Calvin Nicholls has been creating his paper sculptures since 1986 and is now a master of the art. Working with just sheets of paper and a scalpel, he creates the most wonderful 3D pictures inspired by the plants and animals of the Canadian woodland.

The majority of Calvin’s work is white on white, which leads one to better appreciate the astoundingly realistic fur and feathers via the play of light and shadows. He begins his sculptures with a drawn pattern, traces each component of the scene, transfers these to sculpture paper, and then cuts each one with a scalpel or X-acto knife on a cutting mat. Calvin uses very small amounts of glue to assemble the figure piece by piece, likening the process to shingling a roof.

Seen here is a collection of artworks but you can explore hundreds of additional pieces on his website and Facebook.

Paper11

Paper12

Paper2

Paper8

Paper3

pape16

Paper5

Paper1

Paper6

Paper4

Paper7

Paper9

paper13

paper14

17

paper15