Week 21
BA3b Reflective journal
Mon 26th Feb- 04th Mar
I have continued the application of the plaster shell to the armature, however this week I found that progress was greatly halted by the exception weather conditions this week. Due to the snow and ice it has been very difficult to get into university. Despite these difficulties I have managed to make noticeable progress, however I am really noticing the pinch of the cost for the materials, which I always knew would happen and I have always been prepared to deal with as this is my degree show my final hurrah of the BA degree, therefore I am willing to pour my heart and soul into this project. As a project which has been the subject of my every waking moment for at least a year.
This week I focused my attention on the legs, I have been focusing my attention on how to shape the form, aka leave it rough and rugged or smooth and well formed, as I have been sculpting the thighs I have been highlighting the lines of the muscles and knee cap, as I was shaping these details I found myself getting carried away with the process. Resulting in a well formed well shaped leg, however in doing so I have lost the rugged nature of the materials, which I had originally wished to maintain so as to give the work an extra quality which can only be achieved through the use of plaster and scrim. To re work the surface to gain this rough finish I have settled on the notion of detailing most of the surface as I have done but on the backs of the legs and arms, and the spine and pubic regions I will add the implication of hair by adding straw into the plaster like the work of Nicola Hicks.
By using straw in the plaster it will not only bind the plaster together stronger it will also give the sculpture a natural aesthetic which is appropriate to the ideology of the work as it suggests an equilibrium with the environment showing how the being is better suited to survive within this modern world we have created for ourselves.
Starting to take shape I am getting a better sense of the scale of the work. The legs themselves are colossal, and when I attach the torso the entire sculpture is starting to become quite intimidating to stand around or even be in the presence of, and yet with every handful of plaster this being is growing.
Above I have attached documentation of the detailing to the right leg as well, I still have to apply plaster to the knee down, and to shape the feet, however the thighs are really taking shape, I do need to soften the line of the muscle on the right leg, to do this I need to make this more of slope rather than a trench I will need a scraper to remove the excess material.
An issue that has arisen however, as I have bulking the muscles and form of the thighs using more plaster and scrim than originally intended is that the left arm no longer fits to the torso as the elbow can’t pass over the leg, therefore I need to go back to the welding workshop to reposition the arm, so that it extends further forward allowing the elbow to clear the knee.
Furthermore this week we had curation meetings in our designated degree show exhibition allocated spaces, mine being a very large sculpture has been given a suitably large space in PS1 in which only one other person is exhibiting. Furthermore the meeting went very easily as both of us are no bullshit when it comes to our work we settled on locations and lighting planning very easily and found a mutual interest in one another’s practices we both agreed that the strong contrast between my sculpture and her seven foot painting will bring an unexpected but most welcome quality to both our works as both are very different but work together suitably well.
Week 20
BA3b Reflective journal
Mon 19th Feb- 25th Feb
This week I have continued working solely on my degree show piece which has developed exponentially this week. I have not only finished the armature but I have now even completed a large section of the plaster shell. I started this week by correcting the issues regarding the positioning of the torso in the workshop. However now that I gave the sculpture a closer look, I identified the cause of the disrupted position of the torso. As I have been adding to the steel structure, the back right leg has slightly bowed under the weight of the increasing mass above, as at the start of the process the structural integrity of the knee joint was not sound, however now that I have added to it can easily bare the weight above it and that which will be added with the plaster and scrim. Unfortunately as this leg bowed the opposite was tilted backwards raising the toes. Therefore I had to tilt the entire form forward so that the up turned foot was resting flat on the floor, to maintain this position I had to weld to the back foot a larger set of toes as if it is tip toeing rather than resting on a splayed out paw, which actually makes more sense in hind sight, thus this has been a blessing in disguise. With these corrections my original calculations and measurements have been proven correct and so the torso is now in a natural position.
Above rectified armature after corrections to waistline and feet. At this point the armature is relatively finished with the excess 10mm rod that I had left over I secured the hind connection point for the torso as best I could with a cross joint at the base of the shaft; the theory being that this would be the connection which was under the most stress and so long as one of the two was well secured both would be relieved of too much down force. Furthermore this thick cross joint acts as a brace for the ass of the creature, which is beneficial as both legs could possibly begin to splay outwards with the increase in weight above them as I apply the plaster. Now that the armature is finished I have below attached an image of each individual element of said armature.
