Sculptural Samples

For my first structural sample I used cardboard, paper and tape. To begin with I made the head which is made up of two pieces of newspaper that was folded up and put into a triangle shape, to keep this shape I tightly wrapped one sheet of newspaper around the triangle and used tape to secure this into place. Next I drawn a circle onto a piece of cardboard with a pen, then cut it out using a craft knife, after this I cut the circle into half with scrunched up newspaper inside to give it that 3D aspect with tape to attach the head to the section that i created.

Next I created the body and the legs of the bug. For the legs I taped two pieces of wire together so that they would be stronger allowing the bug to stand up by itself. The body was created by cutting out 2 pieces of think paper of the same shape, I then filled the body with scrunched up newspaper and put tape around the edges as I went along to keep the newspaper inside and to also attach the top and the bottom.

The images above are to show what my bug now looks like from each angle and to show that the legs are strong enough to hold the weight of the bug up.

Finally to make the model secure I applied paper mache which is strips of newspaper that are then tightly wrapped areound the bug to keep the shape and stuck down with slightly diluted PVA glue. Once dry the newspaper becomes solid.

Advantages: The advantages of using paper mache is that it is very light when complete. Another advantage is that paper is a very easy material to manipulate allowing you to create intricate shapes, features, etc. 

Disadvantages: The disadvantages of paper mache for me it that you would have to complete the model in one session because whenever I left my model, it would fall apart. Another disadvantage is that once the paper mache had dried you can't go back and fix any problems that are on the inside of the bug.  

The next material that I used for a 3D sculpture is wire, for the first step I created a basic 2D shape by attaching two wires together as one wouldn't have been long enough and bending it onto the outer shape. I then added the wire down the middle and the 3 across the length of the body for support so that the wire didn't bend too much from the original shape.

Ater I had the basic structure completed I added 3 half circles to the top of the model and a wire that went straight through the middle of them. Once these wires were secure I began to slowly pull yhe top and bottom apart which created the 3D aspect of my model.

After this I created the head by bending a single piece of wire into a small triangle and then I attached another piece of wire across the center and this was bend in the shape of hald a triangle to create a gradual incline on the head. I then used 2 smaller pieces of wire to attach the head to the body.

After the head was attached I went back to the body to make it more secure by wrapping a thinner type of wire around each of the 3 intersections to keep the body stable and strong.

Finally I added the wings to my bug by bending 4 wires, the two top wings were the same and the two bottom wings were the same, I used the same piece of wire that creates the wings to attach then to the body of the bug. To finish I added a design/pattern to one of the wings to show the many different things that could be done with wire.

Advantages: The advantages of wire are similar to paper in the sense that it is incredibly soft wire meaning that it is easy to bend and mold into any shape that you can think of. Due to this you can also go back and fix any mistakes that you have made with ease.

Disadvantages: As well as an advantage, the wire being soft is also a disadvantage because this means any slight pressure you add to the bug will bend the wire in ways that you didn't want to. A disadvantage for me is working on such a small scale because I have quite large hands and wire is a small enough material anyways, so I would struggle to wrap the wire around other pieces which can be frustrating.

For the final 3D sample I have used modelling clay which is a substance that has to be continuously worked on as it will begin to dry out and turn rock solid as soon as it comes into contact with the air. To start my model I created the head and body from one piece of modelling clay, I put water on my hands every so often to keep the clay soft and also to smooth the model out because I didn't want there to be any cracks in the finished product. I then created one wing from a piece of modelling clay continuing to dip my hands into the water, when attaching the wing I used a "tool" to create a cross-hatch where the wing was going and on the wings itself where I wanted it to be connected to the body, I did this because when torn or cross-hatched the modelling clay is very fiberuse inside meaning that when two separate cross-hatched pieces come into contact they will easily join together due to all the fibers inside each section joining together.

With the wing now on I had to support it by putting a box underneath the wing because at the modelling clay hasn't set fully yet, if I left it unsupported then the wing would fall downwards or maybe even fall off the model completely.

After the modelling clay was completely set the supports were removed from the wings, I was pleased with the result as the wings were able to support their own weight and none of them broke off meaning that the joints were also strong and I didn't have to re-joint any of the wings.

Advantages: The advantages of modelling clay is that it is incredibly strong once fully set which is completely the opposite of wire which isn't even considerably strong once completed. Another advantage is that when dried the model has a smooth surface meaning that you could easily paint the model to add detail and to make it look more realistic in a sense.

Disadvantages: The disadvantages of the modelling clay is that you have to work quickly which isn't something that I particularly like to do as I like to have an attention to detail. 

For this extra wire piece that I did I created the frame using the same process as the previous wire sculpture by bending/manipulating the wire into the correct shape.

To the simple wire frame that I had created I lined up a row of matchsticks long enough to cover the length of the back and then attached them all together with a piece of tape. I then placed this feature into the correct place and used 2 pieces of wire (one at the front and one at the back) to keep this feature in place. I added this to represent the hard shell that my bug would have and using these matchsticks also created a bumpy/rough texture. However to improve this I could have painted the matchsticks to match the colours that I had on my final outcome.   

