Manipulating Forms

Students will create a form using carving and texturing techniques.

This unit has six parts: research and design (designing a project, measuring for materials), carving the sculpture, treating the surface, and documentation of the finished work (photos, email, reflection, and critique).

Overview Unit Goal

RESEARCH & DESIGN
  • Look at sculptures created by abstract expressionists, contemporary artists, and more to inspire your art making
  • Draw 10 ideas for your non-objective sculpture - be sure to include repetition, negative space, and asymmetry.
CREATE ​​
  • CARVE - Carve your sculpture in the round, so every side is interesting and there is no "front" that is more compelling than another side - include repetition, negative space, and asymmetry in your composition
  • TEXTURE - create a smooth surface
  • SURFACE - consider how to accentuate the continuity around the sculpture by adding surface treatments (flocking, sand, glitter, and/or paint)
DOCUMENT, ANALYZE & REFLECT
  • Document your artwork using professional techniques, with solid colored background, lighting, and cropping
  • Analyze your own work
  • Reflect on the creation process
  • Identify other students' work that you appreciate and figure out why you like theirs more than others

Composition Concepts

  • Repetition
  • Negative Space
  • Asymmetry
  • Variety & Unity
  • In the Round

Technical Skills

  • Carving
  • Texturing
  • Sanding
  • Painting

Tools & Supplies

  • ​Carving materials (knife, loop tools, rifflers)
  • Texturing (plaster strips)
  • Surfacing tools (flocking tube, flock, silicone glue brushes, glue, glitter/sand, paint)

Technical Skill Videos

Order of Work

Determine Your Design
  • RESEARCH other artists who have made non-objective or abstract artworks from foam and plaster
  • NOTICE which works of art appeal to you over others and try to determine why you like some better than others
  • DRAW 10+ ideas for your sculpture - these ideas should combine negative space holes, repetition, and asymmetry.
  • Your drawings might guide you, but they aren't a final decision - sometimes carving takes you to new ideas and new decisions. 
Carving
  • Draw your design on your foam on three sides; front, side, and top.
  • Carve into your form to create a unique sculpture
  • You can use a knife, riffler, loop tool, stick, your finger, etc.
  • You can carve grooves and details 
  • Your sculpture needs to have at least one negative space hole, repeating visual elements that move your eye around the sculpture, and an asymmetric design 
  • Your sculpture should be interesting to look at from all sides - it should not have a "front" that is more interesting than the rest
  • Your sculpture should sit or stand on a table without falling over (consider adding a wooden base)
Texture
  • You must create a smooth surface throughout your sculpture (your finger might work well on foam, but plaster will need several levels of sandpaper to get a nice polished surface)
  • Optional: Foam can be covered in joint compound, plaster fabric, or wet plaster prior to texturing to create a more uniform surface
  • Optional: You can add wire, pins, or sticks to join foam pieces together
  • For plaster: Ceramic sandpaper (purple) can be used to create a smooth surface on plaster (use smaller numbers to remove a lot and progress to larger numbers to make a smoother and smoother surface - 100s, 200s, 300s, 400s, 600s, etc.)
  • For plaster: Plaster can be added onto damp plaster without separating (use a water bottle mister to dampen the plaster before adding wet plaster for surface details) You can draw into wet plaster to create endless textured surface treatments
  • Optional: Use texture combs in wet plaster to add uniform raised texture lines
  • Optional: add a base or a stand
Surface
  • Paint your surface using acrylic paint (you can use color to add unity by using only one or two colors that bring everything together - you can use a small amount of a contrasting color to link areas of the composition together and control the eye movement over the piece)
  • Hard edges between paint colors will create more difference between areas. Gradients and smooth color transitions will create more visual flow between elements.
  • Optional: Flock the surface of some parts (looks best on already painted areas since you see through the flock to the surface below) - apply a thin layer of glue using a silicone glue brush, use the flocking tube to float flock over the glue surface, catch unused flock on a piece of paper below your work and put it back with the rest of the flock - let dry for at least 30 mins before touching
  • Optional: Add sand by applying a thin layer of glue (use silicone glue brushes, not paint brushes) and then dust the glue with the sand. Use a piece of paper underneath your work to collect unused sand to put back into the container.
  • Optional: Add glitter by applying a thin layer of glue (use silicone glue brushes, not paint brushes) and then dust the glue with the glitter. Use a piece of paper underneath your work to collect unused glitter to put back into the container.
  • Optional: gloss some areas of your sculpture to add shine to some parts
  • Optional: resin pour to backfill a recessed area (only if the area is fully sealed - otherwise who knows what will happen to the foam?!)
Documenting

Research & Design

RESEARCH
  • Research sculptors who have made non-objective, non-representational, free-form sculptures that you like the look of
  • Some famous sculptors you might enjoy learning about are: Henry Moore, Liz Larner, Arlene Shechet, Jean Arp, Isamu Noguchi, Louise Bourgeois, Constantin Brancusi, Louise Nevelson, Barbara Hepworth

DESIGN: 10+ Ideas
  • Draw ten or more ideas for your sculpture
  • Each idea should include interesting negative space (holes), repetition (visual ideas that appear more than three times), and asymmetry (not the same on the left and right sides)
  • That drawings do not have to be amazing feats, they just need to be different and include the three visual criteria above.
Try to create as many different visual ideas as you can.

