- Hello everyone and welcome to another virtual workshop brought to you by the National Portrait Gallery. My name's Gill and I am very lucky to be the Digital Manager here at the National Portrait Gallery, which is on the beautiful lands of the Ngambri and the Ngunnawal peoples. I'd like to pay my respects to their elders past and present and extend that same respect to any of the traditional custodians on the lands of which you're coming to us from today. Well, do we have a treat for you? The amazing artist Vipoo Srivilasa, is gonna be taking us through an eleganza paper doll extravaganza. We're gonna learn to make the most beautiful, creative, joyous, happy creations. So bring all your happiness, bring it together, bring all your materials together, and I'm gonna hand it over to Vipoo and we're gonna get underway. Thank you so much for joining us today, Vipoo.
- Hello, thank you. Thank you for the fantastic introductions and hello everyone at home. So, I'm not sure where to start. So, I'm gonna start with what we need for the workshop first. Lots of white paper, A4 size. You could use the print paper, it's good. Or if you have a chance to get a little bit bigger one, it's great as well, it make it easier. You could also use a lot of colour paper. So have here black, blue, pink and green and somewhere I have yellow so that would work well as well. You could also use a lot of kind of a wrapping paper. I'm not sure you could see, yeah here, you can see the patterns like this one of, if you like you could have some of these, different kind of things around the house, paper around the house, receipt, is working well as well or if you have kind of like, you know, what's it called? Like electric bill? I don't know if you still got the paper one that can be used too. So what we going to do today is making a paper doll in different way. Okay, so first we go into make body. This is a workshop, a paper doll workshop that's not normal. So the paper doll doesn't have to be a man or a woman or it doesn't have to be human at all. I would like you to think about the power that you want to have in your life that could help you achieve more. For example, you might like to have more freedom in your life, so you could do a lot more things. You might like to imagine yourself as a bird, yeah, like this. So put this on the table so you can see it better. Or if you work from home and you feel like work is overwhelming with families, with work life and then you want to help someone to help you, maybe you could imagine yourself having four arms. There you go. So, make life easier if we have more arms, isn't it? Hands, arms, helping with cleaning, working and look after your kids. Or if you feel like I'm not quite sure what I want to be or not, what power I want to have because I feel like I have two my all the time I can't make decisions. Maybe you could have a mermaid that have two heads so they could give each other advice. Or if you don't like any of this at all, you feel like you more identify with mythical creature, maybe you could have your paper doll as a unicorn. There you go. But it would be a little bit difficult to dress it up but I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. But for this workshop, I will just use the power that I want to have, which is being invincible.
- [Gill] Oh, I love that, Vipoo.
- Because if I invincible, I could go to the cake shop and eat a lot more cake, kind of sugar. So this is me representing the paper doll. I have arm, I have legs and I have one eye so I could focus, I feel like two eye it's just a little bit too much because I can see too many cakes. If I have one eye, I can just look at one cake and I enjoy it and then will be happy. To make this, I use white paper, a pen, and then without hesitation I just draw it. So I start from the head.
- [Gill] So, no second guessing yourself, is that right?
- No, no pencil, no eraser, just pen.
- [Gill] Yep, committed, full commitment.
- Yep. I don't think you will look the same, but it work.
- [Gill] That's the beauty of it, isn't it? They have to look the same.
- There you go, done in one line. Oh my god, I'm good. And then we used scissor to cut it out.
- [Gill] I'm just trying to think what my superpower might be.
- Yeah, what would you like?
- [Gill] Well, I do quite like cakes, but then the mermaid making decisions seemed like a good one for me too.
- Want two heads. Sometimes it's just like, oh my god, I can't make decisions.
- [Gill] I can't do my hair on the best of days, imagine having to do it with two heads.
- Yeah, I also liked, you know, helping arms would be cool too.
- [Gill] That's true.
- Here we go. And just flip it to make nice and clean. So, we now try to make a realistic paper doll. We want to make an imaginative paper doll because when we make imaginative things, it help you exercise your creative better. There is no right or wrong, they're only fun and more fun. So, for this workshop, I'm gonna start by making head. So, I might like to use, what do you call this thing? Colour pen?
