3-D projecting form

This week we moved from 2-D work into 3-D artwork. The last few weeks we were creating 2-D flip up books but now- after being given a new book with a completely new genre we made, using newspaper (all recycled), something from the contents of the book to come to life and pop out of the book.

I was given a book that was all about botany and particular plants. I brainstormed ideas that I could use and in the end- because the flowers had big petals and winding vines I decided to do a viney flower blossoming out of the book. Also, to create maximum effect I stuck down ripped pieces of paper to create the look of the flower "bursting out of the paper".

We actually created the basic structure by rolling up recycled newspaper and modelling it using firstly masking tape. Then, after we had left it to dry, the next week we started to add colour or text ripped from the other pages of the book. I ripped out all of the green pictures and images and, using PVA glue stuck the small pieces on. I then used different yellow shades to cover the head of the flower. My art was not very sturdy, so I decided to use a twig from outside my classroom to prop up the sculpture. I then thought it looked quite natural so I decided to keep the twig.

This is my finished product-

A birds eye view

I am extremely surprised with how sturdy and well my pop out sculpture came. I am surprised because when I first started using the newspaper to sculpt the stem of the flower was extremely unsteady and I thought I may have to start again or try to make it more sturdier. But by adding a liberal amount of PVA  glue that helped make the base much more sturdy and supportive.

If I could improve it in any way I would try and use shading and make the colours that cover the flower much more obvious and easy to see e.g that leaf is a lighter yellow as the leaf at the side is more orange. This would make the piece much more aesthetically  pleasing by the colours blending in and making the flower more smooth and have the same texture of the flower.

My artwork closely resembles the artwork of sculpture Sachiyo Yoshida. As you see, I tried to closely replicate the 'bursting out of the pages look' which Sachiyo cleverly made here. But differently to my work this is much more sturdier because the artist most likely used wire to sculpt and hold up the shape of the ram, and then using the pages and alot of glue, maybe papier mache to make the 'skin' of the animal.

2-D Flip art

On Friday 17th lesson we started experimenting with using
 2-D flip art with our recycled books from Oxfam.

On the 9th of September we all got given randomly a book in which had been collected from an Oxfam shop in town. We were then given the task of finding out what our book was about- In my case I got a romance book called 'Dreaming of a stranger'. We then had to think of scenes that would sum up the synopsis of our books.

I decided to do a woman sitting cross legged at the beach to show a woman dreaming. We drew these on the inside covers of our book to save using and wasting paper. We wanted to use as little paper as possible.

We then had to actually create these scenes.We did this by firstly taking the middle 5 pages from each side and glued them together to make the pages thicker and more sturdy.

Then, after a week of drying, we took them out the next week and took a knife and a carving mat. Before carving we firstly planned out where we would cut and drew in pencil around. We put the carving mat underneath one of the sturdy pages and slowly and carefully cutting around the objects- making sure not to cut around them fully,but missing out the base of it so it can be popped up. We scored the base so they would hold up easier.

Firstly, here are the pictures of my draft sketches, drafts, the book and the finish product-

My Book- Dreaming of a Stranger

My drafts and sketches inside the front cover of the book

The view of my cutting of the book from the top

What it looks like- (my first ever try!)

The idea of flip art is from many artists- one being Sue Backwell who did a scene of a forest,

Another one is by an unknown artist who did a piece called 'Alice at the Mad Hatter's' which is actually 3-D pop up as opposed to 2-D pop up



Another one is again from someone I could not find the name of. This artwork is amazing because it looks like it was so intricate to make. It is called 'fables'



There are also many more artists that use the same technique.

Creative Tom Phillips

Tom Phillips was born in London in 1937 and is probably
most famous for his 370 paged artwork called 'The Humument'.
These pieces of artwork helped him get a solo exhibition at the
National Portrait gallery exhibiting other works of his as well such as a portrait
of Dame Iris Murdoch, a novelist.

The Humument is created by getting a page from a book and then covering up by paint or by wax crayon most of the works, leaving only a select few words left that all make sense and create a story or a meaning of some kind.

My favourite Humument ( meaning Human Document because that was the paper he used originally) is page 202 because although it is black and white you can see how he has used mark making to cover up the words that he doesn't want to use.

                    This is page 202 of the Humument

Anther one of my favourite pages of the Humument is page 334 because it is much more abstract and slightly harder to decipher the actual message,

 Page 334 of the Humument

Quick extra read!

I was looking through a website when I found this amazing 3-d book sculpture- I love the whole fairytale, ships and castles theme and how the artist has created platforms from the text in the book!


This piece is called Departamento de Misterios


The website is http://vi.sualize.us/view/amira/40c086c619000e4d9136008ce781dc3e/

Ros Rixon Recycles..

Ros Rixon's main artwork are sculptures such as 'spheres' and the 'Full circles'
project but Ros also made a project of 'Book Pages' and sculptures
that included a book sculpture called
               ' Artists at work'


This must have taken a long time to create because of for each page
 of the whole book the artist has stripped off hundreds of little pieces and
made them hang just out of the width of the book and has created an intricate,
 exciting sculpture to look at from different angles because it is on a pedestal so you can look at it from 360 degrees.
I think that because of the complicated paper the colours are better being slightly
duller and more sepia toned to make the book look more aged and old.


So that's all for Ros Rixon and I will keep posting if I see any more good artists!

Book-Artist Supreme Cara Barer

Cara Barer is most likely one of my top 'book' artists. 

Her photographs are (quoted for her portfolio) 'a documentation of physical evolution' 

I think this is a great way to describe her work. As I post up her photos you can start to see how elements such as air and water and fire and earth influence her work.

           Sea Nettle 2008 by Cara Barer

This photograph is very interesting to look at because of the rhythmical swirls and pattern that the book's pages create. 

Thinking of the elements and 'physical evolution' theme the book looks like it is submerged in water or levitating in mid air.

 I think this piece is effective because the black background makes it look even more like it is levitating on mid air. 

I also think the two toned black and white look makes the colours pop out more and look more contrasting which contributes to a more eye-catching photo.

The next piece of her work is called 

         






Argon again by Cara Barer

This piece is quite similar to the last one except to make it different

 and stand out from the other photos she has used magazines to make the paper glossy  

and different bright primary colours to be different from the black of the background and white of the paper.

Well that's Cara Barers' artwork I have analysed briefly- you will soon be seeing  the work of Ros Rixon coming up!

Eco- Artist Yoshimiki Hara

A brief biography of Yoshimiki,

Living in London, Yoshimiki is an artist that has recently
 used raw materials including newspapers and books.

Here are some of her pieces of artwork

(Unfortunately I couldn't find the name of this piece...)

This piece is extremely intricate because
 it is actually made from folded up newspapers glued on layer after layer.
This makes it sturdier.
I think the simplicity makes this piece much more effective.
 You then zoom into the artwork and find the hundreds of pieces of newspapers squeezed together.
Only then can you really consider the amount of time it must have taken to make.

( Also no name unfortunately.)


This piece is quite similar to the last one except there are much more chunkier pieces-
more ragged and sharper sticking upwards and outwards.
This is again another great piece of artwork that I extremely like.
This is probably because of the monochromatic colour of the newspaper but then if you focus you can see the odd colour of red or blue which brings the piece alive. It brings the piece alive by spritz of colours engaging the viewer's eyes and making the piece much more aesthetically pleasing.
The main shape of the sculpture is simple yet the main shape is made by complicated newspapers.


That was my first Eco-artist......
2-3 artists to go!