For the wings I used acrylic paint on a plain piece of photocopy paper, after the paint was dry I cut the pieces of paper to match the wing that it would be placed on. To attach the wings I pierced holes into the paper and wrapped small pieces of wire around the wire frame that created the wing making sure that I went through the hole that I had created, I repeated this process until the paper was secure and I was sure that they wouldn't move. To create the patterns on the wings I used a softer wire so that it would be easier to bend by hand, I created spirals and placed them on top of the wings and attached the end of the piece of wire to the wire frame that creates the wing. I then repeated this process until I was pleased that I had used the space efficiently and had a variety of spiral sizes so that the wings didn't look exactly the same. 

Final Drawn Illustration

This is my final drawn illustration which has been completed and includes a range of materials/medias and a variety of colours. Firstly for the background I decided to go for a light blue colour to represent the sky as my bug is one which would fly due to its wings, For the body I used red and blue acrylic paint applied with a smaller paintbrush to create the simple striped pattern, I chose acrylic paint for this section because when working in close quarters I feel that acrylic paint is the best option as you don't have to worry about smudging the paint when you move to another section as the properties of acrylic paint means that it dries extremely quick. On top of the acrylic paint I added a piece of black tissue paper which I then covered in bleach using a paint brush multiple times to attempt to get this as translucent as possible which didn't exactly work as the right side of the paper stayed dark for an unknown reason making it difficult to see what it underneath. I expected the whole body to look like the small section at the top where you can easily see through the paper and see the pattern underneath, I added the tissue paper and bleach because I actually wanted to dull down the body colours slightly so that it didn't take away from the wings which I wanted to be the main feature of this bug. For the top wings background colour I used a diluted pink watercolour ro create a lighter tone but it had to be dark enough so that you couldn't see the blue background through the wings, I initially wanted to use the resist technique as it worked so well on the sample but as the background was painted first the stripes on the wings would have been the exact same as the background which is something that I wanted to avoid and I also didn't want to risk putting tape down because that then has a chance to rip the paper when it is being pulled up and that could ruin the entire piece. To overcome this cut out strips of paper of equal length using scissors and then had to cut them to fit the curvature of the wings, I then got blue Indian ink and a willow stick, I dipped the willow into the ink and then rolled to willow stick up the paper (re-dipping the stick when the colour began to fade) and repeated this process 4 times to create these patterns. I deem that this was a favourable idea because each stripe looks the same but has slight differences and when dried the colour that the Indian ink produces is very bright and easy on the eye. On the bottom wings I painted the base wing colour by using a paintbrush with non-diluted pink watercolour to create a dark tone so that the two wing colours were distinctive from one another. Once the paint was dry I then used paper towels to cover the image and only kept a specific segment uncovered which allowed me to use a toothbrush and blue watercolour paint in a controlled fashion to create the two straight and symmetrical lines with a very high depth of colour. At the bottom of the wings I applied yellow acrylic paint in vertical lines with a paintbrush trying to keep each wing looking similar with the height and width of each line, this was a last minute aspect that I added to the illustration and I personally feel that it was a mistake but I thought that the bottom of the wings looked too bare and this was the only idea that I could think of at the time and if I did this illustration again I wouldn't add this design feature. For the head I simply used a paintbrush to paint it red with acrylic paint because since the head is such a small aspect of the bug I decided to not try and add finer detail because I didn't want to ruin the over all piece on something that would have been so minor, however if I did this again I would have added some sort of eyes to the head so that the bug looked more relateable and friendly to children and their parents. Finally I also changed the appearance of the antennas as I had a great deal of space left above the head area and the antennas that had had originally drawn were smaller in comparison and also lacked the detail that the antennas I chose to go with offer.    

Alternative Design Ideas

When faced with creating alternative design ideas of my bug I immediately thought of ideas that would appeal to children and be somewhat different compared to any of bugs as this bug idea is meant to be used in a game which made me think unrealistically.  

For this first idea I used a combination of 3 different bugs and then added ideas of my own. The 3 different elements are the body, the head and then antennas and I feel that together they work extremely well making it difficult to distinguish that I have even changed the base features of the bug. However when it came to creating the legs I decided to implement a feature that would make the bug stand out by turning them into thrusters so that the bug could fly and look more appealing to children and would suit a game setting. For the patterns on the bug I decided to do a different pattern for each section of the bug which would allow me include a range of techniques, materials and textures. On the back of the bug I added added a row of bumps to create more detail on the back as I felt that it looked too bland and empty.

    

For the second bug that I created I once again used elements from 3 different bugs, the head and body, the facial features (horns) and the legs. With this bug I feel that the features do work well together except the body as to me it just looks too small compared to the rest of the drawing but that is a problem that could easily be solved. To make the bug more child friendly instead of the feet being claw-like I decided to put shoes onto the bug; for the front leg I chose to put a glove onto the end to make it look like the bug had hands as well. Finally for this bug I added a hat just to create more detail and because the top half of the bug looked bland/empty as I couldn't think of any features that I wanted to add onto the back of the bug. 

