My artist book is based on the film The Tale of Princess Kaguya. Below is a little synopsis of the film:
A bamboo-cutter finds a glowing/shining bamboo tree and cuts it down to find a small baby that fits in his hand. He takes her home for him and his wife to raise her and treat her like a princess. The bamboo cutter goes back to cut more bamboo and finds nuggets of gold and lavish fabrics this time. Princess Kaguya grows up very quickly into a beautiful young lady who is unattainable to all men. She has 5 suitors to go on impossible missions to prove their love for her and all of them either fail or lose their life. After realizing that the earth has hatred and anger, she wishes to go back to where she came from, which is later found out to be the moon. The movie ends with the moon people coming to earth and bringing her back to where she came from, devastating her parents on earth.
The director of the film uses watercolor and animation techniques to show emotion throughout the film. I really wanted to capitalize on this and use watercolor and fine Japanese papers to create my artist book. I wanted to create something extremely delicate that still had an interactive element so I decided to make a pop up book.
Once I had this in mind, I went to the Japanese paper store on Fairmount to get some paper and texture ideas. I then created my prototype to test out how the pop up mechanisms would work. I made a book out of scrap paper and drew out what I was planning to have on each page.
I didn’t have many technical issues because I knew that I needed to be very precise from the start. Everything needed to be measured and carefully cut to work out. I layered a lot of paper (for example to create little clothes for the paper figures) and if it weren’t done properly it would look quite sloppy. I had to measure and draw everything out in pencil so that I didn’t waste any materials because it was important that none of the pop up pieces hang over the sides. The only major issue that I ran into was that when gluing down the tabs for the pop up, sometimes one side would be slightly higher than the other, which would keep the pages from folding down completely. Below are a few process images to show how I made the first page of the book.
First, I used watercolor pencils to create the background and then cut out bamboo to in with it.
Then I used three different papers to create the small Princess. I used a very fine line pen to do the details and used watecolor pencils for her hair and cheeks.
Here is Princess Kaguya complete with background.
I then cut out each petal and used the watercolor pencil for the tips to make them pink. I then glued each piece to the white card.
Then I laid out all of the pieces before gluing them down to see if any of the pieces would pop out of the edges of the book.
I then added the pop up mechanism to each piece to create the pop up!
From the beginning, I knew exactly how I wanted to make the artist book in terms of materials and aesthetics. The only issues that I ran into were finalizing what messages/ideas I wanted to convey in the book. At first I was thinking of doing 10 pages of the main components of the film. During our prototype critiques, it was pointed out that it seemed like I was just doing a book version of the film. I really wanted to move away from this because I wanted to focus on the emotions that Princess Kaguya goes through in the film. I then narrowed the pages down to five and decided to emphasize the main themes and emotions she goes through in the film which are: birth, growth, greed, sadness and happiness.
The page below represents birth. It symbolizes when the bamboo cutter finds the small princess in the bamboo forest.
The page below represents growth. Princess Kaguya’s nickname through out the film is ‘Little Bamboo’ because she grows so quickly like bamboo. I wanted to show her as a child but also have her larger than life in comparison to her house. I put the tree behind her to also represent growth and strength.
The page below represents greed. All five of her suitors are represented while they worship her. She was unhappy with how the men viewed her as an object, something that they could attain and own.
The page below represents sadness. It is the action of the suitors in the film that causes Princess Kaguya to pray for the moon to take her back. She was overwhelmed with the lack of humanity on earth so she begged to go back home, where sadness and anger does not exist.
The last page below represents happiness. Princess Kaguya was the most happy when she was living a simple life in the forest with her friend Sutemaru. After she decides to return to the moon, she realizes that there are still nice places on the earth and goes to a dream like state where Sutemaru and Princess Kaguya go on an adventure flying through the forest. I wanted to depict Kaguya leading Sutemaru on her last moment of happiness on earth.
The cover has a moon on it and the back has an earth on it because the film is a battle between the two places. The Princess first starts out on earth always looking up to the moon and ends with her returning to the moon and looking down at the earth.
Overall, I am very pleased with how my artist book came out and really enjoyed the process. I think the different prototype check-ins were crucial for creating my finished product. They were able to streamline my ideas and keep me on track with the progress timeline. Without it, iI might have had to compromise some of the elements of the book to make the deadline.
