Creating birds with paper is delightful as they share many characteristics. My objective with this project was to illustrate the delicacy, lightness, colour and movement of birds.
Following my white “Moments in Flight” sculptures, I designed these layered paper cuts to experiment with colour. While I mainly used coloured paper vellum, I wanted to blend colours on the feathers. The biggest challenge with vellum is trying to paint it! As vellum hates water or any liquid (it resists the colour and curls up) I finally managed to “stain” the feathers using small amounts of airbrush ink on rags, and gently rubbing it in.
These pictures consist of three layers mounted in a box frame. Each layer has a body piece on a central ‘post’ and some white foliage. The back layer features the back wing , the centre layer features the tail and the front layer features the front wing. This gives a 3D effect.
The pieces are framed with glass backing and are designed to stand in front of a window or light source. The photo at the top of this post (or click on the images below to enlarge) to see how light brightens and blends the layered colours.
