Lost in Forest Wild!

Here are the first silk paper cuts of a story that I'm currently working on. They are, as yet, unfinished and fairly unrefined (that's the hard/ tedious part and comes later). The story involves my character, Daniel, who gets lost (surprise surprise!). Some of the imagery maybe familiar as I started the idea for this story more than a year ago and did some preliminary silk paper cuts then. Hopefully the whole story will be exhibited in May and I hope to use lighting to its full potential to create dramatic shadows.
For now here is the Title page - 'Lost in Forest Wild'. You even get a bit of my Taipei nighbourhood thrown in if you look carefully.


Here's a bunch of bugs, but can you see the artist's name?


Here's Daniel fleeing the trees. They want him!


Now they really have caught him. What can he do to escape..?


You'll just have to wait and see!

Analu Prestes

It's almost impossible to be truly unique anymore as I found out several times recently. First, I did a post on my new moleskine sketchbook (see Feb 5 post) only to discover a million billion other people using the very same sketchbook and they're all using it better than me! Then I start playing with light and shadow on my silk paper cuts (see Jan 18 post) only then to come across the Brazilian artist Analu Prestes and her fantastic paper cuts. She's had the benefit of exhibiting her cuttings and lighting them to create stunning shadow play. Check out her work at Flickr and her Website. She describes her paper cutting as 'Alumbramentos'. I'm not sure what that means, but her work is impressive in scale and variety. Here are some examples.


It's interesting how, after cutting the paper, she gently lifts it giving it a 3D effect.

I like the way the work is hung away from the wall allowing shadows to form. Some are lit from above and some below. Some walls are curved while others are painted black. Each giving very different effects.