Cutpaper with Lights

So at the end of last semester I decided to try and make an assignment out of some artwork I happened across on the internet.  I recently wandered across some artwork by Deepti Nair and Harikrishnan at the following link: Hari and Deepti - This is Colossal . Just to give you a small teaser if you don’t click the link above this is one of their pieces:  

I thought it would be interesting to turn this into an assignment.  This took some work on the students part because we were both problem solving together.  I made one myself but I was making it at the same time so many of the roadblocks we had were new to both of us.  The final product was hit or miss for some students but everyone put in a lot of effort.  What was nice to see was students tackling a problem without much input from me.  They just had to figure it out much like I was.  

Clio Dulaney

I really enjoyed putting them through this because this is often how actual artists work.  Having the end goal in mind and try to work out all the kinks through experimentation and perseverance is what making art is all about.  Typically as an artist, you don’t sit around trying to recreate the same thing over and over again.  Most of the work you create is going to be new or altered in some way, whether in idea or media, and that presents new problems.

Kyle Savage

Bo Grimes - Here you can see where Bo during the phase where everything is still taped down.

Working through this we used tagboard because it was very sturdy and would hold itself up.  We used strips of scrap mat board as spacers in between the layers of cut paper. Once the layers were cut we used simple masking tape first to get an idea of what the finished project would look like.

Philip Porter

Later we glued in the final product.  We used christmas lights for the back lighting.  We could have used LED strips as well.  It was christmas season though so it was just readily available to pick up a small strip of lights.  

Overall this wasn’t too bad of an experience.  It took much longer than I had anticipated however.  Making one myself and having that under my belt will help if we choose to do this assignment in the future.  That will allow me to outline the process better before they tackle it instead of working through it together.  

Holly Black

Mask Structures

Johnna Dunham

Right now my Art I classes are finishing up the structures for their masks.  This project, the way we do it, takes some time so I have the project broken up into two parts.  The first part is just focusing on the structure of the mask. The skin of the mask is done as a separate grade afterwards.  For now let us focus on the structure.  The assignment started off with me presenting to them all kinds of different styles of masks.  Their assignment is then to sketch out three examples of masks all in the same style that they would like to make.  These different styles could be from specific cultures or even one they made up.  When I can I will provide the sketches along with the masks.  

Johnna Dunham

Dominic Skinner

I had a lot of students execute some really amazing masks.  On the whole I had most of the students really put in a lot of time and effort into their maks.  Even without the finished painting of the masks I have some great things to share.  

A big part of this assignment was translating their sketches into masks.  Taking something you created in two dimensions and making it into a three dimensional structure comes with a lot of challenges.  Form, think shape but for 3-D objects, was a huge issue for many students to contend with.  They had to visualize how their sketches would actually stick out and have depth.  

Taylor Gentry

Taylor Gentry

Lily Gonzalez

Lily Gonzalez

We used paper mache over a hardware cloth understructure.  A few just used cardboard as their understructure but most of them grab onto the ¼” hardware cloth with great ease.  It bends great and has amazing strength.  You can also cut the hardware cloth easy with wire cutters and add stuff back with a little wire.  

Avery Wood

Many of the masks you see on here have a lot of layers of newspaper on them.  With the added glue some of them even feel like they were carved from wood which is pretty impressive.  

Jillian Canterbury

Several people went with the masquerade mask theme which I find to be one of the more difficult styles.  I think most kids start it thinking they will be easy but they are so small and delicate that you really don’t have much room for error.  The smallest mess up is very noticeable sometimes.  

I had several people come up with some very different “styles” for their masks.  Two of my most well done ones so far are also the most different.  Michael Shinkle did his with a steampunk idea in mind and I have to say it is coming along greatly.

Michael Shinkle

Michael Shinkle

Also special note for Austin Odell’s.  He wanted to base his off the masks for the movie “The Purge.”  When he wears his with his hood up I have to say I am really impressed.  

Austin Odell

Austin Odell

Overall very impressed.  I am eager to see how their painting of the masks go.  The quality is so good right now that I think some of my advanced students have been whining about wanting to do some as well.  I will try and give them a crack at later but they have a high bar set for them right now.

Kayla Kinsman

Justin VanFossen