As you might or might not be aware, I'm taking a Beginning Sculpture class at the local CC. Throughout college, I always *meant* to take a sculpture class, because I have it in my mind that I could be very good at sculpture (no false modesty here!). It never worked into my schedule, and I wasn't too enamored with the professor that taught the class. Then when I started taking classes at the CC, all of the art studio classes were taught during the day or on Saturdays, and I couldn't justify taking a 3 hour block out of work M/W mornings for a hobby class. This fall semester was the first time I noticed the sculpture class being offered at night, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and brave the horrible parking situation at the CC and just take the class.
The first night of class, the professor handed out the syllabus and schedule, and a few supplemental sheets of information including a list of the four types of "three dimensionality:" low relief, one-sided, full round, and walk through. He told us our first medium would be foam core board (for those of you unfamiliar with it, it's basically two sheets of poster board glue to either side of a mm thick piece of low-density foam). He preferred we use white board, and if we HAD to use some other colour, we had to justify its use. And if we HAD to use some other paper material, we had to justify its use. Even after paying a $15 materials fee on top of standard registration, we have to provide the VAST majority of our own supplies--something I never had to deal with at the private liberal arts school I went to for college. He talked about low relief sculpture, and used the example of a coin--the image on the coin is considered low relief, and then set us about to work. Unfortunately, I missed the second class sessions because of car issues, and showed up the third class session with a vague idea as to the low relief sculpture I was going to make using my foam core board. At some point during this class session, the professor mentioned we would have to have all four of our sculptures ready for evaluation the following Wednesday (to the utter dismay of everyone in the class, because at no point during the preceding class sessions did he tell anyone that we had to complete a sculpture for each of the four types of three dimensionality). So I got busy this weekend and got three of the four projects done. I have NO idea what I'm going to do for the fourth one...poo.
Low Relief Sculpture. This is the one I created first. Outside the classroom, there's a large free-standing enclosed stair well that connects the lower campus to the upper campus. It rises about three stories. It's cinder block, and at one point, it's very clear that it used to be COVERED in ivy that has since died off. All the remains, clutched to the cinder block, are fragments of dead stems, leaves, and the debris that got caught. For some reason, I find it fascinating, and I decided I would use it as inspiration for my first project. I took the foam core board and laid out a grid of bricks and mortar. I cut through the top layer of poster board and the foam core, and stopped cutting before I completely pierced the back layer of poster board. I carefully dug out the foam core, leaving behind small pieces of foam, and the backside of the back poster board. I then carefully pealed off the very top of the poster board around the bricks, leaving behind the rough paper (to simulate the texture of brick). I used the strips of foam that I had pulled away from the "mortar" to make the stems of the ivy, rolled them in my fingers so they had a slightly tubular shape, and hot-glued them to the bricks and mortar. The slightly larges pieces of foam core that were left over were formed into loose leaf shapes and glued on the board, as well. All in all, I'm happy with how it turned out, though I'm not sure someone would know what it's meant to be by just looking at it. I'm quite happy that I managed to make the entire sculpture out of one piece of foam core and glue :o)
One-Sided Sculpture. Next I tackled the one-sided sculpture. I'm not 100% certain as to what differentiates a one-sided sculpture from a low relief work, as the professor never explained it and the sheet he handed out was a bunch of gibberish, but I took a stab at it anyway. Last week, one of the neighbours' cats killed a bird in my backyard. There were feathers ALL over the place. I quite like birds and I quite like feathers, so I grabbed one of the feathers, washed it with anti-bacterial soap (see, Mom, I did listen at least once during my childhood!), dried it, and set about recreating it in paper. I loosely sketched out a feather on a sheet of white card stock. For the quill/rachis part of the feather, I used a pick to gently mar the surface of the paper, and then cut out the feather shape. I cut tiny, thin strips from the paper to simulate the soft after feathers closest to the quill. Then I cut the barbs along the length of the father, making as tiny, thin strips as I could with scissors. As the paper was cut, it curled gently, which nicely simulated real barbs. After completing all the cuts, I gently molded the marred center quill/rachis so that it was slightly raised, and then mounted the whole feather on the foam core, using strips of foam core to raise the feather from the surface. I *think* it qualifies as a one-sided sculpture!
Full Round Sculpture. Lately, I've been really interested in leafless trees (as evidenced by the large drawing I did for the down stairs bathroom back in March, and the smaller drawings I've been working on since then that I'll eventually frame and post). For this project, I wanted to make a leafless tree sculpture. I cut two similarly sized trunks/large branch pieces from the foam core, cut a slot down the top side of one trunk and along the botton side of the other trunk, so when the were matched together, they would form a standing tree shape. I then cut 4-more quarter trunks (flat side with the opposite side bring the trunk) with more branches sprouting from the top. I used my Xacto knife to bevel the straight edge of each quarter trunk piece so that when I glued them to the free-standing trunk, they would fit nicely. Bleh--it's really hard to describe it, and I didn't think to take pictures of the steps, so I just sketched out what I did here:
I then hot glued the quarter trunk pieces to the free standing trunk, making sure all bottom edges were flat and level.
After the base was formed, I used more card stock and cut random branch shapes. I then cut holes in the branch portion of the foam core tree and inserted the card stock branches into the holes. In most instances, they held quite easily to the foam core--I hot glued a few of them to keep them in place. I then created a 4" x 1" base for the sculpture using more foam core (cut one 4"x4" piece, two 1"x4" and two 1" x 3-5/8" pieces, and hot glued them together. I then put a whole heaping gob of hot glue on the top of the base, and set my tree sculpture on top, wedging it into the glue to ensure proper adhesion.
I didn't want a stark base, so I decided I needed some leaves. To make the leaves, I used more card stock and used by pick to draw a straight line down the length of paper. I then created a chevron pattern on either side of the line, again using the pick. Then I cut the line/chevron strip off the paper, used the line as the center point and folded the strip in half length-wise. I then cut out crescent shapes that, when flattened, formed leaves. I varied the size and shape of the leaves I cut out. Next, I glued the leaves to the base using tacky craft glue, trying to cover the entire base and the hot glue as much as possible. Here's the finished product:
And a close up shot of the leaves/base/trunk. I'm pleased with the leaves, especially.
Since all of the projects were done on white paper/foam core board and I'm not an ace photographer, the pictures didn't turn out spectacularly, so keep that in mind. Click here for more pictures of the projects. As I make more pieces, I'll update the blog/Flickr gallery.
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