New colouring idea 2 - paper cut...

I had worked with a paper cut experiment for my research project, where I had first been inspired by the character making techniques of Wolf Erlbruch.
Erlbruch first starts off by drawing the sections of particular characters onto paper, he then cuts them out and sticks the components down. Once this is done, he then proceeds to add in texture and detail with coloured pencil or sometimes paint.

One of his most well known and emotional narrative books is "Death, Duck and the Tulip". This page in particular is supposed to represent the night that Death stays up and comforts Duck as she dies, after spending the day following her and befriending her.

An interesting point that I have discovered with this is the importance of using the right colours. Although, technically, the underlying colour is a complete block cut out, the use of lighter and darker mediums make it more into a mid tone. Erlbruch also uses a pencil the same colour as the background to draw lines which, in most other types of illustration, would be the black lines. However, in the situation black lines would be much too harsh and spoil the emotional softness of the image.

Erlbruch's handmade style has also been translated well into the forms of animation and puppet performance. Though I do not intend to progress onto such things with The Nikahrat, it is good to observe how another's handmade style can fit so well into other aspects of original creation.

Link to animation clips of Death, Duck and the Tulip

Theatre puppet performance.

My experiment...

I had a lot of fun with this! Again, I preferred to work on a smaller scale as I am more comfortable working with fine detail. Although it was sometimes a little challenging (the feathers and eyes, for example), I managed to appreciate how important it is to realise and have a good understanding of shape. It was fun to add some light and shadow effects but when layered underneath the linework I don't think it works. 

It is also too disjointed and contrasting when having just the paper cut in the ink detail environment. It looks messy and badly composed. Here it gives the effect of a piece of a child's collage, not depicting notions towards folk art.