My very first thought when I think of puppeteer was wood and strings. Hence as a sketch I just found some wood looking font to remind myself of the idea. However having just done two illustrator based font I decided to make something.
I cut my name out of foam and hung it with wire as a sketch model. I wanted to play with the idea that I wanted to be a string and shadow puppeteer, as seen below.
However it did not create much visual interest and hence I decided to concentrate on shadow puppets as I was already playing with shadows. The shadow puppet closest to home is the wayang kulit and hence I decided to base my font on that.
I first drew it on a piece on mounting board. And after the first letter I decided to just do my initials as four very detailed fonts seemed a little overwhelming as a composition.
I attempted to cut it and then realised my mistake of drawing on mounting board as it was too difficult to trace. Hence I moved it over to illustrator and did an image trace.
And then printed it on transparency so I could shine a light through and cast a shadow without having to cut anything.
I also struggled with the photography part is I initially had my friend help me hold the transparency andĀ hold the light while I take a photo. The photos were good as the angle was off.
So after many attempts I decided to do it like how an actual show would have done it.
I had the light cast from behind then the transparency then the screen, which made it much easier to get my desired effect.