- [Gill] Yeah, marker pens.
- Marker pens, yeah. So, I'm going looking for maybe purple colours, one eye. And I always like to have green eyes or might just have the green bit here.
- [Gill] And it doesn't matter what pens you have, does it Vipoo? You can just use anything you have around the house.
- Yeah, anything at all. If you don't have marker you could have your, I dunno, lipstick or eyeshadow.
- [Gill] Yeah, cool.
- Use whatever you have at home or if you want to be more creative, but maybe not this session. Once you get good at it, you could use something in the kitchen, like soy sauce, tomato sauce is different colours and mayonnaise give another colour. Or if you have mustard, then you get yellow colour.
- [Gill] That's super.
- And then instead of paper, you could use pastry.
- [Gill] Very cool.
- It's not just a paper. When you think about fun, sky is the limit. And then I'm gonna make the hair dress. So what I'm do, I put the paper doll here on top of a white paper. I use the pen to make a mark. So, now we have outline of the head. Let's just try to maybe a little bit harder. I'm going to have to see, I'm gonna use a different kind of pen. Is it? Yeah, now you can see it. From here, I decide maybe my superpower is invincible. What else would I like to have in my power? I want to be strong. So maybe lightning, lightning is strong, right? So I make lightning. This is kind of lightning.
- That's cool.
- And then a paper doll I had to have like this thing, I'm not sure what they call, just two--
- [Gill] Little tabs?
- Yeah, little tabs so it stay on the head like that. And then, I just colour it. So I want my lightning in kind of gold. If you have gold pen, you can use them and maybe a little bit of red. So, create a sense of fire and power. And then maybe after I got home, I could put a little bit of scallop chill like edge and maybe to make it more fun, add a bit more colour to it. It look like a superhero mask.
- [Gill] It does.
- What we're doing now is just gonna cut it out.
- [Gill] Vipoo, has costume always been an important part of your art practise?
- I think so, yes. A lot of my figuring work has element of fashion in it. So, a lot of time my work inspired by fashion show. I feel like when you put on your bed dress, it make you happy and the way you dress it's kind of a way of presenting your identity as well.
- [Gill] And has this notion of symbolism as well been quite important?
- Symbolism? Yeah. It's sometime, you know, as an artist it get confused like what kind of symbol to use, what to represent. I used to get confused, I got to do a lot of research like, oh, what does this mean? What does that mean? And then they come to the conclusions. For the artwork you could just use any symbol that you make up. It doesn't have to be a realistic symbol but it should be resonate with how you feel about it.
- Oh, that's cool.
- So, for my friends at home, if you feel something strong you could turn into a symbol and add it to your dress, add into your outfit design. Like me, I want to be strong and fast so I use lightning as a symbol. Someone else might use other symbol, might use like Nike logo because like running fast or running shoes or they could use fast car as a symbol. But for me, lightning, strong and fast. And I want my paper doll to look a bit mysterious so that's why I put mask on him. So you can see it.
- [Gill] So you're just folding those tabs back?
- Yeah, just folding the tab back. I should put it on this side, you can see it. So, now what else should I have? I put just another paper. Maybe I like to have, what other power should I have? I like to be able to eat a lot without get too much sugar in my blood. So, maybe that special power could transform into some symbol. What would that be? Something to destroy sugar in my blood. Maybe a little monster that eat all the sugar in my blood, that could be fun. So I'm gonna put this paper doll up here and again, draw the line. Tracing the line of the paper doll. Just arms and the legs just little bit here. So, basically just kind of tracing so I could decide the monster. First I have to have the tab so I can stay in my body. Maybe this could be part of the monster. So you can see the teeth already.
- [Gill] Hungry monster, hungry for all that blood sugar.
- I give all this blood sugar and then you got eyes here. Maybe you got two eyes here. And then maybe I could do a bit more monster here. Sugar, sugar, sugar, it's called. Give me, give me sugar.
- [Gill] Give me the sugar.
