clear beginning or end. When designing my final sculpture I need to ensure that my image embodies these techniques as it is vital that a large percentage of the image is connected to the surrounding border. This will ensure that my sculpture is stable, and that it is able to be manipulated into various shapes and positions, rather than simply falling to pieces.

For my final paper sculpture I knew I wanted to use a similar technique to the one used in Workshop 2, however I wanted to adjust it slightly but I was unsure how to. I came across this image and had the idea to make the paper more flexible by cutting a floral pattern out of it rather than the traditional straight lines. I will then shape this into an interesting sculpture.

Skills Workshop 3

In the third workshop we worked on creating 3D sculptures with nets, I created this sphere by making several 3D pentagons from my net of a 2D circle. My sculpture is obviously not perfectly formed as I was only experimenting with the technique. Creating a neatly formed sculpture like this one would be very difficult and would require great accuracy, which is why I prefer the technique used in Workshop 2 which is much more forgiving and allows more freedom to experiment with interesting shapes and textures.

Skills Workshop 2

In the second workshop we experimented with the properties of paper once it has had several slits cut into it. The paper becomes much more flexible, making it much easier to fold and twist the paper into interesting 3D shapes. Despite the very rigid nature of the technique, a simple repeat of straight lines, the sculptures I created strongly resemble the freedom on natural objects. With my first strongly resembling a shell and the second a flower.

Skills Workshop 1

In our first workshop we experimented with pleating, a very simple repeat pattern. Although my sculpture is not overly successful, the process helped me to start considering the way paper could be folded, manipulated and transformed from a flat 2D material into a potentially incredible 3D sculpture.