Design Fest Sculpture: Ladies and Gentlemen, Wolfie 2!

So because wolfie 1 failed, (thats just a nickname I ended up giving my sculpture by the way) I had to think of a new concept that would not only be sturdy, but also charming.

I figured that the look I was going for with my first sculpture was fearsome, and menacing. When push came to shove (no pun intended) my sculpture would not stand even after fixing its legs. So rather than even more countless attempts and more time wasted, I decided to start over. Hey, I know when to quit!

So I came up with a concept of the wolf once more, sitting this time. His weight would be more even distributed, and I would work on details rather than stance. Also, I couldn't quit make him as fearsome as I had originally hoped, so, I decided, why not make it charming instead?



I would trade scary for charm.


I decided I'd put a grin on its nightmarish face, and have him holding red's basket. Spiked, black fur...he was going to look awesome!
















So I bought more clay, 15 pounds this time, including some I had left over and got to work. I used ink instead of black paint when I was finished sculpting, because I thought it would require less coats, plus would give me the blacker than black look I wanted.


I knew I couldn't keep wolfie on the make shift board for display so I went to home depot and bought this round wooden board. Its the perfect size, and durable enough to hold everything I put on it. But it needed some color...
































I thought twisted branches might add to the over all fairy tale effect. Plain black was just boring!
After mounting Wolfie onto the board, I thought it could use some more decorations. It just looked sorta boring.

So I went out to our back yard and picked some branches off of our lime tree. These looked plenty scary, and they were prickly too! Ouchie!











After using a glue gun and some clay to hold up the branches, the look on my piece was almost complete!

















So I added a note, with the name of the piece, my name, my major and what was used to create it. I burnt the note over the stove, to give it that old parchment feel. I painted a "picnic blanket" for red's basket. Then, I put the basket in the wolves' mouth, and viola!

Design Fest Sculpture: Wolfie 1

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I am going to enter two pieces for Design Fest 2009 with the story Little Red Riding Hood as my theme. The first entry was the mousepad, and for the second one, I wanted to do something I've never done before, a clay sculpture.

Challenging, oh yes!

I wanted to create a sculpture of the wolf from little red riding hood, stand on all fours, and turned slightly, growling menacingly. I wanted him thin, lanky and all black, almost like a shadow creature, rather than an actual wolf, with huge horns to push that concept. Something out of your nightmares.

So, with that in mind, I purchased 10 of Air Dry Clay and got to work.














The problem with this original sculpture, was that it's legs couldn't support it's rather heavy weight. I even used two cans of beans to stick under it's belly while the legs dried. But when I removed them, he was VERY fragile.

And after a few minutes of standing completely on his own, he fell after a slight nudge...


I had to think of something else, and quick....

Design Fest 2009

So I've decided to participate in Westwood College's 3rd annual Design Fest! This year's theme is called Once Upon a Time, stories that are based on Brother's Grimm fairy tales. I know. What a great theme! Especially because I love the fantasy genre. Everyone had to choose one story, so that people don't all create a piece based on the same one.

My story is Little Red Riding Hood.

For Design Fest, I am submitting 2 pieces. One is a mouse pad, and the other a sculpture. I finished the mouse pad yesterday, and am still working on the sculpture. But I'll post more on that later...

Everyone was given a blank white mouse pad to be designed any which way the artist saw fit. I decided to stick with the Little Red Riding Hood theme I was given, so that it would be cohesive with my sculpture. I had the concept of a moon, and the silhouetted shadow of the wolf holding poor little red riding hood in his massive claw. All the while I was creating the piece in Photoshop, the phrase, "All the better..." kept popping into my head. Ya know, that's what the wolf says when Red inquires about her "grandmothers" rather monstrous transformation...(no plastic surgery required).

Heres What I came up with:





















And here's what it look's like in Mousepad form:


















Everyone else just drew on theirs. I had the idea to use iron on fabric paper and iron my piece onto the mouse pad. It wasn't easy! I had to get it just the right size and did at least 3 attempts before I tried on the mouse pad. I even tried it first on a blank t-shirt...I'm thinking about wearing the shirt when the day comes to vote...but I'm afraid that might be a bit too pretentious!

"My, what big teeth you have!"
"All the better to eat you with!"

Can you guess the name of my entry? Wish Me Luck!