Papercraft Research

 The artist/topic that I chose is origami artist Hoang Tien Quyet. This artist uses the style of Akira Yoshizawa, where instead of having crisp folds in the paper, he dampens the paper to make it easier to shape and fold. This topic stood out to me as I had never heard of this style of papercraft before. As I understand it, this style gives a softer, more organic appearance to the work. This specific artists work involves creating simplified shapes out of thick paper, the subjects usually being animals.

This is considered a much more difficult style of origami, and is a very delicate process, as using too much water will cause the paper to rip, but using too little will make the paper dry before the folding is complete. This style also gives the work a more realistic and lifelike appearance, that isn't quite achieved with normal geometric origami. Quyet has also co-authored two books, "50 Hours Origami +" and "VOG2 - origami.vn." These books both contain info on the background and process behind his works.

I was inspired to research this artist for many reasons. I was intrigued by the use of shape and form in the works, as origami is not a medium you'd usually see using a variety of formal art elements. While I certainly wouldn't be able to replicate this style or process myself, I love having small details and careful planning when it comes to my own work as a 2D artist. I used to be very interested in papercraft when I was younger, and seeing Quyet expanding on it and shaping it into an entirely different style altogether was very interesting to me.

I don't think I'll use Quyet's style as a reference when doing my project, but I definitely liked being able to learn about a different kind of art than I'm used to.