I've been creating paper sculptures for decades and this one on one of my favorite artist and his painting, "The Bedroom in Arles." The goal was to capture Van Gogh in the midst of painting and to convey the distortion of the original painting as accurately as possible. These sculptures are hand cut, curved and embossed, creating a detailed addition to the 3D quality of the work. People often ask how long something like this takes... A best guess is between 150-200 hours from the original concept which encompasses; sketching, paper selection, transferring, cutting, curving, embossing, gluing and construction. This is not a quick nor an easy process to get the correct distortion. For example, I built 12 beds before I was happy with the look.
I love a good face which is why I chose Cezanne for this sculpture. It's based off his painting, The Bay from L'Estaque. Cezanne used flat planes of color to delineate depth and dimension, so I did the same. No embossing or debossing except for the figure.
This is a hand built scale model paper sculpture of a restaurant interior design concept. From custom bar bar and furniture to railing, the entire piece is nothing but paper, glue and foamcore. The floors are embossed and even have a wood grain added, which doesn't appear well in the photograph. Paper sculpture in general doesn't photograph well as a lot of detail is lost that is in the construction.
As a kid, I loved the three stooges. I remember going see the original King Kong at a theater that showed classic movies
and the Stooges were featured in the shorts before the start. An old theater with balconies and red velvets curtains and rugs.
Gotta love it! Also, I had to strongly resist the urge to add a cartoon caption, "Bonk!" to the final.
Larry and Moe were easy to caricature, but Curly took ten tries until I was satisfied. Every sketch I did looked like him but the conversion to paper changed everything. So I had to just keep going until I got it right.
Aaron Neville of the Meters, had an angel-like voice but a huge presence and even bigger arms. He rises into the heavens surrounded by fiery alligators behind a very accurate rendition of the gates of the Cabildo, (the home of the Spanish municipal government in New Orleans located in Jackson Square). The spikes on the top of the fence are replaced with crawfish.
I love baseball, especially love the old photos of the players and their baggy uniforms. The faces on the players from long ago had so much character and strength. I created a series of 30 Baseball Hall of Famers.
Here is shown a completed figure showing the depth that goes into the final construction.
Sculpture in various stages of construction.
The sculptures are actually almost a "quarter" high, which gives a better impression of the depth of the
final pieces before mounting and framing.
Photo reference is used before I go to the sketching stage. Sometimes it's really hard to find a close up photo to be able to see all the details and character in any given face.
For this image of Dan Brouthers, there wasn't much in terms of reference photography at the time when it was created.
Many more images are available these days.
Eric Claptons' music is based on the blues. He wore his famous white suit which contrasts greatly with the roots of his blues education and one of his major influences, Robert Johnson. The legend of blues musician Robert Johnson claims he sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in exchange for his extraordinary musical talent. This story reflects themes of sacrifice and mastery in the blues tradition.
Jimi Hendrix and a psychedelic explosion of bubbles.
One of my variation of Stevie Ray Vaughan in three different mediums. The moon is one of his biggest influences, Jimi Hendrix.
I'm always exploring different ways and methods of exploration for paper sculpture. This one uses hand drawn elements which were Zeroxed onto Canson paper before beginning construction. This sculpture is all about a cajun christmas in Baton Rouge, LA. The tree is modeled after the state capital and is hollowed out, allowing for a network of bulbs that I wired. All wires were then attached to a dimmer switch, giving control over the brightness during the photo session.
This is a Xmas card I made for my Dad when I lived in NYC.