- Start with my teeth. Ah, okay. What monster had, I think maybe it had scale, right? Monster have scale. So maybe we could try a bit of scale. Oh, little bit scary now. Basically you could use this marker to do anything to your outfit. And it's a lot more fun when you do it without using pencil first. So kind of spontaneous and also it create confident in your work. It could go wrong of course, yes but you could do another one. Okay, so maybe I just doing this. So kind of matching with the hair dress.
- [Gill] I do love that idea of being confident and not second guessing yourself. That's a great philosophy in life as well, isn't it?
- Totally, yes. And we just often sometimes forget, because you have choice, you can redo it again. But with this one you can't. And somehow, it give a nice feeling about it. You know, like if you plan it too carefully, it doesn't have the fresh net of the moment in your artwork. Well some artwork obviously need to have like patient and well plan but some in this project, I think spontaneous is more fun. And the idea of having, of doing this workshop is to create happiness. So, if you plan too hard, too serious about it, maybe the happiness is not coming. So I'm gonna cut these out. Oh my god, I love this dress.
- [Gill] It's cool.
- Yes, I want one now. So, to help cutting easier, I sometimes just cut the outline, outside of the paper office. Make it easy to get into detail later.
- [Gill] Do you design clothes as part of your route practise as well, Vipoo?
- No, I don't. No, you asking like maybe I should do a site line? I think it's designing clothes, it's a form of art. It's not easy, especially nowadays, like so many good designer. But when I design my, not clothes, but like when I have those sense of fashion in my artwork, it made out of clay so it give kind of different feeling about it and I don't have to worry if people could wear it or not because it's on my sculptures.
- [Gill] It's very sculptural, isn't it?
- Yes. Maybe someone at home watching this workshop get inspired. You could contact me to help you design your outfit.
- [Gill] Ooh, that'd be cool. Can you imagine you stand out at your prom?
- Yes. Totally stand out of course for sure. And then, voila! And you have one more tab here, sorry but it work. Then you could put the head up. So here you go. You got one paper doll dress up in the superpower suit. So, I have prepared some as well just in case you want to have variations. So I have a headdress that look like this. It's like a power of flame. This one. So you got the power of ice. Let's see what else I have for you. I also make one with little hole so the ice could come out. You see this. Or if you like you could play with cutting from the magazine and you have like a nice painting as your face or as your power. You could also, you know, add like this is the magazine cutting cutout before so you could use this.
- [Gill] Oh that's great, a butterfly shawl.
- Butterfly shawl. Or if you like, it could be like a bigger one the flies and maybe a little bit of here. You could use sticky tab. Probably not a good idea probably 'cause you can see it. You could use a paper glue to glue it. And what else you can do? I can use... Oh sorry butterfly. So you could add it, make it a little more.
- [Gill] Oh, that is very smart.
- Yeah, now I like that. And then you can glue it together. So I'm just about to do, and you might be wondering like, oh, how do I turned a tab to this piece? Ooh, look quite good.
- [Gill] It does.
- Yes. I will just use leftover paper, I cut it and then I just take it out, put it back. Now use the sticky tape. Can you see it?
- [Gill] Little extra tab stuck on the back sticky tape there.
- Yep, quite fun. So I imagine at home there is a lot of teacher, you can use this technique to teach your class. I think kids will love it. Make monster from paper doll or superhero paper doll. There you go.
- [Gill] And that fantastic philosophy of freedom of expression and creativity, it's great.
- Yeah, I just got to make sure it's your fit, that's it. Like that, there you go.
- [Gill] Fabulous.
- I'll have this one. You could, I dunno, smile, I just like to eat and all. From this, I also used, like we mentioned before kind of wrapping paper. So this is, I prepare earlier so we cut in like a cloud shape. This also represent freedom as well because you could, the cloud just give a send of you could fly that or also make head. Also again, I use tape to add a tab, just slide it in. Like that and then put this one up. You got that quite a cool player, quite a cool dress for, I don't know, maybe mystery guys that get you confused. Oh, this is the superpower that not, what do you call? You don't have to use Google map anymore because you can solve all the map, the power to read map up all.
