The Project:
For this project, had the topic, paper. Open to anything except the use of glue we were able to explore the ways and manipulation. in-class, we were able to test out and experiment with techniques such as folding, bending, twisting, using water and many more. After some brainstorming and planning on my ideas, I came up with paper mache. Not being able to use glue was apart of this assignment; however, luckily, that was not a significant issue for myself. I was able to use a paste out of water and flour. The biggest problem which I was facing was what to make. My options were endless since there was no need for meaning as to why. I found myself on Pinterest looking for inspiration and slowly started leaning towards a doll, inspired by Coraline and the corpse bride. I then proceeded to start sketching my idea. I self-portrait of an animated cartoon formed me was sketched. After planing my drawing, I then set off to bring my portrait to life.
The Process:
One cup of water, one cup of flour and a pinch of salt, mix together, and there’s the paste. Starting by scrunching multiple pieces of paper, I slowly started to get a face form. I had left this to dry and proceded to attempt the hair. I had realised that for myself to be able to get a good result. I will need some space between the chin and floor. It had come to my attention that a neck/base was going to be required. Knowing that paper woul]d not be strong enough to hold the head, I had used three small cut-outs of cardboard to act as a stronger support base.
Once I had let the paper dry from around my base, I started to do a base coat of paint for the face. After I did this, it was time to tackle the hair. This took — a few attempts and eventually, I was able to make two low pigtails sitting on the shoulder of my character. Once the hair had dried, I set off to add colour and give some life to my mini-me.
Artist Inspiration:
As I had mentioned in my process and planning pages, my primary source of inspiration was from Tim Burton and Henry Selick. These two creators are well known for their dark and gory styled movies and animations. Some well none animations are The Corpse Bride, Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline. Both having similar-looking characters to my mini-me.
Tim Burton: The Corpse Bride 2005.
Henry Selick: Coraline 2009.
The Final Images:
For my final images, I chose to present it with a white background. I did test out some other colours such as grey and black; however, the white worked best and allowed the light for all the colours to pop. Overall I quite enjoyed this short project, and I found that I had quite a lot of fun building and designing my piece. I have never done anything like this before, and I found that working with paper can be quite a fun and different medium to use.
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