Fanart: Rodney's Life

[anna_luna]

I finally finished my Valentine's Day Trade for fleurrochard. She traded me a wonderful song and I wanted to make something a bit different for her... And then this idea took over my brain and I've been working on it for weeks.

fleurrochard said she wanted "something about Rodney and music"... so I present to you: Rodney's Life:



Medium: Cut paper (inspired by Robert Ryan and my 6th grade art teacher who we used to do stuff like this with)











The text reads:

"When I was young, I fell in love with music,
but then I was told that music did not love me back,
so I looked for something prettier than music, and found the stars,
and in their orbits and colors and equations, I found music again."

This was a difficult project, but I love the result, the papercuts look awesome on many different backgrounds, but I finally decided to scan them over the stripped paper... I might experiment with them some more later.

Also, I'm sorry for the yellow stripe on the left.,.. my scanner is broken and just puts it there...

Comments

[anna_luna]

:D Thank you very much! These were something new for me to do and I enjoyed it immensely.

[gblvr.livejournal.com]

Do you mind if I pick your brain a bit? Ask some tech questions? (I'm doing art for the other slash part of Big Bang, and I think these might be something adaptable to long fics.

[anna_luna]

Sure, go ahead, what would you like to know?

[gblvr.livejournal.com]

Okay -- is the black just construction paper? What did you use to cut the shapes? Did you freehand, or did you draw before you cut?

I think that's it. :-D

[anna_luna]

The black is fine construction paper, you have to look for one that has a smooth surface (there are some with a soft texture, those are harder to cut) and is thick, heavy paper. I used an exacto knife to cut it, be sure to have extra blades (disposable blades), because you can only use it while it's really, really sharp, otherwise the paper bends and rips instead of being cut. Also, be sure to cut over a "soft" surface where the knife can sink into, like a sheet of cardboard (I used the back of my drawing notebook).

Regarding how I made the design, I first drew it on a white piece of paper, then I scanned it and added the lettering using photoshop and using the pencil tool I "cleared" it. Then I printed it on a normal white paper and stapled it to the construction paper I wanted to cut. I cut then through both using the exacto knife.

You can forgo these steps and just draw on the construction paper, but since mine was black this was difficult. You can also forgo the scanning and printing and just cut through your original drawing, but I wanted to keep the original in case I messed up and had to restart. Also, doing the letters in the computer made them nice and even. A third option, in case you're using a light construction paper is to flip the drawing in the computer and then print it directly on the construction paper.

Here is what I did in the computer for the first papercut:



Notice that I took the stars and musical notes from a previous work.

OMG, it looks so unfinished and awful... I hope the magic is not gone...

[gblvr.livejournal.com]

Thank you -- this is the kind of thing I was looking for! I love to hear about other people's process, especially when the end product is so cool....