Photographing my Carrie's war cover: back page

I started to photograph (with a lot of technical help) my book cover design for carrie's war as this is a vital part of my design. It was very tricky as the lighting has to be perfect to give the effect that I want for the cover. As I have layers of trees making the scene look like a forrest the lighting had to be played around a lot to make the image have lots of depth and shadows. I decided to start by photographing the image that will be on the back of the cover because it more simple than the front cover image and thought it might be good to start off with a more simple image. Here are a few of the photos that I started with (They're a bit wonky)

 We started off lighting it from above and the left side but it made the image look too flat and everything was all the same orangey colour so we tried a few different lighting and camera settings.

 This time the image still looked too flat but the colour had improved as it was more white rather than orange. I want the original image to look white so it will be easier if I want to change the colours in photoshop when I edit them.

 This image was getting closer yet again but was not quite there because there was more variation and depth between the laters with the way that the shadows fell but it wasn't quite right.

We decided to try it with the light closer to the image and try holding up tracing paper behind the set to soften the light this was creating even more depth but it still wasn't there

we then decided to try with lighting the set with the soft box from behind and this seemed to be the correct solution because it started to look a lot better. There was also a dimly lit light in front of the set to light the front of the image slightly. Now it was just a case of getting the composition and camera angle right. Here are the photos with the correct lighting.

 This is the first image where the depth was really working and the shadows were looking good but the camera angle needed to be moved around to make the image central.

 The camera angle on this image is improved from the last one but not completely right yet so we got a bit closer and straightened up the edges more.

Finally after a long morning of experimentation and lots of different lights and techniques being used we got the image just right. The next step is to edit the levels and colours a bit in photoshop to help the image reach its full potential.

Artist research: Andrea Dezsö

Whilst looking through the book Paper Craft 2 I came across an artist called Andrea Dezsö she is an artist that works across a huge range of media's. some of her paper cut work uses a similar idea to Hari and Deepeti in the way that the artist forms nicely lit silhouette scenes but instead of keeping the scene plain white, and relying on shadows to create the full effect, she uses coloured paper to add different moods and atmospheres to her images. I love the effect that this gives to her work and makes the worlds look so interesting, they really do draw you into them. 
I think for my Carries war book cover I am going to stick with an all white scene for now to see how that looks, I might even experiment with different coloured lighting effects. but the coloured paper idea is definitely something to consider and try out, I might even utilise this idea for my oranges are not the only fruit book cover. 

Artist research: Hari and Deepti

Hari and Deepeti create really beautiful scenes using just plain white paper, They look a bit boring to begin with but after some very clever lighting they are transformed into the most magical looking scenes, they really do transport you into another world. The scenes that they create are focused on storytelling, they depict adventures and travels from all around the world. I would love to try out this technique for my book cover as it is really unique and eye catching. I don't know if it would work for carries war as it is a book for a younger audience and the lack of colour might not attract them as much. On the other hand it could be really effective and work well. Ill have to work with a trail and error attitude to see if this kind of idea will work. It was really hard to chose because all of their pieces are beautiful, but here are some of their designs that I think work best.

Image before lighting and photography

Image after lighting and  being photographed

Paper cut practice

I thought I would practice my paper cutting technique at home over the weekend so I decided to make a christmas card because I needed to make some anyway so thought I might as well practice something that I need to whilst not having the pressure of it being for this project. It went really well and I feel more confident about this process for my book cover, my technique is not perfect yet but its really progressing. Now I will start work on the actual paper cutting for the book cover. Here is the cars that I made, I designed it digitally using my drawing tablet then printed it and cut it out of red paper. I then scanned it back into the computer so it would be easier to re produce onto cards.

Artist research: Elsa Mora

Elsa Mora is a multimedia artist originally from Cuba. She creates a lot of paper cut art because she is fascinated by the endless possibilities of the medium. she liked to turn  a flat piece of paper into something meaningful. 
She creates fully white pieces as well as full colour pieces. She also creates flat and 3D images from using the paper in different ways, sometimes she will just cut into the flat paper to create an image and other times she will mould and layer the paper to create an image. I really like the versatility of her work because she creates a large range of styles with in her work whilst still keeping it recognisably similar, I think that this keeps her art interesting. I think her 3D pieces work really well and I would like to try out creating a 3D paper cut piece for my carries war book cover. 

Artist research: Gail Armstrong

As I would like to create my penguin book cover for carries war using a paper cut and sculpt technique I decided to re visit this artist as I have researched her work before but not in much detail and she has created more work in the months since I have looked at it. 
Gail Armstrong creates beautiful illustrations made from folding, layering and sculpting paper into different shapes to describe things. I love her colour work but I especially think that her white paper work works even more. I was thinking of doing my book cover in coloured paper/ card but after looking at her white paper work I am considering trying out just white, but probably wont end up using white for the final piece. I think that the camera and lighting definitely make these images work because a lot of the time the only way that you can see the shape of the paper is because of the way the light is hitting it. There is a for me lot to consider and learn if I want to go ahead with this process and it will definitely take a lot of practice. These photos have watermarks but they were the best resolution that I could find. 
I also came across a video of the artist creating one of the pieces so iv'e included that as well.

Artist research: Princesse Camcam

After i had decided on this new idea for my images i decided to do research into some other artists that have used this technique with their work. Ben suggested that i check out an artist called Princesse Camcam, so i did. Her work is great and exactly what i wanted to look at. Her work is great inspiration and help for me when creating my image. 

Princesse Camcam is a French illustrator that does a lot of children's books, Her illustrations are really pretty and simplistic. She also creates really beautiful paper cuts and makes images out of the different paper shapes and then photographs them. I love the images she creates because they're so nice and delicate and they just look so calming and happy. i am going to try and achieve the simplistic, calm, happy look throughout my images. Here are a few of my favourite pieces of her work.