Now that the armature is finished it is time to take it to the studio, this is the moment of truth because if it can’t fit beneath the ventilation piping attached to the ceiling of the studio I’m not going to be able to work on an assembled piece. Fortunately as it happens so long as I don’t attach the cane/ walking stick, it fits fine, although it does take up all the space in my studio, which my neighbour isn’t happy about but fortunately for us both he’s rarely in uni and doesn’t have much work anyway! As can be seen below in this studio shot.
Now that I have in my work space I can work at my own pace and take my time making the plaster form look as I want it, which is a relief as now the entire project has shifted to being on my own terms and so is a lot more relaxed. To start off with I covered the torso in chicken to shape the form between the armature rods. I chose to only focus on the torso for now, as I know despite how much I choose to cover the armature the torso will be covered. Considering this I pulled a tutor to one side this week and had a long conversation to try and settle this argument that I have been having with myself as regards what to do to the armature, should I cover it all or leave half exposed or sections exposed? We settled upon the logic reasoning that if I was to cover only half and leave a large amount of the under structure exposed the work would become exceptionally aesthetical and the entire purpose of the work would be lost, which would also mean a significant portion of the sculpture’s impact would be lost also. Therefore I should stick with the original plan where my practice has been leading me for the entire year, to create a form that could exist to breathe life into a character of my imagination to allow the being I have formed to deliver its own ideologies and themes.
Anyway as I was saying I started this by coating the torso in a single layer if mid-sized chicken wire this would act as a very light guide for the form of the structure which I can layer the plaster onto. For the base layer of the plaster I have opted to use single sheets of thin cotton dust sheets which I will use as scrim soaked in plaster to cover large sections of the form in one go leaving a shell only several millimetres thick, onto which I can use herculite plaster applied by hand to create the detail and form of the creature. This will ensure that I am keeping the whole sculpture as light as possible given the materials I have opted to use. Besides this I would have liked to create a fiberglass shell, however due to health and fecking safety this isn’t allowed in uni! Below I have documented the application of the chicken wire and below this I have documented the application of the first layers of the plaster and scrim.
Now that I have covered a large portion of the torso I have started to realise that it would probably have been for the best if I had covered the limbs first so as to determine how the lips that cover the connection points of the structure line up with the torso. Therefore I am going to have to cover the limbs or at least the areas onto which the torso connects so that I can plaster the lips. To do this I will need to apply wet clay as a releasing agent onto the plaster surface of the limbs, therefore the plaster that I apply to the torso seems will release cleanly from the legs. Although regarding the shoulder connection points it will be easier to finish the torso first as it is the arms which have to fit over the torso.
Therefore I have started to apply plaster to the legs using the same system of applying chicken wire as a frame, or template, then applying plaster covered fabric as a base layer for the shell. Below I have documented this process.
At this point I attached the torso to the legs again to see where the seams would be, I realised even now the torso is bloody heavy but I am still able to do it by myself. However when it is finished I am beginning to realise just how heavy it will be and I was right to put into my proposal that I would need the help of at least one other person. I would estimate that at this point the torso weighs roughly 40 – 50kg, I anticipate it being probably another 15 – 20kg heavier by the time I’m done.
Moving on I have continued to apply the plaster and scrim to the right leg so as to begin to get a sense of the scale of the structure, this is the issue with the armature I can see the dimensions but because its transparent it has no presence, as soon as the torso was covered I got a real sense of the sheer impact the scale has. Furthermore I ran into another issue as I was finishing this week, the fabric I was using ran out so I went to a fabric store and bought ten metres of the cheapest shitiest fabric on offer which was wafer thin I hoped this would be even better than the cotton dust sheets. Unfortunately this had a negative effect the material couldn’t soak up enough plaster and was too thin to support itself and so became more of a hindrance. Over the weekend I will try and find some second hand bed sheets or something of that nature so that I can continue as I have started.
Above is a photo of how I left the thigh this week I have only covered the top half and have not finished forming the plaster yet therefore it looks very thin, however at least now with a solid surface I can start to appreciate the size of the creature I am creating. And I know it isn’t the most modest thing for me to say but I am bloody impressed by this sculpture I am making, I wouldn’t in a million years have predicted I would be doing something like this now, when I was back in year one so to have progressed so far in three years I am very proud and I am looking forward to seeing what sculptures or work my future practice will produce.
