The Country Child

Wow, it's been a while since I posted! Christmas and the New Year have been really busy. Since October I have been working 7 days & 2 evenings a week (on non-design jobs!) and finally it's getting back to a more manageable pace. I was working on design projects when I could so it's meant alot of very late nights, but I think it's all part of the job! Why else do all designers seem to live on coffee?! I also had limited internet access for a while which in this day and age is disasterous!

So my last post showed early developments of Alison Uttley's 'The Country Child'. Derby Theatre are holding a week long event this summer celebrating her life and books, with a produced version of The Country Child as the main event.

It's been a long time spent working on the poster - Uttley has written some beautiful books (she has been unofficially dubbed as Derbyshire's Beatrix Potter) and undoubtably her writings have touched many people. For these reasons, something delicate and with alot of love put into it is needed to represent her.

So, here are some of the final(ish) images, needs a bit more work on selective contrast etc, and of course poster text to be added, but I am pretty pleased with it. What I love most is that it is totally handmade, the paper sculpture of the girl, my own textures, hand painted type... I found some lovely old wallpaper that I scanned in and messed with for the flowers...

Poster - made to look like a bookpage come to life!

Theatre (Studio) Leaflet version

The web banner version of the poster

Anyway, best get back to work!

x

Paper Sculpture - my favourite medium! (Tutorials coming soon!)

If I had to pick one thing concerning my creativity that I would NEVER give up, (it would be extremely difficult to pick) but it would be my paper crafting and sculpture. It covers so many areas such as quilling, folding, decoupage, cutouts, etc. I love to work with paper so much - the different weights, textures and colours and how each respond differently to manipulation. I may be weird but it gets me going - but each to their own, eh? If I could be paid enough to do nothing but paper sculpture, that would be ideal. One day it will happen!

I will be posting often on this topic, so I wanted to use this as an introductory post on the subject and show some works I have previously done. I am working on a big project at the moment and taking pictures along the way, so when it's done I will give a write up and tutorial for anyone who wants to try this amazing art form.

The way I work focuses heavily on layering techniques, and very importantly - lighting, to convey emotion and show the work in it's true form or the way it is meant to be seen.

Some previous works; the first few pictures are from my final self directed project during my degree - the theme was Imprints, and I took the memories of a good friend after interviewing her and making a series of paper sculptures.It's actually not finished, there is alot i want to do with it, but here are some images as they stand now:

Introductory / typographic sculpture

 

 

'Nanna' and 'Poppa's' wedding day

A close up of the bouquet, made with wedding confetti!

Watching through the window

Daffodils

Another piece I made for self promotion (they went on business cards)

A very recent piece, done in practice for my new secret project!

Without Lighting, still interesting and beautiful

Lighting makes all the difference

A closer and more detailed / high contrast view

Anyway, I hope you see why I love paper - so versatile and so beautiful. All of the sculptures are made with nothing but paper, maybe glue, 3d tape, knives obviously, scissors and like the last image some jewels used for decoration.

Hope you enjoyed this! More to come, so stay posted!