Project Four: Soft Sell

Another project in which I have no idea what I'm doing? You bet, toots! And here are some photographs. I apologize for the offensive use of the word "toots", but I heard it on the radio today and it is now my new favorite thing ever. Anyhow, this assignment involved taking a hard object and turning it into a soft sculpture and changing the meaning through fabric choices. And now for the pictures:

 

 

And now for the commercial!

Project Three: Balsa Wood Sculpture

I had done a conceptual word project in 2D design and it was not my favorite. Thankfully, searching for images and sketching helped ground me enough so that by the time I moved to the small clay models I wasn’t entirely unsure of my goals. And that’s when I realized that I’m not a sculptor. My designs had to constantly be changed due to my lack of ability with the clay and then even more with the soap. By the time I got to the balsa wood I had radically changed my plan.
This adaptive attitude came to an unsightly end after my lackluster attempt at sanding. There was no going back. I wished that there was as I glopped on paint, hoping to cover up my mistakes. That didn’t happen. The flexible process of painting proved to make the final stages take forever as I strove to blend colors.
Overall, I’m not entirely dissatisfied with the piece. If someone had told me that I would be able to carve a shrimp-like creature out of wood I wouldn’t believe them. But I managed to pull it off, and despite its bumps and bruises, it’s better than I thought it’d be.

Project Two: Linear Self-Portrait

My expectations for Project 2 were basically the opposite of Project 1. I was actually confident for once in my emotionally unstable artistic career. The assignment had to do with line, economy, and portraiture, which is the focus of most of my work. But another big component of the project was patience, something of which I have very little. I tend to jump into projects headfirst. My sketches are more like wild scribbles of undecipherable madness. Unfortunately, sketching is not possible with wire, unless one is willing to buy copious amounts of practice wire. But despite my rocky start, I managed to coax my sculpture into a somewhat decent likeness of me. There are some craftsmanship issues, but overall it’s a freestanding piece with stable interweaving components, even if it didn’t live up to my expectations.

Project One: Pop-Up Accidents

At a glance, Project 1 seemed incredibly cruel. Not only would I have to learn how to think in three dimensions, but I would also have to do so using the delicate and precise methods of pop-up books while addressing the topic of power tools. It was a triple whammy of confusion. The only way I avoided copious amounts of cursing (although a couple of choice words did slip out) was to go back to my roots in cartooning. Instead of being intimidated by the multitude of parts of the miter saw, I chose to focus on humanizing an accident with a relatable and humorous character.
It feels like most of what I learned came from my inordinate amount of mistakes. I had to force myself to take my time and step back from my work every once in a while to evaluate my progress. In the end I feel like I had to learn how to accept my work; even if it’s not exactly perfect, it represents me, for better or for worse.