Today's Class- Despite the weather complications, we had more than half the class in attendance. We started with a critique of the Make 100 Module projects. Although each was made with just one simple repeated shape, the combinations evolved into interesting patterns and structures, and the final pieces ranged from very orderly and organized structures to chaotic abstraction, all of them interesting in their own way. Below is a city made of some of these sculptures.
After that we began on the next graded project, involving the idea of relief sculpture. Relief sculptures are where 2D and 3D meet, generally things carved into a relatively flat piece of material, such as wood or stone. The image is just on the one side and is best seen from that side, so it offers fewer views than most sculpture. We started a graded project making reliefs from cut foam core.
How to make this up- I distributed drawings and diagrams of skeletons, both human and animal. Skeletons are nature's great structures, a framework that supports a body, provides the means to move, and protects all the vital organs. There are a mix of positive and negative shapes, all with interesting organic shapes.
Start with an image of a skeleton, human or animal. I'll have some in class, or you can find your own if you don't like my options. I used the student drawing above as inspiration for the foam core skeleton below.
Choose a portion of it to reproduce as a relief image using foam core. Crop it so that the portion you are reproducing fills the 12" square composition. You can cut the whole skeleton from a single piece of foam core, or cut it out as series of pieces. Glue the skeleton pieces to one of the 12" x 12" squares.
Come up with some other kind of design on a similar sized square using foam core again, using similar types of shapes and a similar ratio of positive and negative space. It should be based on a real three dimensional object of scene.
Below is a student example from a previous semester done with black and white foam core, based on a fish skeleton (left)
Homework- This relief sculpture graded project will be due a the beginning of class on March 3, 2015.
For next class 2/24/15 - We will do a portfolio exercise concentrating on surfaces, particularly planes. The subject will be cars, which have all kinds of complex mechanical insides, but we mostly experience their smooth curving exteriors. Choose a car that you love just because of the way it looks. Not necessarily the fastest, or the most powerful, or the most fuel efficient, just one that you think looks really cool. Have photos of it from all angles, so that you can build a model of it as the first part of our project. Also bring foam core and bristol board, which will be used to construct the frame/support and the exterior body, along with white glue. Bring enough material to make two cars of about 8 to 10 inches, along with pencil and sketchbook, and scissors and knives for cutting the material.
