cut and torn paper on wood
6 5/8 inches x 14 1/2 inches
Click here or the image to stretch those tentacles.
I don’t know about you, but rainy days and Sundays always get me down. Well, not so much Sundays actually. I adore me my Sundays. Stack enough drizzly and grey days end to end though, and I can get downright grumpy and laconic. Japan isn’t known for it’s precipitation, but since I’ve moved over here it seems to rain pretty much every other day (occasionally without the “other”).
Even so, I don’t know if I fully trust this stringy fellow to clear my skies. There’s just something… oily about him. Greasy. Inky like an octopus. In the spirit of full disclosure, that’s probably the paper I used. I had originally planned to do this piece in a really nice textural black. Then I found the same wrinkly paper in this amazing blue-black color that, when it catches the light just right gives off a coppery glint like sun glancing off motor oil. I wish y’all could see it for yourselves.
Special thanks go out to the magnanimous and groovy Andy Bell, and all those creatures in his head. Having been dragged away from critter creation and forced onto his honeymoon, he asked me to contribute a guest creature. Thanks Andy, for giving my monster some playmates!
This piece has been trying to get out of my head for ages now. It’s been percolating for nearly a year. I finally dragged it kickin’ and screamin’ into the real world just in time for the Space + Nature group show a little bit back. I literally finished it at 6 in the A.M. the day of the show. Not surprisingly, I tortured my poor fingers more making this piece than anything else I’ve ever done. God bless band-aids.
For regular visitors to PaperCuts… um… hi! I’m back! You might have noticed that this is my first blog in a month. Prepping for three gallery shows in August and September, and all the other stuff going on during the last few months really took it out of me. Alot more than I thought it would. Right after the show ended my poor little brain crashed. I’ll try not to let that happen again. I just needed to take a little personal time to build up my energy and inspiration. So, thank you all for your patience! I’ll try to reward you for it in the coming months.
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This is simply amazing work!
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Nice.
love -
Holy crap!
That’s so beautiful!
(Please don’t hurt the little clouds! -_-;)
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wow
that is really cool
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Wow. I really saw this image and said to everyone around me at the time, you guys MUST check this out. Seriously the cut paper look is fantastic and this illustration is just top notch.
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Great design, beautiful work. Sorry about those fingers. It rained here for two weeks straight as the hurricanes came up here to die. Hot and gray, now it is cold and gray as the air is moving down from Canada, but sandwiched in between were a couple of perfect days.
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Hello Patrick!I truly thank you for your kind comment.Coming from you is such an honour.I found and linked your blog many time ago and since then I found lots of artists that deal with paper cutting but you are still one of the best for me because your really draw with paper.Thank you once again!
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Very cool illustration. The best ones are always the ones that a lot of time was taken to create.
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Glad he finally made it out of your head…Silly me, I’m just realizing that these paper cuts are actually affixed to wood…What type of wood to you use? And how are you “gluing” the paper to the wood. Fascinating stuff as usual!
Bridget -
This is amazing! Very nice work
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Thanks everyone, for your kind comments! I’d been thinking about making this piece for so long, it’s a real relief to have him out of my head and down on paper (so to speak). One day, I might even come up with a good explanation for why he hates clouds so much!
LDahl – thanks! My fingers are healed now (the one advantage of x-acto cuts is that they heal clean!), but the rain is back. Ah well. At least it gives me an excuse to stay inside and cut more paper.
Bridget – Yup, I use wood alot, probably for more than half my pieces lately. I really like the way the grain looks up against the paper, and I try to work the character of the wood into the piece itself. I often don’t know what kind of wood I’m using, either because it isn’t labeled or I don’t know the translation. In this case, tho, it’s cherry! In fact, this is the last piece of cherry I bought from a guy who makes cutting boards. As for the glue, the same glue I use to hold the paper together is fine for the wood. Usually a variety of craft glues or gel medium do the job nicely.
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Wow!! This is utterly utterly gorgeous.
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oh patrick ~ beautiful job as usual.
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Thanks Sam and doni!
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Pingback from PaperCuts · Walkin’ On Sunshine on April 22, 2010 at 9:27 pm
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