Week 19
BA3b Reflective journal
Mon 12th Feb- 18th Feb
This has been a very productive week, I have all but finished the armature next Monday I will need to mildly tweak certain aspects of the torsos position which I will discuss later. I stated this week by creating the arms which I began by using rods of 8mm steel which was lighter than the 10mm but still strong enough to act as the core of the arms. The connection points I have found have enough freedom to slightly twist and re position the arm within the socket, this became essential as the arms of course have to look as if they could go from useful humanoid forelimbs to quadruped forelegs. Therefore I had to build large upper shoulder muscles similar to a horse or lion. This of course is an important aspect of the creature’s anatomy which reflects my practices focus the margin between human and beast and its revelations about the human condition and its darker aspects.
The arms have been positioned so that the left hand is holding the supportive cane, which reveals the beings ability to use tools, the right hand is left open palm facing upwards extended before the being, this will have an object which the creature has discovered of human origin, as yet unknown, that the creature is studying with curiosity; this betrays the beings intellect and inquisitive nature in that this is not simply a creature that acts on survival instincts it’s a being which actively displays interest in its surroundings with a thirst to understand more. Putting it at least parallel with human intelligence.
Now that the arms were attached I was better able to understand the anatomy of the shoulders, which revealed some issues with my work, the right shoulder blade was far too high and bulky for the position of the arm. To correct this I used the bolt cutters to detach the shoulder curves that I had welded in place, I simply then re welded them tighter and lower than before making the shoulder blade appear more tucked in as if the arm was pulling it forward. This also revealed a new issue as I made the muscle structure of the upper arm I was finding it exceedingly difficult to correct gauge how thick the arm should be, as I was making the bicep I saw the arm as far too thin when compared with the huge thighs. However when I made the form and shape of the forearm I found that the upper arm began to seem correct with a slight adjustment the triceps I Found that the arms worked fine.
Now that the arms are attached to the torso and formed correctly I am unhappy with their relation to the rest of the armature they seem detached and separate, a consequence of making them detachable (no shit), therefore to get around this I created what can only be described as lips to blur the margin between the arms and the torso, these won’t be an issue when it comes to applying the plaster, as I will simply have to apply a thin layer to the torso first, once this dries I will coat it in a thin barrier of wet clay to act as a releasing agent, so when I apply the plaster to the arms and the lips they don’t bond with the torso, this is the same principle as I would use to create a plaster piece mould.
These lips have actually become an unexpected benefit as well, as this has allowed me to create the line from the start of the bicep to the middle of the collar bone which acts as the muscle strand and ligament of the muscle. Now that these lips have been added the arms have become a clear and definite part of the structure, the only issue is that when it comes to detaching and reattaching the arms once covered in plaster I am going to struggle to see the connection points and therefore will struggle to attach the arms, the only way I can see around this is to make reference points in the plaster. I have documented these lips below.
With the arms attached I started constructing the hands, which I did by first of all drawing out a basic template to scale in chalk, to get a sense of the scale of the beast I’m making the hand is twice the length of my hand.
To ensure that both hands were reflections of each other I opted to construct them both opposite one another at the same time. It became a strange process as the hands briefly became separate projects entirely, removed from the bigger armature, sort of like a pocket project. Doing this more delicate intricate stage I have realised just how much I enjoy this process of welding armatures, its interesting how a straight one dimensional rod can be constructed into something much larger and much more impactful.
Furthermore after the hands I started constructing the neck, in order to do this I mate a tailored resting platform which fits snug to the underside of the head, from this I then began connecting rods from the back of the head to the shoulders and collar which was then given shape by a single circular rod which wrapped around the neck. Now that the neck is on I can fully appreciate the scale of the whole sculpture and how the headlines up, I’m relaxed to find that the head is to a perfect scale.
Besides my sculpture I have been looking around the workshop at my friends work and I had a rush of inspiration after seeing their work, they appear to be creating an installation of several components that being a bronze pyramid humanoid head, and a series of large scale plaster organs.
Furthermore as one final thing this week, whilst the welding booth was in use after I thought I had finished the armature, I got some dust sheets and began to wrap the form I had created just to remove the see through nature of the steel sculpture this was highly beneficial as it revealed previously unseen aspects to the armature that I will need to address at the start of next week. Such as most importantly the position of the torso it is far too rigid at the moment, unnatural for the position of the creature. Therefore I need to raise it on the right hip and twist and tuck the left ribs into the left hip. This will give the torso the natural twist necessary to make it feel as if it is naturally kneeling down to study a found object. Furthermore after covering the rib cage, I have found that the lowest section of the rib cage is far too square, making the sides of the beings body look flat almost mechanical in nature. I’m not sure this is something which needs fixing on an armature level, but rather something that should be addressed instead when I apply the plaster and scrim, as to solve this I will need to shape and form the fold of the ribs. If anything I could probably simply twists the steel rods mildly just to curve the form at an armature level, this may make things easier for when I come to apply the plaster.
