Paper-Cutting

I drew a shell and decided to show the shape of the shell by cutting out different patterns within the shell to give it texture and to see the different layers of the shell.

I started by cutting patterns into the areas where the shell was hollow, trying to keep it quite compact to represent the shadow within the hollow area.

I found that some knifes were sharper than others and I personally found it easier to cut the curvier lines with a blunter knife as it didn't cut the cartridge paper as easily so it was more controllable.

I then started to cut lines where the texture in the shell was, to try and give it more of a 3D effect with shadowing and texture.

Here, is a photograph of the paper-cut out with the ceiling light shining through. I feel as though this didn't work very well as the light only shines through a small area of the paper-cut out as the light is too small so it doesn't have much of an effect. I also feel like even if the light shone through the entire paper-cut it would not have worked anyway as you can see in the small area where the light does shine through that the light blurs in the camera and actually covers up the paper so that you can't see the detail of the cut-out.

Here I tried to place the cut-out on different backgrounds to see what effects it would have on the paper-cut out. In the two photographs above, I used a digital background which was a blue-space scene and I think it gave the cut-out of the shell a watery effect to give the impression that it is floating on/ or in water.

In the photograph below, I placed the shell paper-cut out on top of my big final work piece from the three that I did as the background was done in the colours of shells and I think that it works well the the paper-cut as you see the background shine through with the cut out areas showing revealing the colours of the shells. I feel that for the textured area on the right I need to cut more paper away to reveal more colour and have the white paper act as the shadow area, as well as finishing it to add more shape and texture to the shell. I feel that it worked best with the painted background behind it rather than light and digital screen as it made it seem more naturalistic.