3D Design

Written Reflection:

3D Design class was really fun! I took this class to learn more about creating sculptures, and to learn new approaches on art, and my goal was to obtain new skills in new mediums. I reached my goal. I am now more motivated to create 3D art, and I now know new and different ways to do so. I really enjoyed the variety of projects offered, and then the concentration projects in the fourth quarter, because we could choose whatever we wanted to focus on. I liked being able to take my own path, and I actually learned new things about the rainforest and aspects of it when researching different information about my concentration of Rainforest Animals and Plants. When we created clay sgraffito animals, I had a really fun time. I really liked working with clay, and I liked the scratching part too; it reminded me of scratchboard, which I really love doing. I also loved the process of using alginate and plaster. I think it was really fun putting my own hands in the alginate and using them to make a sculpture of my choice. For some reason I really liked painting the hands, and seeing the detail the plaster captured from my own hands. I went on the do another sgraffito sculpture for my concentration, creating a rafflesia flower. I liked the composition of the flower, and I thought it would look nice creating the patterns of the flower on the clay form. I really like how it turned out. I had a hard time with the relief sculpture process. I didn’t really like that one. I found it difficult to recreate what I was attempting to do in my “Sculpture #2” project. If I had the chance to do it over I would do something in the round because I think they are more fun. For one of my concentration projects, (#3) I chose to try a new material/technique, needle felting. I really liked it! For something I had zero experience and prior knowledge of, I think it turned out pretty good. I did have a hard time figuring out techniques that didn’t involve me stabbing myself at first, though after a while I think I got the hang of it.

I think I am most proud of sgraffito clay seal, social/political hands sculpture, and sculptural concentrations #1, #2, and #5. My sgraffito clay seal was super fun to create. I hadn’t worked with clay since elementary school, so it was really fun to get back into it again, and gain more knowledge and skill about it. I learned the technique of making the form hollow with a hole in it somewhere so it won’t explode, but will bake all the way through. I also learned that it is quite a process waiting for clay to dry. It took some patience for this one. I really liked painting on the glaze and then scratching it off, because it was quite satisfying when I was finished. I like how in the end you can tell it’s a seal, while it has some interesting patterns on it. Overall, this is one of the projects I am most proud of because it seems pretty put together compared to some of the projects I made prior to it. The social/political hands project was very time consuming and honestly overwhelming at times. My first try putting my hands into the alginate I waited a little too long, and the alginate hardened before I could do it. So, after mixing a new batch, it worked correctly. Once the alginate hardened, I took my hands out and poured in the plaster. It was really fun taking off the plaster and revealing my creation. I liked cleaning up the hands and smoothing them out with sandpaper and intricate tools. As said before, painting them was fun as well. I also liked making the Sculpey food to go into the hands. On my base, I decided to put some quotes and statistics that went with my social issue of World Hunger. Overall, this is one the projects I am most proud of because I think it conveys the message I was going for in a good way. My first sculptural concentration was very time consuming, but super fun. I liked finding all the materials I wanted to use, and looking through all the available materials and finding treasures I could use. I found the piece of wood I used as a base in the woods and sanded it down myself, which was quite fun. For this piece I used materials I hadn’t used much before like streamers and tissue paper which was nice. I also used wire to hold it up. Overall, I’m proud of this piece because I like the idea and look of it, although it could be cleaner. My second sculptural concentration is one I am proud of too because it was my independent take on a skill I learned in class. I really like how it turned out pretty vibrant and realistic but not identically realistic. Overall, I like that it is unique and that I chose an uncommon subject that I’m sure no one else would think to do. My fifth sculptural concentration is something I hadn’t quite tried before. I’d never made a whole sculpture made of Sculpey, and I made this to try it out and I ended up having fun and really liking it. I had never made a sculpture with a kind of intricate scene with it, so this was a good experiment. Overall, I like that I tried something new and it turned out to be quite nice in the end.

Comparing my most recent work to the first half of quarter 3, I have improved, because the art I turned in then was quite rushed, but now I have been taking more time and putting more effort into my work. I have learned new skills, and different ways to create sculptures of all types through not just my work, but the works of my peers and examples shown in class. Most of my art has some sort of connection to my life in some type of way. Art as a whole is a big part of my life, and I’m pretty sure that I create something new on the daily without it not always being on purpose. Throughout the semester, I found myself repeating the use of the material paper. I used it in around half of the sculptures I created unintentionally, whether it was completely made of paper, included in specifically the base, or stuck all over it in different forms and ways. Overall, this class helped me further my learning a lot. I discovered new techniques from classmates and through teaching materials. It was a really fun class.