Week 18
BA3b Reflective journal
Mon 05th Feb- 11th Feb
This week I dragged myself back to university ill or not I need to crack on with work, first thing I did this week was get to the workshop to carry on with my armature now that I have access to my studio again I was able to finally use the head I have constructed as a reference for the armature, therefore I started this week by positioning the head on the existing steal frame. I am gladdened to find that the two align perfectly, and that the weight of the head manages to pull the centre of gravity forward so that the sculpture is well balanced again.
I continued working on the upper half of the sculpture using primarily 6mm rod to form the structure, unlike with the legs I have opted not to use too much structural internal weight distribution instead I wanted to keep the upper half lighter by only sculpting the form. I have used a small amount of 10mm rod so as to make the shoulders on to which the arms will connect. However I want the arms to be detachable. This is the only option as the torso will be heavy enough without the arms.
After finishing the proposal form for this sculpture I have realised the main issue with this sculpture is transportation and storage, once its set up and in place it will be fine as its sturdy and balanced. Furthermore at this point I’m really unsure whether or not I want to actually fully cover the sculpture in plaster as I love the armature so much at this point. Due to its very sculptural finish. I have made good progress this week on the armature, I found a problem arose when I stated sculpting the rib cage and shoulder blades, because I want to create the animal that can interchange between bipedal and quadruped I have had to give it anatomically correct shoulders which are huge and barrel like in nature. This has meant that the overall look of the torso has become a lot bulkier than anticipated and now the head doesn’t seem to fit so comfortably as it now looks a little small, however I do have to remind myself that the head is at a skull like stage and needs bulking up itself. Furthermore the neck is a bulky structure in of itself which will also accept the head more comfortably than the armature seems to at the minute. Below is a photo of the armature with the head which I left on Friday.
Furthermore as I stated earlier I have started to build the connection points of the arm sockets these are simple in nature but have taken time to settle upon, I have chosen a similar mechanism as with the waist, which takes on the form of a 10mm rod which slides into two square tubes, one at the top of the shoulder one at the arm pit so that when weight is pushing or pulling it will not budge out of place, friction will hold it in place. Off of this connection point I will weld the 8mm central rod which will be the core of the arms. The form around this core will be shaped out of 6mm rod. At the moment I am unsure what I should make the hands out of perhaps aluminium wire or perhaps thin steal wire. This would make it easier to make the dextrous hands.
I still need to find the cane on which the creature will lean against, I don’t know where to find such a large staff, I need something roughly 3 metres long to be realistic. This staff also needs to be strong enough to take the weight of the creature’s upper torso.
Furthermore this week in my tutorial I have discussed the issues I identified last week with my tutor, I have also settled on a solution as to what to focus my attention on after the degree show work is finished, I want to forget all the narrative backstory bullshit behind the being and instead I want to write notes in the form of a short story in the creatures own hand identifying its viewpoints as regards humanity. Which at the end of the day is the most fundamental aspect of the work at the end of the day the work is a e reflection of the darker aspects of the human condition this can only be perceived clearly through a companion material I want to write. However here I find I have another issue am I holding the audiences hand exposing the purpose of my work not allowing them to find the meaning themselves.
Furthermore this week I have started to attach the teeth that I have made out of resin to do this I have used plastacine to make the gums which hold the teeth in place after which I have secured these gums with mod roc.
To be deeply honest at the moment I am losing myself to the process of welding this grand from together as soon as I start I lose track of time and before me this being grows, this entire process is almost therapeutic. I wonder to myself how would this structure result if I was left alone with all the steal I needed and all the time I needed, perhaps I would lose track of what I was doing so much that this structure would become some 50ft goliath! Now that might be something to think about at a later date, as I have heard recently that the cost of steel recently has rocketed up by about 70%.
I plan to have the armature finished by this time next week, which would be great as maybe I could have the plaster surface finished within a following two weeks. Which would mean that I could have the degree show sculpture completed a lot earlier than I had originally intended which would mean that I had a lot more time to work on the remainder of work.
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