This is not old photo or poster! It is rather a carefully and patiently done with packing tape. The image is one of several works of mine in a genre of art called Tape Art. For those that aren't familiar with the term, let me walk you through it a little bit.

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What is Tape Art?

Wikipedia - Tape art is an artwork created with adhesive tape such as duct tape or packing tape. It developed from urban art in the 1960s, as an alternative to the widely spread use of spray cans in the urban art scene. Tape can be used to produce a "stained glass" effect when applied to glass or plastic which is lit from behind. It can be attached to a wall to form the outline or an image, or can be shaped into three-dimensional sculptures.

I would say this is an art form devoted to the making of perfect models or reference photos, carefully studying the effects of light and the color gradation of the masking tape and keeping attention to every last detail. Artists in the field of art is usually called Tape Artist. It takes a lot of patience, practice and time to do art using this material. I spend up to 20+ hours or more on each image depending on the reference photo and the image size.

I started using this medium since mid-2016 and continue to train it. I love this medium because it is easy to find, cheap and not very popular among artists to use as a substitute for paint, charcoal, and pencil. But to achieve this image, I use some supporting materials besides packing tape. Let me make a short list that shows some of them and their functions.

• Packing tape
  It may sound strange but packing tape is one of the main ingredients in using this technique. I use them instead of paint or pencils commonly used for drawing.

• Knife
  The knife I use instead of the brush in the drawing. In this technique the process of making the image is done by cutting each layer of tape slowly so as not to damage the layers in other parts.

• Plastic aklirik or Glass
  If I usually draw with canvas or paper, I use both media as their replacement. The acrylic and glass plastics used must be clear so that the light that will be installed from behind the finished tape art image easily penetrates it.

• LED light
  This light I usually use to provide light from behind the image that I'm making. Its function is to see the gradation effect generated from the taped layers of packing tape and cut. This is the reason why using only one color (brown) packing tape but can bring up multiple colors at once. As dark and light, it is due to the thickness of different layers of tape so that if the thicker layers of the existing light LED light is difficult to penetrate and become a darker color, and vice versa.

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I would also like to introduce the image-making drawing I took while doing this technique.

Photo the first process; Form a basic sketch or the darkest part of the image to be created

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Details if in the photo from close range

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Photo the second process; I added a layer above the image that I had formed in the previous process and then started cutting it back

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Photo process next; For this stage I just repeat the second step. Add layer after layer of packing tape and then cut it. I'll stop if I think the picture I want to make is appropriate.

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The last step I will give the layer of masking tape once again, but not cut it.

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And here's the summary

Title: Indonesian Children
Size: 20x30 cm
Medium: Brown tape on plastic acrylic
Duration: 20+ hours more

So there you have it, Tape Art is not that hard. I'm sure you can do it. The important thing is to dare to try and not easily despair. I am still studying. Thanks for visiting my blog, I am new on this platform so your upvote, reteems and comments will be very helpful to me. Thank you very much @slothicorn @artzone