For my third bug idea I used elements from 3 different bugs again and with this particular drawing I think its easy to see which sections are from different bugs so I don't feel that they worked well together, they are more contrasting to each other. This idea was straight forward and to make the bug more child friendly I added human looking eyes and teeth to this bug which I personally feel that they fit really well onto the body/head that I chose for this piece, I also like the look of the antennas that I chose for this bug because I put emphasis on how large they were. However I have a different opinion on the "arms" of this bug as they do not suit the body at all and they look more menacing as they are like claws towards then end and I don't this that would be suitable for children. 

For this forth idea I began to think of more realistic design ideas. For this idea I used copies of my pen and pemncil drawing and began to cut of different sections of each bug; began to to start putting them together randomly to create different ideas. Once I was happy with how one of the bugs looked I glued it down to a piece of paper and drew out the the idea onto a separate piece of paper to get the sizing right. I don't think that the overall shape and idea behind this bug is bad but I didn't like the designs that I bug onto the bug as I felt that I went over the top and sort of ruined this design potential for myself.

For this next bug design idea I drew down all the components that I wanted to use desperately to make it easier to see the process that I went through to get to the finished bug design. On this bug I initially wanted to use a different head but after trying multiple different bug heads I couldn't find one that complimented the body so I just stuck with the head that was originally on the body. I added the wings for extra detail as the back of the bug would have been bland as I couldn't think of any designs/patterns that filled the space well enough. I feel that the antennas look very good on this bug and makes it difficult to tell that they are even from a separate bug than the head, Finally the legs on this bug work well also even though they don't really have anything special about them. 

For this final design idea I have used factors from 3 different bugs, the body, the head and the wings. I didn't chose any specific legs for this bug as I drew it from a top down view instead of from the side, On the actually bug I feel that the head and the body work extremely well and in harmony, the wings do look out of place just due to the size  of them compared to the body. Also with this particular bug I really don't like the bottom wings with the two spike like features as they look out of place and not child friendly. When it comes to the designs on the bug I like the designs on the body because they look smooth and clean, the design also allows me to experiment with a variety of colours, textures, materials and techniques. On the outer & inner wings I used a simple design which really defines the wings quite a lot but for the center area of the wings I couldn't draw any pattern that would fill the space evenly.

Experimental Line and Tonal

For this first drawing I used a fine liner pen to draw a very basic and linear recreation of a bug which I was referencing. The scale of each part of the bug was judged by my eyes as I didn't trace the image that I was looking at. Overall I think that this drawing is slightly leaning to the left  but for a first attempt I think this is okay as I will learn from my own mistakes to improve the next set of drawings that I create. 

For this second drawing I was referencing the same image and I was once again using a fine liner pen. However this time I was not focused on the overall shape of the creature but the tonal shading that it had, when using a pen to create shadows and tones it is straightforward to create very dark tones but I personally found it difficult to create lighter tones to really define the bugs exterior to give it depth.   

This is the last bug that I drew using the fine liner pen and I once again focused on the shading instead of the overall shape. When looking at this bug I am not pleased with the shading and the toning as it seemed very rushed and untidy which is something that I don't strive for. I tried to create lighter tones by spreading the pen lines on the top wings and even though I feel that this worked quite well I am not pleased with the overall look.

This is the first bug that I drew using a 2B pencil and was focusing on the linear outline and frame of the bug. I personally prefer working with pencil rather than pen as you have a wider range of techniques to use and you can always erase mistakes and then mend them. 

For this next bug I also just focused on the overall contour of the bug as this particular bug has a wide variety of shapes and patterns. It took me awhile to get the legs to look like this as I had to keep erasing and trying again due to the shape and positioning of them.

On this next drawing I was once again using pencil and this time I was fixated on the textures on the bug and also the tonal aspect of the bug. When shading with a pencil it is much less painful than with a pen to create light and dark tones. For this piece I used the edge of the pencil led and for the eye, front wing, front antenna and the strips at the back I applied more pressure to the pencil; for the lighter tones such as the body, back wing, back antenna and the eye glimmer I didn't apply much pressure to the pencil. For the texture that I created on this which makes the bug look quite jarring, I did this by simply using the tip of the pencil, applying enough pressure so that it would stand out from the already shaded body and repeated a simple shape repeatedly to cover the bug. 

For the final bug I used the same pencil that I previously used and was once again focusing on the shading that was on the bug to make it look more realistic and 3D. To create the illusion that there was light shining onto he bug from the left side after I lightly shaded the entirety of the bug, I used a rubber to create the white lines down the side of the bug and the small streaks in the center. I didn't create any specific texture on this bug as it has a smooth shell and I tried my best to portray that fact. Also I used the same techniques as before when shading, for the darker areas I put more pressure onto the pencil and for the lighter areas I put less pressure onto the pencil.