Self Promotion work in progress

The deadline for the Self Promotion project has kind of creeped up on me. I started thinking about it over the weekend. Really I had no ideas on what to create to send out to art directors. The project seems almost too broad - I mean you can essentially do anything, nothing related to our current projects or past projects but a collection or piece that demonstrates your abilities and style as an illustrator.

What I had wanted to do was create a personalised banner for this blog, which does act as part of the self promotion project.

I drew out the design I had in my head but traced the writing so I could reverse it. I had original thought of having the cut as one joined piece, where the stars, moon and letters were attached. 

But I soon decided to cut all pieces separately and hang them with thread, this would give a little more freedom in how they hung and what shadows they would make if I photographed it. All this joined lettering was cut out without any rips and I wanted to jump up from my chair and fist punch the air when I completed it, but it was 2am so I didn't and just went to bed. 

I joined the pieces with blue thread, as the deep colour is similar to the colour of the sky and thought it would look nice really. A trick in theatrical illusion is to have dark rope to blend in with the background so something would look like it was floating. 

I like the use of both mobile and shadow with these photographs. The light catches the paper making some parts white and others darker creating a nice mix of shades with the shadow on the wall behind. I like the overlapping letters and how it looks like there are more stars than there actually are.

I photographed the image straight on quite a few times as the moving stars and letters created different shapes and shadows. I liked that even if one of the paper cuts had moved so that it was unreadable in the picture the shadow picks it up and vise versa; the cut can be readable but the shadow can't.

This is one of my favourite shots, it cuts the word in half pretty much and has one part in paper cut and the other in shadow. I also like the extreme light and dark in the paper cut word. 

The ones where I tried to get just the shadow didn't come out as well. I think I preferred this image with the paper in the frame as well. Aesthetically I like the hanging thread pieces which you can see and I think it has echoes of set pieces from older theatrical productions. 

I also thought about what it could be that sent out, I thought this idea of shadow, light and paper cuts could be incorporated but it would be too fragile to send out something like this banner. I thought of making a concertina type leaflet which could stand up, I was specifically thinking of things that would be interactive as I think that is the most memorable thing about something if you're handed a pile of people's work every day, and making something interactive is fun anyway. 

First I quickly made a concertina style book. I thought about having a story unfold itself as you opened more folds. Just using a simple narrative, for this one I just used a few images from the story I am currently working on. There is also the possibility of creating an image as you open the first page and look down at the layered pages. 

A slightly more complex idea I had was to create something that could pop up from a folded down piece of paper. My friend suggested, once I had made the body, that I add a cover so the set moves into place naturally as you open the booklet. As you can see in the second and third images, there is possibilities for layering. 

Here is the same idea, I was considering where my contact information could go. 

And some more images of the concertina book. 

I am still unsure of which book style to go for but I think it would be fun to go for the 'set' style book. I think I will have to think more about how to create it a little more seamlessly and think of an appropriate image for a paper cut to be inside.