Making the Paper Listen and Obey

When people look at my pop-ups and ask, "how do you DO that?", I often want to reply, "by the skin of my teeth!" I'm sure they think that I have this technical, engineering background and that I know how to use a protractor, but really I'm just faking it. I'm making it up as I go along, hoping and praying that everything works out in the end. I never draw in two dimensions what I will eventually make in three. There's a very good reason for this. With two-dimensional illustration, you can create anything you want. I mean ANYTHING. The sky's the limit. But with three-dimensional illustration (especially a three-dimensional illustration that must open and close) one must obey the laws of physics.

And I don't know anything about physics.

But I do know that the paper will do what it wants to do, not want I want it to do. At my studio we are always trying to make the paper obey. I AM THE POP-UP MAKER, YOU ARE THE LOWLY PAPER! OBEY! But it never does. If I want it to go to the left, it will want to go the right. If I want it to be quiet, it will be noisy. If I want it to work, it will go on a coffee break. The paper is like a new puppy, adorable but incorrigible. Making pop-ups for a book requires a patience that is no longer common today.

Before any work begins I must decide what I want the pop-up to be. Should it be a static, three-dimensional object, like a castle, or should it be more about movement, like birds flying? Once I decide which direction I will go in, I begin the work.

Instead of using a pencil to draw on the paper, I use scissors to cut the paper. I work with broad, general shapes when I'm designing a pop-up. I know that the simple, white rectangle I'm cutting in the beginning will become a very colorful, detailed structure later on. The most important thing at this early stage is that the pieces I cut and attach to the page work properly when opened and closed. It's not so much that the pop-up actually "pops up," but that it closes back down again. If the pop-up doesn't work, I can quickly change it since I haven't invested too much time.

Figure 1.

Photo of Robert Sabuda by Monika Graff

Eventually I will make up to eight or ten white mock-ups of the same pop-up, each one more detailed and refined than the last. Not only do I carefully watch how the paper performs when it's open and closed, I listen to it. Are there any strange noises that emanate from inside? Are there "clicks," which could mean something is getting caught? No detail can be overlooked, because if a problem is small in the beginning it is guaranteed to get bigger later.

Designing all the pop-ups for a book can take anywhere from three to six months, the time usually allowed for an entire picture book. Then all the artwork that will go on the pops themselves has to be created. This can take another four to six months. Sometimes I feel like I'm designing a car, it takes so long. My friends can't seem to understand how I can STILL be working on the same book almost a year later!

I use a variety of techniques when I'm creating the flat art that goes on the pops. I have always loved the clean, pristine beauty of white shapes, so many of my books have pop-up pieces that are simply unprinted. In other books I may use relief printing or sometimes I will use the computer to create the artwork. I don't have a favorite technique, I just use what I feel is right for the story.

Children always...