Silhouettes & Shadows

Hand cut papercut of the Tate Britain art gallery in London

Lotte Reiniger (1899 –  1981): Creator of the Oldest Surviving Animated Feature

The third oldest animated feature, and oldest surviving piece since Argentina’s Quirino Cristiani’s work was lost, was created by German animator Lotte Reiniger. Long before Walt Disney, her work animating wooden rats for ‘Pied Piper of Hamelin’ in 1918 got her accepted at an experimental animation studio, and five years later she was approached to create a feature-length animated film, ‘The Adventures of Prince Achmed.’ Reiniger crafted the film by manipulating silhouette cutouts. Though it at first struggled, with the support of artist Jean Renoir, the feature made it to Cannes and subsequently critical and popular success. Her work also inspired the recent “The Story of the Three Brothers” animated sequence in ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One.’

detail of a paper-cut inspired by the rainforest and its wildlife

Thankful to be home, surrounded by folks I love.

Wishing you all a day of full hearts and full tummies. Happy Thanksgiving!

PAPERCUT SILHOUETTE ART OF LIMBO

Artist David Reeves’ has mastered the art of paper silhouettes and captured his craft on camera to recreate the game Limbo in this series of photos.  It’s absolutely haunting to see how accurately he was able to get his work to closely match the game’s aesthetic.  

Be sure to look through his Tumblr for more of his beautiful artwork including papercut action scenes set in the west, stealthy ninja action, Batman, zombies and more.  If you enjoy video game paper art why not take a look at Paper Mega Men from George Alexopoulos who also gave us an interview recently.

Japanese graphic designer and architect Yusuke Oono devised a beautiful way to illustrate scenes from stories in three dimensions. These awesome 40-panel laser cut paper books tell stories both by turning one page at a time and as a whole when viewed in the round as beautiful dioramas.

Click here to view additional details from each book.