sculpture photos

these are the photos of my face and hand sand casts. the sculptures were purposely placed in various places around the art block to see how people would react to them being there. in the 3d studio, main room there wasn't many complaints other than the fact that the hand pointing its index finger looked like a penis. the sculpture in the 2d studio stirred up a bit more of a fuss because not only was it at eye level thus creating an obstacle students also found it creepy mainly due to the deformities on the face of it which you can see clearly in the last photo. however, the one which created the most controversy was the one in the backroom of 3d which was also eye level but due to the fact that the room is pretty much always dark and the faces were both of a high and low deformity i made the whole piece more relatable am pining up how creepy it came across. in the piece i also had a fist which was show going going towards either one of the faces. due to the fact that there was already very little space in the room i had to take them down because both students and staff were walking into them and they were ultimately causing a hazard.   

set design ideas

I've decided to end the project with smashing all of my plaster sand casts to show the transformation from a rather detailed sculpture to a broken one, metamorphosis. it also shows how actions being was broken by diana in the poem. i took this idea from ai weiwei when he photographed himself at multiple points smashing an expensive vase.
the way I'm interpreting it is by throwing each and every individual sculpture at a corner of the 2d studio. I'm yet to decided whether to alter the corner by putting paper there or just leave it raw.
the positives of leaving it raw is that my work will be destroyed in the place it was created and by the person that created it. referring to the way that the dog action hunted with killed him. however, if i cover the corner in black or white paper i will start of with a pure background and by the end the broken sculptures will have intruded in on that space, like how action intruded in on diana bathing.

areas of research-shadow sculpting extension

This is work is from the artist, Kumi Yamashita. the work interested me because i like how subtle her work is, especially with the top 3 images. however, i wanted to make my own spin off of it by taking away that subtleness and creating are rather dynamic piece to make the shadow. 

This is when i found Tim Noble and Sue Webster and as you can tell they use very dynamic sculptures to create the shadow. they also draw the shape they want on the wall first so that they can just continuously add junk to the pile until they get the shape they desire. but I'm wanting to have a meaning full sculpture and a accurate shadow image. 

How the tests came out

These are the casts from the test run of my final piece. In the next run I'm going to imbed hoops into the plaster so that I can hang them from the ceiling.

I also used a brush to get rid of the remaining sand on the casts. 

the definition

shadow sculpting

after trying to arrange my sand casts on the plaster canvas i created it became apparent that the whole thing just didn't have the space to create any sort of conversation. this triggered off a whole thought process where i began thinking about placing my sand casts on a wall and then that idea expanded to the whole building, then to place them in a sort of path like fashion leading form one cast to the other and finally thought of using light in my sculptures to create a contrast between physical and visual conflict between diana and acteon.
looking into artist which incorporate artist which ddi this sort of thing was the obvious way forward at this point. Tim Noble & Sue Webster came to mind even though they pre draw the image they want first. the clump of 'shit' and the way its photographed is interesting.

Final design tests metamorphosis

Acrurate sculpting using callipers

This is my first attempt at using callipers to create a more accurate sculpture of the vertebrate. To use the callipers effectively you have to place the callipers on either side of a surface and then translate that measurement into the material your working with, in this case clay. Although, the piece isn't 100% accurate as it was my first attempt in happy and continuing to practice with the callipers is only going to make my skills more fluent. Personally, I didn't really like his technique because it basically teaches you how to copy the whole reason I love art is because it doesn't have to be mm perfect to mean something big.

2D into 3D

this is an experiment to try change a 2D form into 3D. 

this is the second maquette i made using the measurements on the sheet below, i also tried to spiral the antlers more to give it that bit more elegance. i was extremely pleased with how well the measurements went and how the end product came out with the spiralled antlers but it was far to simplistic. to solve this i tried looking at other ways to make 2D into 3D sculptures. the first one which came up was origami, i was extremely surprised that i didn't think of this earlier but researched on a couple of youtube videos first and then decided which type of stag i like best visually. 

this is my first maquette i made with out measurements and just simply did it as a test sample. the positives of this piece is that the front legs are in preparation to the size of the piece and the head is a good size but id like to slightly change the shape. the negatives are the body is slightly thin, the rear legs are fatter than i wanted and although you can't see it on the photo the tail is none existent so id like to alter that when drawing up and making measurements, the ears/antlers are also far to big in comparison to the size of the piece.
these are the drawings and measurements i made after making the maquette. i based these of the positives and negatives of the maquette which i explained earlier. i also cut out the smallest triangle twice so i could use one for the tail and on for the head.

before making the stag i decided to make a simpler origami sculpture of a dog or hound just to get used the technique and the amount of times i needed to spend folding each bit because i was using extremely thick paper to do origami. the test went ok but really allowed me to get used to the creasing and folding techniques of origami.
taking the knowledge from the origami dog i made i knew that going up in scale will make it less fiddly but i will have to make the folds more defined and maybe use scissors.
the process itself was hard at all but towards the end i found it became very stiff to fold and pieces like the back legs were being pried open. the overall piece went better than expected and i really enjoyed doing origami for the first time but i didn't like how its very easily found on youtube so pretty much anyone can do it. i want my final piece to be something much more original and a process where the outcomes differ when using the exact same steps.

