Research
My research for the project revolved around different techniques to emphasize depth using different spacing methods and ways to begin practicing layering paper, just to have a better understanding of the craft.
3D PAPER ART
Reference Images
Exercises
Exercise 1 – Gestalt Exercise
This exercise started with a review of the gestalt principles such as closure and figure-ground. I used the negative space in my initials D and E and inserted visuals of things I enjoy! Here is what I created.
I ran with this for quite some time. Spider-Man was absolutely gonna stay. The character is very important to me and I had plenty of ideas for how he could fit into the negative space of the letter D. Moving forward, I started incorporating another very important thing: my family.
I used one of our only family pictures and created a very loose outline. These are what came out of this.
There were a lot of different ways to incorporate these two things together. The one right above this text however was my favorite and it did something the others didn’t. I felt the curve of the letter D was more present and thus allowed for the shape of the letter D to be more noticeable.
I rearranged and altered their proportion to create a visual hierarchy where I am in the front (cause I am the coolest) and everyone else is just hanging back a little. This freed up more room for spidey to breathe and allowed for the shape of the letter D to show a lot more while still allowing for these two visuals to stand out.
I carefully copied everything into illustrator and used that file to laser cut it. Here are the results!
Iterations
My initial concepts revolved around a city. None in particular, but a city nonetheless. I wanted to focus on the everyday people of the city and possibly make a statement about the working class. Since the pandemic, I’ve grown increasingly more frustrated with our current economic class structure and I felt like having the project revolve around America’s class structure using hierarchy and scale would be really interesting.
Other concepts revolved around nostalgia, insecurity, and mental illness. I felt a more personal connection to nostalgia and insecurity so I drew up some concepts for how it would be composed. 
Nostalgia would capture an older version of me looking into the past and seeing younger versions further and further back. Deep space would be present in a sort of “time passing” kinda way, looking deep into time (at least that’s where my mind was at about it).
Insecurity started with organic forms closing in on the center where the main subject would be (probably a person or something representing an individual like a heart or a brain). I started with jagged and pointy daggers stabbing toward the center getting closer and closer and then that idea spun into hands. The hands were pointing, reaching, clawing, punching, etc. I continued exploring different forms and ways to represent it.
Frankly, I struggled with the concept part of this but I felt like capturing insecurity or nostalgia in composition was something I could do and had many different ideas of how to do it, so I leaned into it.
I also began exploring how I could frame everything. What the first layer would look like and what it would contain as well as how depth would be perceived and exaggerated. I started by drawing outlines of people and faces to try to see how the layering could look without any detail at all. I also tried creating spirals using displaced circular layers. One concept I had was to create a spiraling illusion inward. In hindsight, I wish I had explored this more and even experimented with creating a human face contour combined with an illusionary layering, I think that would’ve added a lot to the composition.
Also while continuing to formulate ideas, I practiced cutting some small cardstock layers to get an idea of what it would even look like to have paper layers stacked on top. I drew up a quick illustrator file and cut out these small squares. I used cardboard to space them out.
I attempted to make an accordion fold as well to be a spacer for them, but the paper would still be floppy the more real estate I was using up on my cardstock so I opted for cardboard cause it’s cheap and easy to cut.
My method for approaching the final revolved around me using my notes and practice drawings to assemble what I thought would work for the composition layer by layer and then revisiting anything if need be. I started putting together the first couple of layers and practiced cutting them as well. As I continued to assemble the layers, my biggest focus was ensuring that no foreground elements overlapped with the background in a way that took away from their forms OR was big enough to take away from the subject.
Another thing I was thinking about was value. How does the value shift affect the legibility of the shapes in front of them like the hands and faces? I’d continue to make changes to that. With the main subject and hand, I started looking back at my drawings and started playing with the idea of someone being trapped in the center or someone being puppet mastered. This stemmed from how insecurity makes us feel trapped or like we’re not in control of our emotions.
Drawing all of the layers out in Procreate, I could start to get an idea of what everything would look like.
The background felt a little empty so I started thinking of things that could go back there to make it a little more interesting. One thing I thought of was an eye that could be looking at the subject being puppeteered, so I started doodling stuff.
From here, I just moved everything into illustrator and carefully traced everything onto different layers. I took the files to the Cricut and cut everything out. I started cutting out the cardboard based entirely on how well it held the paper up. I Inserted little chunks to ensure everything was firm around the corners and in parts where it was sagging a little and then I just glued everything onto the paper and let each layer dry while I worked on the others.
I found myself exploring more with insecurity and enjoying the results so I moved forward with exploring that.
Concept Statement
For vastly different reasons, everyone can experience feelings of nostalgia or insecurity. Insecurity can control us, cut deep and feel ceaseless. These feelings are natural, but they can last ages. Inspired by my friends and family growing up, I wish to capture these aspects of insecurity that I feel we all have understood and experienced growing up. Visualizing insecurity is a very personal feat, but I hope that it can allow the viewer to relate and perhaps understand their own ideas of this feeling which is ultimately my goal; to evoke a sense of relatability. Scale and proportion play an immense role in the composition to create forms that feel like they’re encroaching on the subject which is centered in a one-point perspective with the vanishing point just behind the main subject. The proportion of some hands and faces to others creates an image that moves inward. The hands decrease in size as it gets deeper. Depth is emphasized through this use of scale and proportion. Contrast is also crucial to these many forms as they will need to be easily seen. By alternating the layers with contrasting values, all of the shapes will be readily visible. These hands are depicted in various poses either pointing or seemingly grasping at the subject which is symbolic of how one can perceive the people around them as if they’re being attacked or judged. These hands are also sprouting from the edges of freely formed and organic shapes. This is because emotion is natural and isn’t felt within reason and calculated logic.
Production
The only complication I ran into was accidentally gluing the wrong layer in the wrong part of the composition so I went through and cut the glue off with my Exacto-knife. It didn’t leave any marks and I was able to do it correctly the next time!
Just as an added bonus, I also extracted the values from my composition and transitioned them into a monochromatic red pallet. These are the colors and their respective values.
Final Production
