Concentration progress part 2

The concentration pieces are coming along fairly well, I have 6 of the 8 completed, or at least near to completion. You know the overlying concept of the pieces, but there are some specifics to the 2 new projects since last time. the Cat I made with string is stretching and the form is made from stretching string against more string. The original idea of removing the cat from the frame is no longer an option because the stiffy didn't work exactly how I had planned, but painting the cat made it stand out just enough. The alligator is dark wire and will eventually have paper mache added to the back and create scales (this is one of the projects that just needs the final touches). It's supposed to be walking forward, but there's some tweaking that needs to happen for that to be more obvious. These both meet the criteria by showing animals from thin/wire-like material, and they are both preforming a motion. The cat has taken full craftsman ship out of me with all the time and planning that had to take place, and all the issues that i had to  overcome while figuring out just how to make the string into a 3-d shape. The alligator had some issues to with figuring out how to prepare the scale pattern for paper mache, but its was figured out. I really enjoy the cats composition with all the negative space contrasting with the clustered areas, but the alligator needs some contrapasto. I feel the projects where successful, I would improve the alligator by finishing it off, and the cat by darkening the paint.

concentration progress

This is my Progress on my portfolio so far. as you may or may not be able to tell, none of these pieces are 100% finished, so i feel it would be redundant to upload them to the AP page. Still there is progress to be shown by these pictures. The concept of my concentration is defiantly holding true, while developing further and further, with the new stretched string ideas. The incompleteness of the projects makes the craftsmanship somewhat diminished, but that will be fixed once they are all completed. 

Concentration: 1 Squirrel

This is the first of my concentration pieces that are animal sculptures made from wire/string/or stick like material. The animals are look like there about to do something too, so this squirrel is about to run away with its acorn because its looking up at someone or something thats coming. I choose to keep this one all wire to show the waviness and looseness of the wire, trying to show the nervous movement of squirrels. Its made from two long separate pieces of wire, one for the front half and another for the back. I feel this project was very successful and it makes me excited to create the rest of the animals for the concentration. The main improvement this project needs is an actual acorn for its mouth, and maybe a stick for it to be mounted on.

Packer Fever

The concept for this project was to try and show how Packer fever is obnoxious. So i made a clay face of someone who is being loud and annoying, and the top portion of his head is cut off so you can see that his brain is made of cheese. Like packer fever actually makes your mind a bunch of mushy cheese and thats why packer fans can be so obnoxious. I used the media by starting with a solid clay ball and shaped it to a head shape and just started carving in features and molding it as i went. Compositionally, this is symmetrical, but because its 3d you can look at it from many different angles so while making this I tried to focus on all the angles I could to make it look as realistic as possible. It was a success, but I still have to finish it. I really like the way its headed though, so Im defiantly going to finish

Exam Exhibit

After a long semester of AP art, I finally decided to stick with 3-D, and this is the result. The 5 project i have chosen not only are all of my 3-D projects (minus the shoddy obliterate TV), but they also show my progression in understanding the material I'm using. The hand-face that was made years ago along with the obliterated earth, reminded me of working with paper mache and sparked the idea for my cluster headache project. The fish used paper mache to bind together sticks and is shows my fundamental understanding of structure around space which will be shown in future projects, just like how the lamp is just the beginning in showing my understanding of cardboard layer construction which i will be working with in more complicated ways in the future.

free choice fish

Heres the fish i made for free choice and has inspired my concentration idea to create animals with sticks or wire, or basically any material that leaves more space than anything else. In doing this can create semiabstract ideas of animals and attempt to show their motion though their pose. this fish is should look like its swimming because of the slight angle in the tail fin.

lamp shadow

This is my home project. I decided to go with a pretty abstract idea of home being the shadows of lamps, because the time they really come into focus, is when your at home with the lights shut off and your comfortably waiting to fall asleep at home. I struggled with deciding on what material to use, but eventually settled on layering cardboard to created a layered effect that almost resembles honeycomb, which can be connected to the idea of home. the table the lamp sits on mirror the shape of the lamp to create balanced symmetry. The most important part is the shadow of the lamp shade which because of the slots in the cardboard, shows the cardboard lightbulb built inside the shade. Im very satisfied with this project and am excited to keep working with cardboard layers as a possible concentration idea. I learned a lot of different techniques on how to use the cardboard from just working to put this together.