Origami Painting

Artist Model Cedric Chambers

Cedric Chambers is a contemporary American oil painter who transforms simple folded paper into dramatic, photorealistic art. Best known for his Origami Series, Chambers paints paper animals—like dinosaurs, planes, and birds—set against glowing sunsets or deep shadows.

For Chambers, origami is a symbol of childhood nostalgia and fragility. He often notes that while paper is temporary and easy to crush, painting it in oil makes those fleeting moments permanent.

What to look for:

Dramatic Lighting: Notice how he uses strong light sources (like a setting sun) to create deep, long shadows. This makes the flat paper look three-dimensional.
Texture: Even though he is using paint, you can "feel" the matte texture of the paper and the sharp crispness of the folds.
Storytelling: By placing a small paper T-Rex or plane in a "heroic" pose, he gives a tiny object a sense of grandeur and personality.

Origami-Elephant-oil-painting-in-1-minute-or.mp4

Origami on Blue

Rocinate

Paper Birds

Artist Spotlight-Candi Dentice

New Zealand artist Candi Dentice creates paintings with a conscience. While her work is beautiful to look at, her focus is on ecology and the fragile state of the natural world outside our window.

In her oil paintings, nature isn't wild or messy; it is "tightly ordered" and contained. She uses origami as her main tool to show this. Instead of painting realistic feathers or wood, she paints flocks of paper birds taking flight and paper boats set adrift. These folded paper objects act as symbols for nature—beautiful, but man-made and delicate.

What to look for:

The Linen Texture: Dentice paints on fine Italian linen. Look closely at how the weave of the fabric interacts with the smooth oil paint. She doesn't always hide the canvas texture; instead, she uses it to give the "paper" object a tactile, fabric-like quality.
Isolation: She often places her paper boats or planes in the center of a large, empty background (negative space). This "graphic design" approach draws your eye purely to the shape and shadows of the origami, making a small object feel significant.
Subtle Shadows: Notice how she paints the cast shadows underneath the paper objects. They are often soft and delicate, grounding the object so it doesn't look like it's floating, but maintaining a feeling of lightness.

Colour Scheme

You will need to select 3 colours for your artwork. ONE of the colours must be a tertiary colour [avoid colour stright out of a the tube]. YOu can also select a monochromatic colour scheme like the elephant below

You can use tints and shades of those three colours

EXPLORE - In your Visual Diary - experiment with your chosen colour schemes to make tints and shades. ensure the colours work well together. Idenify what you will use for your origami, background and table.

SOURCE IMAGE FOR PAINTING- You can choose to use one of your original photos taken for the eyes to hands unit or one provided by the etacher of more complex creations.

A few acrylic painting tips:

Keep your brush water clean! Dirty water makes for dirty colours. It’s a good habit to get into that when you can’t see through the water anymore (it looks like cream soup) dump it out and get fresh water.
Keep the paint out of the ferrule and brushes clean
Keep a cloth handy to dry off the brush once it is cleaned. If there is water left in the brush the colours will be runny.
This stuff dries fast! Make sure to let an area dry completely before trying to paint over it again (if trying to correct a mistake). Acrylic dries from the top down and sometimes it will appear dry but when another layer is added the paint from underneath will “lift” causing a white area because the new paint is pulling up the half dry paint underneath. This also happens if an area is overworked too long before moving on.

below photo Courtesy of Rolleston College art students

Origami painting

This will be painted on card approx A4 or A3 size.

prepare your surface by priming with gesso and doing a primer wash of either pale grey or sepia
select your colour scheme . One colour for the background, one for the table and one for the origami [Tints and shades of each]
Tape a photocopy of your origami photo to the board (with transfer paper in between with graphite side facing down if using transfer paper) so it stays put while you transfer the image. lightly mark out your origami shapes and lines
Use a large brush to paint in your background colour and tabletop colour [don't make it flat - if using purple mix the red and blue on the board to show texture and depth]. dry brush a lighter hue of your colour over the top.
Print a greyscale version of your photo to use while you paint, as a reference of where the correct values and transitions need to be. There should be smooth transitions of values and Crisp edges where the paper creases are.

PROCESS AS SLIDESHOW - CLICK HERE

PROCESS VIDEO - below

photograph your work and turn in on google classroom for marking

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