A3 Artist Book
A bamboo-cutter finds a glowing/shining bamboo tree and cuts it down to find a small baby that fits in his hand. He takes her home for him and his wife to raise her and treat her like a princess. The bamboo cutter goes back to cut more bamboo and finds nuggets of gold and lavish fabrics this time. Princess Kaguya grows up very quickly into a beautiful young lady who is unattainable to all men. She has 5 suitors to go on impossible missions to prove their love for her and all of them either fail or lose their life. After realizing that the earth has hatred and anger, she wishes to go back to where she came from, which is later found out to be the moon. The movie ends with the moon people coming to earth and bringing her back to where she came from, devastating her parents on earth.
Watch the Trailer here.
Below are some screen grabs from the film.
The director of the film uses watercolor and animation techniques to show emotion throughout the film. I really wanted to capitalize on this and use watercolor and fine Japanese papers to create my artist book. I wanted to create something extremely delicate that still had an interactive element so I decided to make a pop up book.
Once I had this in mind, I went to the Japanese paper store on Fairmount to get some paper and texture ideas. I then created my prototype to test out how the pop up mechanisms would work. I made a book out of scrap paper and drew out what I was planning to have on each page.
I didn’t have many technical issues because I knew that I needed to be very precise from the start. Everything needed to be measured and carefully cut to work out. I layered a lot of paper (for example to create little clothes for the paper figures) and if it weren’t done properly it would look quite sloppy. I had to measure and draw everything out in pencil so that I didn’t waste any materials because it was important that none of the pop up pieces hang over the sides. The only major issue that I ran into was that when gluing down the tabs for the pop up, sometimes one side would be slightly higher than the other, which would keep the pages from folding down completely. Below are a few process images to show how I made the first page of the book.
First, I used watercolor pencils to create the background and then cut out bamboo to in with it.
Then I used three different papers to create the small Princess. I used a very fine line pen to do the details and used watecolor pencils for her hair and cheeks.
Here is Princess Kaguya complete with background.
I then cut out each petal and used the watercolor pencil for the tips to make them pink. I then glued each piece to the white card.
Then I laid out all of the pieces before gluing them down to see if any of the pieces would pop out of the edges of the book.
I then added the pop up mechanism to each piece to create the pop up!
From the beginning, I knew exactly how I wanted to make the artist book in terms of materials and aesthetics. The only issues that I ran into were finalizing what messages/ideas I wanted to convey in the book. At first I was thinking of doing 10 pages of the main components of the film. During our prototype critiques, it was pointed out that it seemed like I was just doing a book version of the film. I really wanted to move away from this because I wanted to focus on the emotions that Princess Kaguya goes through in the film. I then narrowed the pages down to five and decided to emphasize the main themes and emotions she goes through in the film which are: birth, growth, greed, sadness and happiness.
The page below represents birth. It symbolizes when the bamboo cutter finds the small princess in the bamboo forest.
The page below represents growth. Princess Kaguya’s nickname through out the film is ‘Little Bamboo’ because she grows so quickly like bamboo. I wanted to show her as a child but also have her larger than life in comparison to her house. I put the tree behind her to also represent growth and strength.
The page below represents greed. All five of her suitors are represented while they worship her. She was unhappy with how the men viewed her as an object, something that they could attain and own.
The page below represents sadness. It is the action of the suitors in the film that causes Princess Kaguya to pray for the moon to take her back. She was overwhelmed with the lack of humanity on earth so she begged to go back home, where sadness and anger does not exist.
The last page below represents happiness. Princess Kaguya was the most happy when she was living a simple life in the forest with her friend Sutemaru. After she decides to return to the moon, she realizes that there are still nice places on the earth and goes to a dream like state where Sutemaru and Princess Kaguya go on an adventure flying through the forest. I wanted to depict Kaguya leading Sutemaru on her last moment of happiness on earth.
The cover has a moon on it and the back has an earth on it because the film is a battle between the two places. The Princess first starts out on earth always looking up to the moon and ends with her returning to the moon and looking down at the earth.
Overall, I am very pleased with how my artist book came out and really enjoyed the process. I think the different prototype check-ins were crucial for creating my finished product. They were able to streamline my ideas and keep me on track with the progress timeline. Without it, iI might have had to compromise some of the elements of the book to make the deadline.