Abstract plaster wire and scrim

this sculpture combines scrim which is the brown fabric you can see in the picture below, one coat plaster and chicken wire. this test was to utilise positive and negative space in sculpture. I'm just interested in the effects that positive and negative space have on peoples views of sculpture. 

i started off by understanding the compositional factors that goes into sculpture so how it will be presented in an exhibition. for example i looked at the shadow work of Kumi Yamashita who creases paper in a specific way so the shadow makes a shape. this also lead me into looking at tim noble and sue webster do the process the other way around so they draw on the wall a shape or form they want to create and then place objects down in front of the light source to fill the shape they've drew. 

looking at those artists it gave me a knowledge of ways abstract work can be presented in a recognisable form. even though in this piece i didn't use and light source or create shadows using the sculpture i was interested in the pure forms of the tim noble and sue webster sculptures. 

within their sculptures it varies between high and low densities. 

so before starting my sculpture i had in mind that i wanted to balance between the high and low density areas. 

in the piece i combined two separate sculptures one very dense and the other very empty showing a good contrast between positive and negative space. in the much more dense part of my sculpture i

Moulding with excess plaster

here we used the excess plaster from our casts to create personalised moulds of our hands. we did this after having a discussion about how sculpture can hold different emotions, thoughts etc. basically, the idea with this is to both experiment with how the outcomes will look and to signify this moment in time. this helped me understand the use of sculpture because sculpture needs to have a meaning away from the physical form. 

niki de saint phalle

niki has been a massive influence to my work as she had a different perspective on how to create her sculptures. she shot them. polythene bags filled with pint and plaster human forms were the base of the sculptures, she then shot at the polythene bags to create an image on the plaster.
after the shoot paintings she then went in depth into different roles in which women take, making life-size dolls of women. example, brides and mother giving birth etc. made using mainly a wire frame and an overlay of plaster. painting them all white.

Reliefs, plaster and scrim

these pieces/experiments were inspired by both jackson pollock and niki de sant phalle. i used multiple sizes and quality of brushes for the splatters which was influenced by jackson pollocks as he used multiple utensils to splatter the paint on his work. he chose utensils that represented things like feelings and seasonal changes. so me using different grades of brush shows that I'm representing creativity and the colours used are to symbolise the scenery surrounding the poem metamorphosis. i also imbedded multiple twigs into the plaster so the when i splattered the paint id have a varied texture. it'd also make the paint drip into the gaps and make for an even more varied range of splatters. 

alginate casting

gilbert and george

gilbert and george in todays age would be know as performance artists but in the 1970s it was seen as living sculpture.

Plaster casting and destructive sculpture

Clay casting

modelling and carving

modelling is a process which the form is built up using a malleable material, such as clay or wax. this gives the sculpture much greater freedom because one can add or subtract material to the form, allowing for mistakes to be made.
when doing large scale sculptures its not uncommon to create an armature or internal skeleton that helps to support the malleable substance. the armature must also be thoroughly thought through as the rest of the sculpture will be depending on its shape. another thing to take into consideration is the texture of the surface, taking advantage of the pliability of the material. modelling tends to be the medium between constructing and carving, favourited more by the direct and spontaneous sculptor.

carving is a process that is basically subtracting the material to create a form. materials used tend to be wood or stone but as i explained before plaster can also be used after casted.
carvings were traditionally created from stone, such as marble, granite, limestone and sandstone. these materials, particularly marble, are extremely hard and require a great degree of patience to sculpt (during the renaissance period, a life-sized sculpture of a person would take many years to carve)

properties of sculpture materials, general health and safety tips

clay.
traditionally dug directly from the earth and then modelled into shape before being fired at a high temperature to add strength and make a permanent form. heating the clay to such high temperatures must be done using a kiln which can be found in most community colleges that do ceramics or you can buy your own but it takes up a large amount of space and can be rather expensive. if you've used a synthetic clay they can be fired at much lower temperatures so you can use your oven or just leaving them out to dry will do just fine.
when storing clay it must be kept in a air tight bag because otherwise your clay will dry out. if your clay does happen to dry out then break it up into small pieces put it into a container (bowl) add roughly the same amount of water to clay and then it will start to reconstruct itself. before using the reconstructed clay cut the clay in half, slam either piece together and then repeat the process cutting perpendicular each time.

plaster.
commonly used to replicate purposes, such as the reproduction of greek and roman statues. however, plaster can be used as a material in its own rights. when cast into a block it can be used to carve into becoming a much cheaper and easier substance to carve. this is due to the fact that it reacts with the moisture in the air over time, causing it to set and become hard. plaster should like clay be kept in an air tight container and stored in a dry place.
when icing plaster, first half-fill a plastic bowl with water then begin sprinkling the plaster evenly around the bowl. stop when theres a peak in the centre of the bowl. next, mix the plaster with your hand until all of the lumps have gone and the mixture is smooth. when the box becomes a more creamy substance pour into a cast. when poured smack the surface that the cast is on to draw out any air bubbles from the mix. mixing plaster creates a chemical reaction and to speed up the reaction using warmer water usually does the trick. if you want it be slower use colder water. however, never change the plaster to water ratio because that only results in a poor consistency of plaster.

health and safety.
-when using plaster, dry clay or spray paint, always wear a dust mask and work in a well ventilated area.
-when clipping plaster wear goggles.
-when bending sharpe wire, cutting with a scalpel or hammering metal, always wear protective gloves.
-wash hands thoroughly after using glue, paint or plaster.

Who are Actaeon and Diana?

He was the son of Aristaeus who was a  priestly herdsman and Autonoe in Boeotia. Like Achilles of the later generation, he was trained the centaur Chiron. 

He fell in to the fatal wrath of Artemis(Diana), but surviving details of his crime vary. The only certainty is in what Actaeon suffered, his suffering and what Artemis did was made the hunter become the hunted. The was transformed into a stag with one splash of water and his raging hounds, struck with a 'wolf's frenzy', tore him limb from limb as they would a stag. This is the iconic motif by which Actaeon is recognised in both ancient art and in Renaissance and post-Renaissance depictions.  

Artemis(Diana)

The Hellenic goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity and protector of young girls, bringing and relieving disease in women. She was often depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrow.