The Art of Scrap, Friday, Period 4
"Hey, guys," Dean greeted, smiling as his students settled themselves into the art room before he pointed with his thumb toward the coffee on his desk. "Coffee's free, help yourselves. I don't want anybody falling asleep in the middle of my lecture today, you hear?"
Yeah. He'd been a teenager once. He was going to imply that every single class that he was able to, thanks.
"Today we're going to start to talk about the basic anatomy of a sculpture. Because making art in three dimensions is a little more complicated, at least structurally speaking, than slapping paint onto a canvas, there are a few things you have to keep in mind before you start. Things like how you're going to make your piece stand up, and how to make certain it's strong enough to keep from falling apart once it is standing are pretty important if you don't want to just end up wasting your time."
If Dean kept making pieces that he couldn't sell, he'd really be one to talk about wasting his time. Honestly.
"Sculptures can be made in two ways," he went on. "Additive, or subtractive. You can take a chunk of marble or clay or wood and chip away at it, or you can build up from a base. Me, I mostly do that second one, the additive one. I build myself an armature, a support system, and then I work up from there, welding on scrap metal. As I go, I have to keep in mind things like composition, which is how it flows to the eye. Not compost, which isn't the kind of scrap we're working with at all."
At all.
"Generally, I start with a sketch. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, it just has to be a sort of... map so that I know what looks good and what I want to build," he explained. "It can just be a quick stick figure if you're not all that artistic. Just something to keep your idea fresh in your head. From there, I go about putting together my armature. The material that I use for my armatures can differ a bit from piece to piece. If it's going to be a heavy sculpture, I need something more sturdy, after all. We're going to be using chicken wire here in class, mostly because it's easy to get our hands on, and because it doesn't require any welding."
He'd already promised a few other people on the faculty that he wasn't going to let his students burn down the school. He had to at least make an attempt to let that remain the case.
"Today, you're going to start to plan out what you want to build later this semester," Dean continued, "and you're going to use chicken wire to build yourself an armature. Be careful not to scratch yourself with it too much. Chicken wire can be pretty tricky to work with if you don't pay attention. Your pieces can be as big or as small as you want them to be, but you have to keep in mind as you're planning them, you've got to be the one who gathers up enough parts to build your masterpiece, too."
He smirked and took a mouthful of coffee.
"On a related note, dress like you're going to get messy next week. We're taking a field trip to get some building supplies."
[Open!]
Yeah. He'd been a teenager once. He was going to imply that every single class that he was able to, thanks.
"Today we're going to start to talk about the basic anatomy of a sculpture. Because making art in three dimensions is a little more complicated, at least structurally speaking, than slapping paint onto a canvas, there are a few things you have to keep in mind before you start. Things like how you're going to make your piece stand up, and how to make certain it's strong enough to keep from falling apart once it is standing are pretty important if you don't want to just end up wasting your time."
If Dean kept making pieces that he couldn't sell, he'd really be one to talk about wasting his time. Honestly.
"Sculptures can be made in two ways," he went on. "Additive, or subtractive. You can take a chunk of marble or clay or wood and chip away at it, or you can build up from a base. Me, I mostly do that second one, the additive one. I build myself an armature, a support system, and then I work up from there, welding on scrap metal. As I go, I have to keep in mind things like composition, which is how it flows to the eye. Not compost, which isn't the kind of scrap we're working with at all."
At all.
"Generally, I start with a sketch. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, it just has to be a sort of... map so that I know what looks good and what I want to build," he explained. "It can just be a quick stick figure if you're not all that artistic. Just something to keep your idea fresh in your head. From there, I go about putting together my armature. The material that I use for my armatures can differ a bit from piece to piece. If it's going to be a heavy sculpture, I need something more sturdy, after all. We're going to be using chicken wire here in class, mostly because it's easy to get our hands on, and because it doesn't require any welding."
He'd already promised a few other people on the faculty that he wasn't going to let his students burn down the school. He had to at least make an attempt to let that remain the case.
"Today, you're going to start to plan out what you want to build later this semester," Dean continued, "and you're going to use chicken wire to build yourself an armature. Be careful not to scratch yourself with it too much. Chicken wire can be pretty tricky to work with if you don't pay attention. Your pieces can be as big or as small as you want them to be, but you have to keep in mind as you're planning them, you've got to be the one who gathers up enough parts to build your masterpiece, too."
He smirked and took a mouthful of coffee.
"On a related note, dress like you're going to get messy next week. We're taking a field trip to get some building supplies."
[Open!]