24th May Creating My Final Tree Layout And Surface Of My Squirrel Character

On Tuesday 24^th of May I continued to create my final project piece for “Unit 8” Structures” through creating a final tree layout and starting to build up characters within my piece. Building up the characters involved creating features and textures within the layout of the animals that were going to be placed onto my piece. In the studio practise, I decided to focus on my “squirrel” character as it is placed within the foreground of my piece and involved a variety of elements and textures within the design. The design layout included the texture of fur and different colours within the body which all combined together to create my final character outcome. To recreate these elements I explored different paper cutting techniques and materials to achieve this. The task allowed me to continue to develop my confidence with paper cutting skills and layouts by creating a final feature element for my background piece. Also, the task allowed me to adapt my paper skills through re-creating more intricate details and textures within the characters of my piece. By completing the task, it has allowed me to experiment in further detail about paper cutting and combine my knowledge and ideas to create new character layouts. The task allowed me to explore within a new element of paper cutting through working into a large amount of surfaces and textures which gave a unique outcome. Overall, the task was useful because it allowed me to demonstrate the ability to plan, organise and develop my final project for “Unit 8 Structures”. Finally, the task allowed me to apply practical skills and theoretical knowledge and understanding to complete my final project.

To start the task, I decided to complete my final tree layout for my last section within the suspended shelf for my project. For the measurements I continued to make the height accurate for my paper cut scene and used 60cm for the piece. The length of the piece was 5cm because I continued to create an effective background which includes the scene moving into the distance. After creating the measurements, I decided to design the surface of my design which was tree surfaces. I felt confident when creating the layout of my design as I have developed my skills throughout the project and produced several tree pieces for the background of my piece. However, I continued to be less confident with cutting the piece out as it was an intricate design which is easily breakable when working to the layout. When working into design, I did face minor problems with the layout as I broke some parts of the pattern design with my craft knife. I overcame the problem and I will continue to develop my skills throughout the project but also gain confidence from this. After completing the background piece, I focused creating my “squirrel” character which is featured on the foreground of my piece.

To create the elements and features for my “squirrel “character, I decided to collect my secondary research images of the animal and observe the colours and textures of the layout. I found collecting these images useful as it allowed me to identify what features and elements I needed to include. For the texture, I noticed that a variety of colours and different shades were built up together in the fur and within the tail. To recreate this, I collected a large amount of colour card strips and started to build up the body and tail which became successful as I believe the collage matched the original image. Also, within the images I noticed that striking shades were on the layout of the animal. To re-create this I cut out pieces of large card and built them up together to create surface I was wanting to achieve. Finally, for the texture I decided to work and scratch into the surface in order to achieve the surface of fur. Throughout this task, I was nervous to explore the character as I haven’t worked into layouts that were really small and intricate. However, I developed my confidence which will be taken further into my project as I will be creating further intricate paper characters. Overall, I enjoyed creating the character as it allowed me to include features and characteristics within my design which will make my final piece more engaging for the audience.

 

Next, I am going to continue to create further characters of my final piece which will include a “stag” with a variety of textures and surfaces.