When thinking of what to make for this project, I decided to do a fish, because there is so much freedom with design choices. There aren’t specific colors, shapes, or sizes that I needed to stick to. I sketched up various patterns before settling on a tape dispenser type design. I really struggled with how to make the body shape. I chose red and orange as the colors because they contrast with the blue of the ocean and are just so eye catching.
After sketching out designs, I created several prototype models, playing around with the size of the fins, tail and body. I used clear tape to adhere the structures together, settling on how to construct and place all of the components. After figuring out the right sizes, I traced the prototype paper cut outs onto Bristol board for the final sculpture.
After cutting out the final pieces, I referenced my sketch again, and since I did not have colored paper, I painted each piece either red or orange to match my design.
After assembling the paper fish, I set it against a white background to photograph it. I decided on the design because I love the way it looks at certain angles, and the shadows it creates. The curved lines of the fins and body, contrast the planer look of the sides, which I really liked. I gave dimension to the tail and fins, by having them bent outwards. Overall, this project was a great learning experience, as I had none prior to this assignment. I liked the challenges that came with figuring out how to construct and design paper sculptures, and found them to be harder to solve, because paper isn’t as easy to work with as other 3D materials.