Paper Reflection Sculpture

The main idea that started this artwork was creating a paper sculpture based on a descriptive word that represented the first semester of my junior year. Surprisingly I found it easier to come up with a design that represented my first semester than coming up with a single word.  I sketched out two different ideas and really liked the idea of modeling a head out of paper. Looking at the sketch of the face I decided it represented the word "Solemn". Then I had to figure out how to make a 3D face out of a 2D piece of paper, to do this I went back to the resource I used as a reference for the sketch; a simplified 3D model of a face that showed of the plains of the face. Using the plains of the face as a guide I first created the nose, then built on of that. Something I intended to do the entire time was leave the eyes blank or hollow, what I didn't figure out until later in the process is that I could use black paper to get a sense of looking into the faces eyes and seeing nothing. Overall I do think this piece captures the idea of solemn or solitude. 

The objective of this assignment was to create a 3D sculpture out of 2D material paper. In this piece, I used white paper to create the basic face. Then I used black paper behind the eyes to create an empty look, and to outline the important shapes of the face. I used a combination of black and white paper to create contrast because I thought the face looked plain when it was entirely white. This sculpture is held together by scotch tape and hot glue, and I hot glued on the black strips of paper. Overall this was a new experience for me, I haven't done much 3D design work and paper was an entirely new medium for me. Initially, I thought paper was a hard material to work with, you can't un-do folds and it bends when you don't want it to. Although I still think that is true I also learned that paper is a very versatile material, not just from my own work but also from the things my classmates were able to create.

The first step of creating this piece was creating idea sketches, I did two. The first one I did was of the paper face and I went with that simply because it was what I was set on doing from the beginning. In terms of making the piece, I did experiment and had setbacks, at the way beginning I started with making a nose that resembled the pointy one in the sketch, and I did not like it. I re-started and made a second nose with rounder plains and liked it a lot more, I built the rest if the project off the nose. Why did I give the face voids for eyes? I thought it would be the best way to represent my word "solemn" because it reminded me of the expression "they had a blank stair". I used two tones of paper for contrast after I did the eyes because I realized  I liked the two-toned look.