A 36-year-old Allan Vincent Cruz, the artist from Bocaue, Bulacan, pours his love for anime into creating detailed paper sculptures, turning his favorite characters into intricate real-life art pieces.
Cruz’s journey into papercraft began in 2013 when his interest in toy collecting was thwarted by financial constraints. Instead of giving up, he turned his creativity towards making his own figures out of paper.
“I’m a certified 90s kid; cartoons and anime were trendy then. That’s what inspired me to create things that I can’t afford. I can make them with paper,” Cruz shared with the Inquirer.
His works range from detailed busts to life-sized figures of various anime characters, each piece taking anywhere from a week to three months to complete.
One of his recent projects includes a full-body figure of “Anya Forger” from the anime and manga series Spy × Family. He crafted this piece using board paper, glue, a cutter, styro, and a topcoat.
Additionally, Cruz challenged himself with a large-scale project by creating a diorama of the Disneyland Paris Castle.
Cruz’s papercraft journey, which began as a hobby, has seen him participate in art exhibitions at conventions, malls, and schools.
He decided to turn his passion into a business, selling his art pieces around 2017. Allan Papercraft is his Facebook page, where he posts and manages his works and ongoing projects.
