I've done some papercraft in the past, and have enjoyed some aspects of layering, texture and collage. It's not an approach that I have focused a lot on in my work, but I do like to keep different papercraft artists in my feed of inspiration.
My wife has explored more practical approaches to papercraft, in our first flat she created a beautiful piece of die-cut paper butterflies glued to a canvas. It was beautiful, and so effective despite its simplicity. Creating work with this kind of physicality is not really in my wheelhouse, so for this research task, I tried to look at a broad spectrum of approaches and not just the collage-focused practices that I normally gravitate towards.
Rob Ryan
Rob Ryan's work has been a favourite of my wife for a long time. She left me a card bearing one of his paper illustrations on our wedding day, so it left an indelible positive impact when I think of his work.
He has also illustrated glassware and ceramics, which is a useful note for my next research task, and it's interesting to look at the differences in his artworks that utilise paper versus glassware and ceramics. Ceramics provide a scaffolding that paper does not have, and I could see the different choices he could make with that kind of support. There is more freedom to spread out his compositions on those media.
I find the paper illustrations more considered in their approach and composition, knowing the delicacy of the medium the elements need to connect and support each other. It must be a painstaking process to carve out the paper.
I also noticed he has done some pieces using a more layered approach. These have a simpler look to them, more orientated around shapes than negative space. The hand-cut nature of the paper reminds me of Matisse's hand-cut paper pieces, but there is also a slightly surreal feel to the layered work.
His typography varies from hand-cut capitals all the way to ligatured script. He is comfortable varying in size and shape. He chooses not to cut the hole out of letters like O, P and R. Given intricate cuts, that would make sense from a point of stability and difficulty. However, I also see it in the layered work, which suggests at some point it became a conscious choice of style, perhaps even a recognisable marker of his work.
Steve Chapman
I was put onto Chapman's work by a friend. He seems to focus on bold lines and shapes with minimal colour choices. The black and white creates a lot of contrast and complements the surreal and abstract choices he makes.
Similar to Ryan, his typography is hand-cut and irregular. Given that he uses it as negative space, he also does not cut the holes in letters, which makes a lot of sense.
I enjoy the sense of freedom in the work; Chapman seems to make a lot of sharp angular cuts which gives an intense, somewhat febrile character to the papercut pieces.
Despite that, the content of the work is affirming, humourous and darkly surreal. It has strength in its simplicity, which was useful for me to notice. Sometimes the intricacy of paperwork illustrations seems daunting. It creates a mental barrier to entry. Chapman's work is raw and authentic; and presents the artist's worldview cleanly and without pretention.
Anna Valentini
In contrast to the simplicity of Chapman's work, I have seen several artists using thick paper and card in a technique my wife informed me is called "quilling". In my most recent research for this task, I came upon the work of Italian artist Anna Chiara Valentini.
What I found very interesting were all the different shapes she uses in her work. A lot of quilling artists use wrapped columns, folds or loops. What I enjoyed about Valentini's work is the way she creates capsules of colour.
It's hard to tell if all the background colour is from coloured paper flat against the base level behind the capsule, or if it's reflected colour from the walls of the capsule themselves. She also combines the small capsules with larger areas - both capsules and negative spaces between them - which have their own details.
The details look like they may be painted with an airbrush and this gives her pieces qualities reminiscent of both stained glass windows and art nuevo. Also interesting is the way that she uses flat shapes on top of the capsules that create visual interest as well as another layer of depth.
I was interested in how quilling artists apply the paper to the backboard. I assumed it must be a glue of some kind, but all the examples are finished works which means it's almost impossible to find imperfections. So I did more research on how it can be done. I found the tutorial below to be very helpful in understanding the process.
Mariia Lapitan-Yashchenko
In my research, I wanted to find some examples of more layered paper illustrations that didn't use collage or painted/textured paper. I came across Ukrainian artist Mariia Lapitan-Yashchenko. I was taken with her use of simple shapes and bold colours. She not only layers her paper but also uses bends and folds to create shape and height.
I also liked the way she uses height in general, with her pieces having layers which at first seem close together, with height directly relating to the sequence of layers. When I looked closer at some of her works, I noticed the space between layers which then allowed shadows to become part of the overall image.
