Transformation wax sculpture

Here's my first attempt at making a sculpture out of wax. It took a minute to get used to the medium, as it's very sticky, pliable, and hard to work with until heated by a flame, hot tools, heater, or hot water. A big change from clay, which is soft to hard and wax is hard-soft-hard. But I got used to it, and began to enjoy it. I took many photos of the wax sculpture, since it will disappear in the process of making a shell (of my sculpture) for the bronze to be poured into. Also there are many angles of this piece. I'm only posting selected ones below. When the bronze phase begins, I'll post more at that stage.

This is the first part of the process for this to become a bronze sculpture in the end. :) Very exciting...a bronze sculpture of my own! First the idea, then a small rough macquette out of clay.

The sculpture assignment: an object that transforms into something else and could be picked up and looked at. Since this is a bronze, I decided to do something close to my heart...my dog Kura. I also have always loved monkeys and the way Kura talks to me with a yawning sound (think Chewbacca of Star Wars) - she sometimes sounds like a monkey even! So, using photo references, and observing Kura at home, I made a sculpture in a yin-yang design of Kura sleeping and a monkey sleeping back-to-back - sharing the same body. Since it took on an abstract feel on it's own, I decided not to add much detail, including facial features.

During the process:
Finished wax piece:








bottom/underneath (hollowed out):

Intro to computers (mac)

So, here's my first project ever using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. This was the mid-term...to do a promo card for a night club or event. I totally made everything up and used a sunset photo I had taken with my digital camera in Southern California, which I manipulated with the software. I also created the logo on the bottom left. Click on the images (or any others in the blog), to see them larger.

Here's the original sunset photo I used:

Sculpture 1-skull

This is Sculpture 1, my first studio class beyond the Foundations Department. This is the Fine Art department! Woo hoo! :) I'm in the Fall 2007 semester, and it's a great class. There's a great small group to work with, who are all really cool and hang out together for lunch (and the instructor is great too). For the first time in my studio classes (since this is no longer Foundations, where it's mainly about technique and getting it right), I am able to have creative and stylistic freedom. Therefore, while I'm learning the different types of sculpture, materials, and tools, I get to explore my personal style.

The first project was to make a large skull (looking at a normal sized skull model) out of clay...then alter it somehow. It will be fired and later painted at the end of the semester. The final results will be posted at a later date. I think I spent about 20 hours or so on him, so far. More to come. Here are the progress photos in order...


sculpting done...notice the size of the skull now that you have a person next to it for comparison. talk about a big head!

Color & Design - Summer '07

In the Summer of 2007, I took a couple classes which included the Foundations dept. class called Color and Design. This class has a bad reputation since the homework load is horrendous! So, it was recommended to take it during the summer as the only studio class...and I'm so glad I did. Though, since Summer is shorter, there are two weeks worth of lessons and homework bunched into one week, which intensified the homework time allowance and was rushed. So, I did the best I could - and made out fine. I learned a lot about the color wheel, mixing colors, and basic design principles. Color theory is VERY interesting and I learned about color palettes, which colors work well together, and things like that.

The class is based on technique and getting as close to perfection as possible. Though, I was still able to apply my creativity and concepts, as you'll see below. Oh, and by the way, mixing colors is not as easy as it seems! We used gouache paint, which is water based. I mixed and painted all the colors, which needed to be accurate...as well as the presentation.

Please keep in mind these are scans and photos, so the colors will appear different and not as accurate on here as the originals.

Click on any image to see them larger and used your browser's back button to return to the blog.

9 Step Value Gradation (B&W)Focal point design (using pencils)
thumbnail sketches/ideas:
roughs of different grey values (same design):
final one:12 step color wheel24 step color wheel
(the colors with dots on top of the wheel are the only paint tubes we used to mix all the other colors - 6 total)
Complementary mute chartColor matching
(had to mix colors to match hardware store paint swatches -left side are the originals, right side are mine.):Psychology of color
(a design to portray a feeling. we were given a bunch of single words of emotions or actions to choose from and portray in a design with the use of color.)

thumbnail sketches (i challenged myself to come up with ideas for every word we were given):

final 4:
top to bottom: joy, tension, freshness, and fastComplementary palette self-portrait

original photo turned into black and white:photo posterized in photoshop (10 levels):posterized portrait pattern done by hand (like a topographic map!):color roughs (these came out better than my final one):
Light influence on color exercise (i only painted in the existing drawing)
(left is warm light, right is cool light)Atmospheric perspective exercise (i only painted in the existing drawing)
(how color effects depth)Color and mood
idea sketches (yes, that's my loving dog Kura...who you'll be seeing more of later on in my artwork!) -
final choices/roughs (supposed to evoke a mood using design and specific color palette. the final large painting - second one - didn't come out as good as the rough...in my humble opinion.):Mandala
(circular repeated pattern, utilizing a specific color palette)

ideas (the very bottom one with the lion center was chosen):

first rough:first color rough (pencil):
second color rough (paint):
final pattern:
final pattern complete:final painting:
(even though it came out nice...due to time constraints, could not add the border and giraffe patterns. will also make adjustments when i'm able to some colors per instructor's suggestions.)