Category: papercut

Failed illustration? Maybe not…

Failed papercut? Maybe not.
Raise your hand if you can spot four faces here!

This is a papercut that didn´t turn out quite as expected. At first, I thought it was going to travel directly from my cutting board to the trash bin, but then I accidentaly held it and it sort of decomposed and became a “mobile”. Love this kind of surprises!

More photos of the process of making this book here.

Papercut sketching

work in progress

Here´s a papercut illustration I´m working on. I love papercutting more and more as a medium!

Work hazards

After cutting this illustration the other day I realized that I have a really bad posture. I´m so concentrated on cutting the lines right that I simply forget anything around me, or about me, actually, and that includes how my back is positioned. At the end of the two hour session I realized there was something weird about my muscles and the next day I could hardly move.

I´ve been stretching my back periodically during the day, as well as wearing an extra layer of insulation for warmth; Paulo massaged my back with this weird smelling medicated cream and I can slowly move more and more without grinning. But simple things like sneezing remind me that I´m not fully recovered.

I think that after this warning sign I definitely have to watch my posture (I say as I straight my back).

Some recent work I can show

Final piece

Sometimes it is frustrating not being able to show the projects I´ve been working on because, well, they´re still projects and they´re still secret. This one, though, I can show. It´s an invitation I made for my youngest niece´s baptism next September. And I´ll attend it!

Her name is Clara, which reminded me of light, which I made the starting point for the papercuts. I worked them on double sided origami paper. Each side has a different, contrasting colour, and this is a feature I love because it brings double results with one cut only. The best part, though, is to frame the originals in one of those see-through (or glass against glass) frames, because just by fliping sides you can get a new papercut.

The whole “making of” sequence is here. Enjoy!

É amanhã

DSC03948

É amanhã o exame de alemão. Como não se me ocorre nada de interessante para contar aqui no “Entre…”, publico uma fotografia de um trabalhinho fofo que fiz na sexta-feira passada para uma pessoinha ainda mais fofa, a minha sobrinha C2. Estou danada para poder apreciar com o tacto o volume bochechal, bem como para contar pessoalmente as bolinhas que são os deditos dos pés.

Com a mana C1 tenho falado frequentemente por skype e ouço coisas deliciosas como “Bi, não precisas de ter saudades minhas, basta ligares-me por skype!” (será que já contei isto aqui? muitas vezes?), o que me apazigua as saudades, mas da C2 vejo os sorrisos e ouço os guinchinhos de satisfação (ou o berreiro de fome) que vai dando.

Hmmm, dúvida metódica: será que é por ter o cérebro torrado, ou melhor torriert, que estou a dizer todas estas coisas cheias de baba de tia?

Talvez seja melhor mandá-los passear aqui, onde estão as fotografias de todo o processo do dito trabalhinho.

Sketching and subtracting

These past few days have been busy sketching and developing and studies with cut out illustrations. Doing these studies has been a major part of the satisfaction a project gives me and I feel that it is being very helpful on my search to finding a “voice”, or a “style” for these characters. I´ve been repeating and repeating studies, trying different combinations of “full” areas (not cut out) and “empty” ones and learning a lot from this process. It´s amazing how much the relationship between shape and background can vary with tiny little changes in what gets subtracted from the paper and what doesn´t.

Really, I´m having a grand time working on this, can you tell?

More pictures of this process here.

Papercut "Irão reforça arsenal nuclear e complica relações diplomáticas com Estados Unidos"

"Irão reforça arsenal nuclear e complica relações diplomáticas com Estados Unidos"

This is an editorial piece made for the call for entries “Sou Ilustrador”. Unpublished. The only information given was a title for a potential newspaper article, about Iran´s nuclear reinforcement and how it affects its relationship with the USA. I decided to go with a papercut, a technique that I love more and more as time goes by. I love how its synthetic language forces me to convey the message in very symbolic details. Unfortunately, my work wasn´t chosen, but still I´m really happy with the result.

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Papercut feito para o concurso “Sou Ilustrador”, de carácter editorial. Para o concurso, apenas foi disponibilizada uma frase, o potencial título de um artigo dessa publicação: “Irão reforça arsenal nuclear e complica relações diplomáticas com Estados Unidos”.

Apesar do meu trabalho não ter sido escolhido, fiquei muito satisfeita com esta ilustração.

Thank you cards

thank you

I´ve been working on a series of “thank you” cards for my shop, all done with cut paper illustrations. I´m loving this tecnhique more and more every single time I do it! It´s still a bit hard on my shoulders and neck but the results are so satisfying that I want to keep cutting more and more paper.

More photos here (more will be added to this set as I upload them).

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Nos intervalos do “outro” trabalho que tenho estado a fazer (de design gráfico, para clientes), estive a fazer uma série de ilustrações em papel cortado para um novo conjunto de postais para colocar brevemente à venda na minha loja. Cada vez estou a gostar mais de usar a técnica do recorte em papel para ilustrações: por um lado, é o facto de ser uma linguagem minimalista, com apenas duas cores (a do fundo e a do papel); por outro, o facto de poder ter uma expressão de traço bastante rudimentar, por ser cortado com x-acto. Apesar das dores nos ombros e no pescoço com que fico quando faço uma nova ilustração, cada dia estou mais feliz com esta técnica!

Mais fotografias deste conjunto de cartões aqui.

I´m camera-less...

I´m camera-less. My very faithful, always with me digital camera decided to become an impressionist yesterday, after several long years of hard work. I´m sad because it was a present, I´m sad because I was used to it and loved working with it, and mostly sad because apparently it is a defect that Sony is aware of – and still, it appeared after the warranty expired. Now I don´t want to go into the “big corporation” doesn´t care argument here, as apparently Sony US is repairing cameras for free – if you´re in the US. Here in Argentina I was told a huge, bold no and that I would receive a quotation for the repair.

Anyway, this is one of the pictures my camera took while living its impressionist stage:

So that´s why I´m now relying on my laptop´s camera, which of course isn´t neither the most portable camera in the world nor the best quality ever. But still I´m thankful it exists because that way I can show you the papercut I worked on today. I hope to convert it into a card later this week and add it to my shop as soon as possible (but will need a decent camera to photograph the cards, right?).

One eyed Billy

Making of IF Breeze_05

Ontem, apesar de ter a visão totalmente descompensada por ter um olho a ver bem e o outro mal, pus-me a fazer uma ilustração em papel cortado. Documentei todo o processo e a respectiva série de fotografias está To check it out, click aqui. Espero que gostem!

A história do olho: fui fazer a correcção laser da miopia. O médico decidiu fazer um olho de cada vez e, apesar de ter começado pelo meu olho pior, a verdade é que me sinto a navegar num mar de nevoeiro quando tenho os dois olhos abertos ao mesmo tempo. Enfim, é uma semana em versão “one-eyed-Billy” (como nos Goonies) e na próxima segunda já tudo deverá estar bem. Mas olhem que é uma emoção ver anulados, em cinco minutos, mais de vinte anos de óculos, de distâncias nebulosas, de vistas cansadas. Viva o raio laser! Tenho ali os óculos pousados na mesa de cabeceira sem saber o que lhes fazer…

Making of IF_Breeze

Making of IF Breeze_05

I´ve just uploaded a new series of images with the process of making IF_Breeze´s papercut. To check it out, click here. Hope you enjoy it!

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Uma nova série de fotografias com o processo de trabalho para a ilustração IF_Breeze, de ontem, foi colocada aqui. Espero que gostem!

IF Breeze

IF_breeze
Papercut+digital type for Illustration Friday.