She also combines certain layers at times, tucking layers behind others subtly which adds complexity and interest. The use of colour and shape gives the illustrations a look similar to vector art and would work very well in an editorial setting as well as standalone pieces.
Clover Robin
Robin's work was one of the first I noticed when I started my degree and became interested in exploring all the different facets and approaches to illustration. Her book "Cut Paper Pictures" (Robin, 2018) was one of my first purchases and gives a good insight into her process. It is primarily collage-focused and a lot of her work uses paper that has been textured and patterned before being cut.
She does talk about how to use paper that has its own texture or pattern (like, say a newspaper or magazine page) but most of the focus is on using things like acrylic and gouache paint on top of paper, using a variety of application tools to achieve different textures. She also uses coloured pencils to make both random and intentional marks (like brickwork, for example).
She also uses typography in her work and the book shows how she uses cut letters and coloured pencils to add words to her illustrations. There is one section in particular that I enjoyed which demonstrates how to create an alphabet using slivers of leaf-shaped paper to create letters that have a naturalistic theme. I think this could be useful for my exercise, to help me think about how to build up composite elements.
Victoria Roberts
When the coursework talked about origami as a well-known papercraft my mind immediately went to the work of Victoria Roberts, who is a brilliant artist who specialises in pieces using folded paper. As a resident of Bristol, a lot of her work revolves around hot air balloons as a theme (after Bristol's hot air balloon festival). Rather than an endless variation of origami sculpture shapes, she specialises in a smaller number of designs and adds variety and delight to the execution instead.
I noticed how she curates the paper she uses in her designs, using pre-printed textures and designs. One thing I liked about her framed balloons was her use of light, bringing the nature of the paper and the patterns out in another way. Having seen her work up close, what is amazing is how her pieces hold together - trying to detect the seams was almost impossible. This gives the work clean lines and clarity against their backdrop, even when Roberts expertly combines different patterned papers in the same piece.
Stephane Godec
In the summer of 2023, I visited Watts Gallery Artists' Village with my family. Amongst the activities and the main gallery itself, they were also showing an exhibition of artists that use repurposed and found objects. The work of one artist stood out to me - Stephane Godec - who creates sculptures out of books. Now, he is not the only artist to carve books, but what I like about his work is the addition of elements other than the books themselves, like in the image above.
There is a sense of whimsy to his work, and the addition of model elements like miniature figures, model vegetation and props makes me think of the work I did in the Visual Exploration unit. Looking at a lot of his work with paper, it seems connected to the physical geography, with the leaves of paper almost mimicking the contour lines of an ordnance survey map.
The works have a real physical presence that you don't get with the other kinds of paper work. It increases the tactile nature of the paper and allows for different kinds of storytelling. The process is precise and meticulous, with each page being cut by hand. The scale and ambition of this approach is awe-inspiring.
References
Chapman, S. (2023) Outsiders welcome paper cutting 21 x 21cm , Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CtWCIhQMMQH/ (Accessed: 04 October 2024).
Lima, L. (2024) Absolutely stunning paper-cutting illustrations by Mariia Lapitan-Yashchenko, Visualflood. Available at: https://visualflood.com/post/absolutely-stunning-paper-cutting-illustrations-by-mariia-lapitan-yashchenko (Accessed: 04 October 2024).
Louie, C. (2018) Quilling Glue - 5 Basic Tips to Avoid Showing Glue, YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/hGL5PDZmyto?si=m5zKT-NA9OSPNRZ4 (Accessed: 04 October 2024).
Roberts, V. (2024) Torigami on Instagram - balloon festival charity collaboration, Instagram. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-La21HMohL/ (Accessed: 04 October 2024).
Robin, C. (2024) Cloverrobin.com, Clover Robin. Available at: https://www.cloverrobin.com/ (Accessed: 04 October 2024).
Ryan, R. (2013) ‘give me work’, Rob Ryan. Available at: https://robryanstudio.com/archive/give-me-work/ (Accessed: 04 October 2024).
Valentini, A.C. (2024) Paper Art, Anna Chiara Valentini. Available at: https://www.annachiaravalentini.it/ (Accessed: 04 October 2024).
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