Cut Paper Project: Owl
This is the bird image I used to help me draw out the owl for my project
My current artist is Helen Musselwhite who is well known for her cut paper projects on nature.
This is a self-portrait with birds by my master artist Frieda Kahlo, I tried to cut my bird as realistic as she painted hers.
These are the original sketches I did before coming up with the idea for the owl.
This was the main sketch I used, but I changed it a lot because it seemed too similar to my reference of my master artist
My final piece
My final piece shows a cut-paper owl against a forest background with branches surrounding it. The owl is done in all different shades of brown. The background is a green floral background, and the branches are brown with pink flowers on them. People are supposed to perceive this piece as the beautiful serenity of nature. This piece was a lot of work to make. I began by making a lot of sketches of different ideas I had. At first I was going to do an ocean themed project, but changed last minute to do a owl. I first cut out a piece of cardboard, glued a piece of paper on it, and then finally glued the floral paper to it. Next, I cut out all the papers for the branches of the tree. I then used an exact-o knife to cut out a bunch of small Styrofoam squares to put underneath the branches. On the parts of the branch that extend from the border, I doubled up the Styrofoam to make them stand out more. Then I traced and cut out a bunch of flowers to put around the border, and hole punched some small circle to add something more the the branches. I finally cut out all of the owl pieces, which was a lot of work, and glued everything together.
For my references, I used the work of Helen Musselwhite, my current artist, to help me. She creates intricate cut paper project that often depict different aspects of nature. I mainly focused on the image she did in shades of white. I also used the picture of a real owl to help me determine the pose that I wanted to use for the owl. I also looked at some of my master artist, Frieda Kahlo, works. She is famous for her portraits, but I mainly focused on the portrait she did with her and the birds. The birds have a realistic look to them which I wanted to show in my owl. The principles of design I used for this piece are balance, and emphasis. The balance can be seen in how I tried organized the branches. Each corner has a different branch in it so that the piece didn't get too complicated. Emphasis can be seen in the owl. Your eye is immediately drawn to the owl because it is all lighter brown colors compared to the other darker ones used. Space is very important element in this piece. Space is used to show the distance between the different pieces of paper, which was the purpose of the piece.
This piece originally didn't have very much meaning, but in the end it did. The simplicity in the colors of the piece show the peacefulness of nature. The forest is often described as a calm, peaceful environment which can be seen in the colors of the piece, as well as the simplicity of just the owl sitting against an empty background. The flowers on the sides of the branches represent the beauty of nature. The flowers are very simple, but are still very beautiful. Despite the peacefulness of the piece, the muted colors also represent the solitude and confinement of the forest.
I think this piece turned out really good. I am really happy with the way it turned out, but there are something I would change if I were to do it again. The owl needed to be chubbier to look more realistic. It is too skinny compared to the one I used as reference. I also would add more flowers or leaves surrounding the piece along the branches to add more to the bareness of the branches. Overall, I think this piece turned out really well.
