For this quarter, our major assignment was to create a multi layered art piece out of paper or wood, which would be cut by a laser printer and then assembled by hand. We had the choice of creating either a light box, wood rings, or stacked wood art, and I chose the last option.

For my project, I chose to have a dragon be the subject of my art. I thought about whether to do a western or eastern dragon, and decided to do an eastern one since they represent my culture better. I also wanted to emulate the swirly clouds I’ve seen in a lot of traditional Asian paintings, and overall wanted to create a sense of freedom for this dragon flying above the clouds. I drew up a draft of what I wanted in photoshop, and then simply traced over my design in Illustrator. I also gradually added more layers and details as I went. 

My favorite part of this project was getting to assemble the finished pieces together after they were cut. The most challenging part was probably the 3D assembly video, not because it was difficult, but because it took so long to render in After Effects and I got annoyed at various points. Overall, I’m quite satisfied with the outcome of both the wood art itself and the two assembly videos, and I now have a cool dragon I can put on my wall.