7th April "Rob Ryan"

On Thursday 7^th of April, I continued to explore contextual studies and specific contemporary paper cutting artists for my sketchbook and “Unit 8 Structures”. In the studio practise, I explored the works of Rob Ryan who is a contemporary artist that creates intricate paper cuttings. The task allowed me to continue to research contextual studies and specific paper artists which will inspire me to develop ideas for the development of my project. Also, the task allowed me to generate ideas from exploring different artists which will be taken further into my project and developed through experimentation. By exploring contextual studies through the studio practise, it has allowed me to develop my paper craft skills and the equipment I used to create this. Finally, the studio practise has allowed me to analyse an element within a range of research sources to support "Unit 8 structures".

To start the studio practice, I collected Rob Ryan’s pieces of work and identified how I am going to create them for my sketchbook. Rob Ryan’s work is very simple and explains a story through letters and pictures. I was curious to explore lettering within paper-cutting as I have never experimented creating lettering because I found the appearance of them difficult to re-create. However, I wanted to experiment with lettering so I focused on this element when exploring Rob Ryan’s work. For the materials, I decided to use variety of different coloured card because it is a strong material to create stable paper cut pieces but also it is good to work with the craft knife and the equipment I use. Throughout the studio practise I followed health and safety instructions to avoid the risk of injuries. I continued to use a cutting mat and ruler to allow me to cut safely in the direction I am wanting to follow. Also, I placed my hand away from the craft knife to avoid the risk of the blade moving and causing injury. All of these instructions were followed throughout the studio practise whilst creating paper cutting pieces.

Firstly, I focused on creating Rob Ryans “Clough Vase” and I collected black card and started to draw the outline of the shape and details within the piece. I problem I faced when drawing the font outline was that I couldn’t place the whole text that is on the original piece. To solve the problem I collected two sentences from the piece and placed it onto my design which still related back to the theme of the piece. Another problem I faced was that I found it difficult to cut out the intricate fonts and patterns on the surface of the piece. To solve the problem, I used a smaller craft knife to cut out the elements which allowed me to develop my skills and knowledge of paper craft equipment. After completing the piece, I focused on completing Rob Ryans “My Home”.

To start the piece I repeated the same process as “Clough Vase” and I collected pink card for my surface and drew the outline for my piece. I found creating this piece difficult compared to the previous work because it included more intricate elements which had to be cut out through the smaller craft knife. By exploring this element, it has allowed me to develop my skills with the new piece of equipment and to continue to practise using it for paper crafts. A problem I faced with creating this piece was that I found cutting out particular elements difficult to achieve which led to particular elements being damaged. To improve next time, I am going to keep practising with this piece of equipment which will allow me to develop my paper craft skills. I enjoyed creating this piece because a border was included in the layout which I found interesting to create. The final outcome is presented below.

Next I am going to continue further research of Rob Ryan and create a title page for the artist which will present a variety of work and my opinion of them.