To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 18:50:07 -0500
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Difficult Workshops


Sorry Mary, no pics.
I destroyed all my samples, in a fit of mild inner rage that looked casual 
and indifferent on the outside.
LoL

Anyways, the samples were just simple basic exercises that showed each 
technique.
Nothing fancy.

The main "recipe" was this: choose a very basic shape to base your design 
steps on.
In my case, I chose a long lean leaf shape. I used it as a shape that served 
as much as a negative cut or as a positive shape into the paper (various 
colors and textures of high quality handmade papers).  I changed the scale 
of the shape, and squashed and stretched it at will, so I had various 
proportions of the same basic shape.  I made leaf-shaped slits in a long 
rectangle, and those legs became like tentacles. I cut out kleaf shapes in 
the paper while leaving a root at their base, to lift them up, paper 
pop-up-cutout kind of old technique.  When I had a variety of these shapes, 
and the negative scraps of them, I started to assemble them together and 
onto a paper box base (a kind of "almost" origami box), by cutting slits 
into them and sliding them into each other. Some shapes were assembled by a 
very small amount of rice glue. The most difficult glueing was done with 
very small amount of white glue.  Miniature versions of the leaf shapes were 
also made and inserted in some shapes, to add as an extra detail level. 
Overall, it was about choosing some primitive shapes, composing with them 
using some principles like pattern repetition, composition, contrast, 
definition, movements in space, explosion away from the boring single mass.

Before the workshop, I was very inspired by this approach, and will probably 
give it a better shot on my own time someday, and definitely on something 
semi-figurative.
But for now, even if I had the time, I wouldn't try for some time. My 
enthusiasm for it was sucked out of me during the workshop.


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