Is paper your medium? Are you an origami wizard? Do you deck the halls with handcrafted snowflakes and doilies? Are you ready to take it up a notch? If so, check out Papercraft by Sonja Commentz. Marvel at Michael Velliquette’s “Borders Beyond,” Bovey Lee’s “Office Tornado,” Brian Dettmer’s “Full Set of Funk,” and Sumer Erek’s “Newspaper House,” and find inspiration for your next paper-based masterwork.
Paper comes to life in so many ways in this book. Art installations, portraits, animation characters, 3D posters, cutouts of figures, people, animals and objects big and small, Papercraft: Design and Art with Paper is full of fun examples of what can be crafted with paper.
There are numerous works I recognize, including some from Jen Stark and Ferris Staverman, whom I've blogged about. There are also pieces from other artists whose works I've seen on the Internet or pinned at Pinterest, so in some ways, this book was very familiar to me.
But there's a huge lot of other works that I was introduced to. A wide variety of works in multiple structures and formats are presented. Some are functional, others purely decorative; some are playful, others thought-provoking. Nothing is boring or common. The works exude creativity - there's lots to grab your attention and give you ideas of how much can be created from a flat material.
My only complaint is there's very minimal information - if any at all - on the works and the artists. But there's still plenty of eye candy to enjoy.
I think I love paper for the same reason I love potatoes. Deceptively simple and plain, both are incredibly versatile and can be transformed into the most amazing things. This primarily visual book has tons of examples of how artists and designers have used cut, folded, layered, etc. paper to create dynamic illustrations, sculptures and installations (and much more). My favourites are Bovey Lee (super fine paper cut), Brian Dettmer (sculptures cut out of old books), Helen Friel (illustrations) and Swoon (installations).
There is some remarkable work in this volume. Some of the papercraft is so detailed I thought it had to be laser-cut, but no, almost all of it is done by hand. By people with OCD, a lot of patience, or both.
Anyone into 3D modeling (or art toys) might want to take a look at this book... what they are doing with paper could be easily done with low-poly models/vinyl.
There is an accompanying CD with about 50 papercraft figure templates on PDFs.
lovely collection of a wide variety of papercraft, ranging from small objects & toys to full installations. a very nice resource with great photographs.