Once you have a final design idea, be sure to list the visual ideas you plan to repeat.

Label the requirements on your design:
- asymmetric
- negative space (holes, ledges)
- repetition (things that repeat visually)
- movement (curves, repetition, lines, etc. that make your sculpture look like it is in the middle of a movement)

Carve

  • Carve into your form to create a unique sculpture
  • You can use a knife, stick, loop tool, or your finger to remove foam
  • You can use a rasp or riffler to aggressively sand foam
  • You can sand parts you want to be smoother with sand paper or you can smooth them with your fingers.
  • You can carve grooves and details 
  • Your sculpture needs to have at least one negative space hole, repeating visual elements that move your eye around the sculpture, and an asymmetric design 
  • Your sculpture should be interesting to look at from all sides - it should not have a "front" that is more interesting than the rest
  • Your sculpture should sit or stand on a table without falling over (consider adding a wooden base)

Texture

  • The surface of your sculpture should be smooth throughout. You will need to smooth the surface of your foam with your finger, or use sandpaper on plaster or joint compound to create a hard, less porous smooth surface
  • Foam can be covered in joint compound, plaster fabric, or wet plaster prior to texturing to create a more uniform surface
  • Foam can also be skewered or stuck with pins, wire, or sticks to join foam pieces together or for visual interest
  • Ceramic sandpaper (purple) can be used to create a smooth surface on plaster (use smaller numbers to remove a lot and progress to larger numbers to make a smoother and smoother surface - 100s, 200s, 300s, 400s, 600s, etc.)
  • Plaster can be added onto damp plaster without separating (use a water bottle mister to dampen the plaster before adding wet plaster for surface details) You can draw into wet plaster to create endless textured surface treatments
  • Optional: Use texture combs in wet plaster to add uniform raised texture lines
  • Optional: add a base or a stand

Surface

  • Paint your surface using acrylic paint (you can use color to add unity by using only one or two colors that bring everything together - you can use a small amount of a contrasting color to link areas of the composition together and control the eye movement over the piece)
  • Optional: Flock the surface of some parts (looks best on already painted areas since you see through the flock to the surface below) - apply a thin layer of glue using a silicone glue brush, use the flocking tube to float flock over the glue surface, catch unused flock on a piece of paper below your work and put it back with the rest of the flock - let dry for at least 30 mins before touching
  • Optional: Add sand by applying a thin layer of glue (use silicone glue brushes, not paint brushes) and then dust the glue with the sand. Use a piece of paper underneath your work to collect unused sand to put back into the container.
  • Optional: Add glitter by applying a thin layer of glue (use silicone glue brushes, not paint brushes) and then dust the glue with the glitter. Use a piece of paper underneath your work to collect unused glitter to put back into the container.
  • Optional: gloss some areas of your sculpture to add shine to some parts
  • Did you add a wooden base? Do you want to? You can!

Things to Consider

  • ​Your sculpture should be interesting from all views - consider continuing a carved line or surface around the sculpture to blur the distinction between sides or faces
  • The more organic your form turns out the less it will look like the rectangular prism it started out as - movement is your friend! Make your sculpture look like parts are undulating, moving, turning, etc.
  • Consider joining different foam parts together using skewers prior to texture and surface treatments
  • When things go wrong... If you carved too much and you want to add back areas of sculpture, you can combine multiple foam pieces using skewers and hot glue, or you can use other materials, like chicken wire or cardboard, to create more structure and volume to one part of your sculpture.
  • Negatives spaces and repeated visual motifs will help connect areas of the sculpture together and make it feel more cohesive

Visual Movement
Use organic raised or lowered surfaces to create visual movement

Curves, repetition, stacking, and pattern all create visual movement in these examples

Unity
How you choose to paint your sculpture will have a big impact on unity

Unity happens when you repeat visual ideas across different areas of the composition and those similar or repeated choices link those areas and make the whole sculpture feel more cohesive

Gradients between colors create less visual distinction between areas. Sharp edges between colors create more distinct areas, but can serve to connect areas of the same color

You can use paint to accentuate the sculptural choices you made or use color to work against the form. You can also use painted shapes to add new motifs that weren't sculpted

4 Photos of your Sculpture

  • Use a solid background (no distracting lines, shadows, table, or other stuff) like the photo cube
  • Use quality lighting (soft shadow from artwork only)
  • Photo should be in focus, with artwork centered
  • One photo from the front, 3/4, side (or back), plus a selfie with your sculpture
  • Four photos in total
  • Crop each photo so there is a small amount of space around the sculpture, but no sides of the photo cube are visible

Email an Image of Your Project

Grading Criteria