Paper Cutting Techniques for Storytelling

Paper Cutting Techniques for Storytelling

“We have arrived at the end of this Domestika course. I hope that you have enjoyed exploring the world of paper cutting and storytelling objects. Paper cutting is all about connecting to a more intuitive way of creating, by playing and improvising along the way. Despite that, there are some techniques and tricks that can be useful for your own creative process. Throughout this course, I have taught you some of them and I have shown you how they can be applied to a diverse range of storytelling objects. For the final project, we created a theatre book based on a popular children’s story. In my case, I chose The Little Red Riding Hood because I love it and it doesn’t depict too many characters. You can use my Final Project as an example, but I encourage you to choose the narration that suits you the most and make it your own. Landscape, character design, and color palette We started by creating a landscape of your theatre book and then we moved onto character design by making a mock-up using the shadow puppet theatre format.

Later on, I chose my colour palette. Be mindful of the power of symbolism in color. Include bright colours but also more neutral tones. Sketching the story After that, I sketched the scenes of my theatre book by using tracing paper and a lightbox. At this point, the concepts of open and close spaces came in handy for hiding elements of the scenes and revealing them at the right time. Surprise and timing are key for good storytelling. Layering the story At this stage, it was time to layer the story. We included a curtain to frame the story and I used a template for cutting the following pages. Also, I taught you some tricks for cutting directly onto the book, like keeping the details attached to the frame to avoid them from folding and ripping. We added some final details in drawing and colour to highlight the symbolic aspects of the story. In my case, the poppies and the autumn leaves became repeated reddish patterns. They embellished the story and gave clues on how the main character was a young woman coming of age. Once the book was done, I showed you how to perform the story, enhancing it through the use of voice and gestures. Finally, I taught you how to care for your book, by creating a cover. Thank you for joining me on this journey through the world and craft of the paper cutter. This is my passion and I hope this course has sparked your creativity, whether you are an illustrator or other type of artist. You’ll find inspiration and feedback from other students in the forum and I encourage you to participate and comment. I would love to see your theatre books and how you infused your own personality and perspective into the story. Share your final project in the forum! Thank you and goodbye! ”

Partial transcription of the video

“We have arrived at the end of this Tomasica course. I hope you have enjoyed exploring the world of paper cutting and storytelling objects. Paper cutting is an intuitive process that allows you to connect with the state of play, creativity, and improvisation. In spite of that, There are little tricks and tools that will assist you through your entire creative process. Throughout the course, I have shown you some of them and I have also demonstrated how they can be applied to various different storytelling objects. You can use my final project as an example. But I advise you to create your ow...”

This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.

Course summary for: Paper Cutting Techniques for Storytelling

• Level: Beginner
• 99% positive reviews (507)
• 14020 students
• 5 units
• 16 lessons (2h 16m)
• 11 downloads

• Category

  Craft, Illustration

• Areas

  Arts & Crafts, DIY, Narrative, Paper Craft, Storytelling, Traditional illustration