and now for something a bit different

just playing around with some of my work, these lions were made out of card and patterns made with a pencil with a bit of paint for the cheeks applied with my finger. it has a quite retro look to it all. 

i've made a few more below

 

These images would work well in a pre-school children's book, its something that i might look into in the future though i would rather make a pre-school children's book first as they seem to be more simple and stylized compared to older age children's books, such as the books that Eric Carle makes. simple, stylized and full of wonderful colours and textures.

Paper Toy Making Book

i've been looking in to the realms of paper toy making for numerous reasons, one being possibly incorporating elements into some of my work. While looking for some books on this subject, I came across this book above on ebay. 

being pulled in by the nice modern cover i thought i would keep an eye on it and see what it would go for. surprisingly, i was the only bidder and won it for £6.50 including postage. this book is a first edition and was published in 1937, it is in really good condition for its age.

The only thing that i saw of the book was the cover picture shown on the auction page. so it was amazing to find when i opened the book this image below.

i don't think the scans show it but these images are still amazingly vibrant for their age. All together there are 4 pages known as plates full with these vivid colours, i wasn't expecting to see anything like this featured in the book so it was a real boon having these included in the book. the rest are below:

below is an exert page of one design which i thought shows the basic structure of how the instructions are given. i've actually made a few just to try it out so though the presentation of the instruction first look a bit daunting, they are actually well composed and straightforward.

Anyway, i will be looking out for more books to do with paper toy making as well as any other book that seems interesting to me, I might put up some things that i have found in the past and make a feature out of it.