charles young translates color combinations into delightfully animated mini-paper sculptures

step into the whimsical and miniature world of charles young’s ‘four colour houses’ 

a few years back, artist charles young delighted us with his meticulously-crafted ‘paperholm‘ project, a miniature metropolis comprising over 300 architectural structures made entirely of white paper. since 2020, young has taken a new path by developing ‘four colour houses’, a whimsical and equally delightful papercraft series of tiny cars, buildings, trucks, and towers composed of up to four color combinations. several of these models were also brought to life through charming stop motion animations. 

completing 108 paper models using 3 to 4 color combinations 

the ‘four colour houses’ project began right after young (see more here) purchased sanzo wada’s dictionary of color combinations. he says:‘starting may 2020, I used [the dictionary] as inspiration for a new project, introducing color to my paper work for the first time. the book is made up of two, three, and four color combinations drawn from japanese design and publishing in the early 20th century.’  

it took young about a year to complete 108 colorful paper models, which he exhibited at the CODA paper art 2021 show in the netherlands. 

from printing to animating: a meticulous, handcrafted process

young starts by printing each color palette on an A5 watercolor sheet. he then proceeds to shape, cut, crease, and fold each A5 to model a specific structure or object. it can take him up to four hours to complete a single paper sculpture, entirely by hand, using a scalpel. once each sculpture is set, the artist moves on to the stop motion shots. with a camera, he quickly captures a set of frames, which he then imports and merges on photoshop to complete the animation. you can view young’s entire ‘four colour houses’ collection right here.

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project info:

name: four colour houses

artist: charles young

date: 2020-present