- [Gill] Oh, that's what I need.
- Yes, me too, I get really confused. And also I make a few more so I could change that into another dress. So this one and then you could pay it with fire, fire head. Or if you like, you could turn it into this one with the two tab. Here you go. A little bit abstract, very spikey, so a dangerous one. And the second dress, the second outfit I would like you to try to make is something that could make you happy. Think of something that will enrich your life if you wear this clothes. One of the thing I really like is sweet, I like sugar, I like cake. So, this doll is a perfect example as a symbol of cake. So we're gonna try to turn this into an outfit. How to do that, let's see. Maybe I start with the head dress. So, I'm not quite sure. Maybe that's the head dress for me. So what I do I just cut this in half. Let's put at the back. So I need something to hold this head dress. I might just pick up one of the colour paper we had earlier, maybe pink colour. Oh this is so bright.
- [Gill] So bright.
- Yes. But it's fit perfectly with my sugar things.
- [Gill] It sure does.
- Yes. Maybe a bit too thin, let's try again. I didn't, actually, I'm just do it as I go, I'm not planning ahead, I didn't schedule anything so I found this is much more fun. I put this there. Okay, so kind of get like hat like that so it stay I fixed and maybe this could be a bit on the shoulder. How to do this shoulder? This way? This way? Okay, that way. So I'm gonna put this one again on top of a white paper. Then I draw the outline of the body. Then tab, tab, tab, tab. We'll cut it out. So we got this up. So, what I do, I use this as a base to decorate it. So now I got the dress right so I can use this and I cut. I can glue.
- [Gill] Some lovely frilly legs.
- You see, it's just something around your house. You can just turn into some pretty cool paper doll things. Oh actually that's nice. Okay, let's look more like, I think I need more pink. So I have this thing that can create flowers which... Here you go, wild flowers. So I'm gonna use this to create a couple more flowers just for decoration. What happened if you don't have this thing? I dunno, you can't do this workshop. No, if you don't have this thing, you could just cut it yourself. You do, you cut square piece of paper for maybe two times and then you cut it. Not gonna look like the one I used the machine to cut but it also looked pretty.
- [Gill] Very cool.
- So you can use it to decorate your... Do it many different way. So add a star, you get the idea. Add a few more pink. You could use line. Well, you could also use pen marker, pink marker that just look like pink. Is it pink or purple? Yeah, pink here. So you could also use to create a little bit more detail as well. I should glue it because I heard someone asking, oh what happened to this paper? So basically I use paper glue and glue it, all of them. So now I got these superheroes. Not superheroes, sorry, we done that, sorry. Now we got the happiest dress for me that I would probably like to wear on the day I go out and eat all the cake in the world. It's a perfect one. And I have prepared a few more clothes. So I'm gonna show you. I just gonna take this one off. Oh sorry. So, I have prepared other clothes. I work with flowers a lot. So I have one with flowers that and I think will go well with this eyes. There you go. I'm done. And then also a little bit more extravaganza. So, this please. I didn't go with this one.
- [Gill] I love the mix and match approach too. Once you have a little collection, a little wardrobe.
- Yeah, that's a whole thing of a paper doll, isn't it? And you can mix and match and this one almost extra, so ones like that, yes. So, which one should I put this one on? I have very nice maybe this head, hopefully not. I think this would be good with not quite, maybe this one. Yeah, this one's still good. What about this one?
- [Gill] Ah yes.
- Here we go. We got another dress. And last one you could also make two part. So you got like a dress but look like a human head. I think it'll go away with this piece too, there. Also, if you just don't like all of these fancy things, it's too much imagination and too much for you, you like to have some cute little dress, you could just use colour paper and then it's a dress up. And this and a wig. There you go. So, I think with paper dolls but I think the imaginative one is much more fun. So, I think that's it. That's end of my workshop. Hopefully you create something nice and you send us some pictures. Just take photo with your phone and send your creation to us, we love to see it. Thank you very much for taking the journey with me.
