Adjusting the final Composition

Even after you have cut the main portions of the work, you are not happy with the background, what can you do to adjust it? You can do 2 things. You either add or subtract elements to the background or use colour.

You need to have a soft copy of your papercut in Photoshop.

Delete the parts of the papercut you don't like. Next think about what you want to add to enhance your work. In this example, elements have been added to the back. The circles emphasise the hand movements and make the top half even heavier to make the Kung fu feat seem harder and more amazing.

When adding colour, the colour is used very sparingly. By using lines of colour, the depth and 3D effect is enhanced. When a big patch of colour is used, the work will flatten again.

Creating the Papercut Image

After last week's lesson, a common question asked was how to simplify a realistic pattern for filling in the white bits? Firstly, you need to do a pencil drawing. Close observation is needed. Once you understanding the surface tension of the object that you are drawing, you can use Lines to replace and mimic the flow and rhythm of the original object. Look at the 2 samples below. The left shows the original drawing; the left shows the ink drawing where the creases on the monk's robe are simplified into spirals.

Upper Sec E-Learning Week4

Paper cut-cutting techniques

When you are cutting, you need to concentrate. Your cuts must be clear, especially in the corners- there shouldn't be hairy bits left hanging. Your blade must be fresh. After 50 cuts, change the blade.  

Coursework E-learning Week3

HOW TO REFINE THE PLAN
It is very important to refine your final design plan. What does an unrefined plan look like? For example:-
In this design plan, a lot of the black parts don't join up. If you tried to cut this, it would come apart!


In successful traditional papercut designs, all the parts have to join up. As seen in the design below.

So scrutinise your plans and join up all the black bits.

3D Papercut

For the more ambitious, you can do a 3D Papercut. A quick recipe for this is given below:

1. Separate the section you want as the pop-out piece from the main piece of paper.

2. Do both pieces as separately as you would a normal papercut.

3. Plan how you want to integrate both sections. Take into consideration the colour schemes to give the work depth.

Finally, when you put both pieces together, you get something that looks like this:-

E-Learning Upper Secondary

The sample uploaded here is a past exam work. Please study it, by analysing the way the information, drawings and devleopment is done. Final work is the first piece on top followed by all the pages of prep below.