Sculpture Experiments

Leading up to a longer pottery project, students explored different ways of making sculpture and forms using cardboard and paper. 

For one of the exercises, students viewed images of how architects create models for buildings, and explored examples of how different types of nets create forms.



   
Next, students chose a net to put together by tracing shapes or making their own. 


 
 









 Next, students used tabs, tape and glue to connect their shapes and put their net close to together.  Before putting it together for good, they used an X-Acto blade to cut negative space shapes and windows into their structure.






 Next, students closed their forms all the way and had some fun combining their forms and taking photos of the possible combinations.  In this way, new ideas for sculptures and buildings were found. 

 

For another experiment, students learned about Jean Dubuffet and geometric and organic shapes. Students drew organic and geometric shapes and learned how to notch or slice and tab the shapes together. At the end of the day, each sculpture had to stand on its own without collapsing and without glue.
Note: these sculptures are best enjoyed by imagining they are humongous public sculptures made to play on, inside a sculpture park!

 

 Finally, students engaged in a one-day experiment to see what kind of sculpture could be made from a single piece of paper.  They intuitively tucked, curled, wove and perforated the paper to create spontaneous 3-D forms without any glue or tape.

 During this week of exploration, students also completed a homework assignment to brainstorm ideas for representational and non-representational sculptures.

Color Mixing Boot Camp

Students in Honors Painting practiced mixing colors for a real life object in order to gain practice with color mixing. 

  
First, students learned about complementary colors, tints and shades.  Next, each student chose a fruit or vegetable and began mixing a "local hue" that is an exact color match for an area on their object.  They then used that color to make many tints (lighter) and shades (darker) that could be useful for highlights and shadows on their object.  They also mixed any other colors that they saw within their object.  This amounted to an abstract painting of their object in colors. 



 

Finally, the students used those same hues, tints and shades they found to paint their object for 3 days, in order to make their object look realistic and 3-Dimensional.