This week we combined what we learned in the previous weeks, by taking one of our expressive human figures, we were to explore, and refine the expression by abstracting it. I chose my "confused" and "angry" figures for this exploration.

I felt that the head scratching gesture and relaxed but slightly askew head were important in expressing this feeling. I combined the two to arrive at the final model.

When I had finished with this one, he started looking a little more curious than confused, but because of that I realised the two expressions aren't necessarily exclusive of each other.

From what we learned in class, anger is most strong when it's directed towards something. There's also an inherent tension, but one without much dynamicism, otherwise it starts becoming a slightly different emotion. With the above I was mainly playing around with the direction and focus of the emotion. On the left I gave it a more solid base, and this made it seem more intimidating and looming. On the right, the lack of directed focus makes it seem more anguished.

You can see that when I was making my final "Anger" piece, he started becoming a companion piece to my "Confused" model. I couldn't get away from thinking these were little (or big?) creatures from another world, just going about their daily lives.

In class, they were pretty well received. My classmates could easily tell what they were expressing, however they weren't as visually interesting as I wanted them to be.  With the feedback I received, I refined them a little.

With "Confused" I mainly polished him up a little, and gave him something to be confused about.

"Anger" was given more substantial legs, and better defined edges. In the previous version his hind leg was too curved, which contradicted the overall expression, so it was changed to match the other legs.

And of course, he needed something (or somedroid) to be angry with!

The main gist of the modelling class is to expose us to different modelling materials and have us experiment with them, eventually helping us define a set of materials and tools to suit whatever circumstances we face. This week we were using modelling clay, in particular plastilene. A modelling clay that you use "indefinitely" as it never sets. It is used to quickly create and explore forms, leaving the permanent samples to be created with other materials.

The bulk of the homework revolved around creating expressive figures of small and large variety, all of which you can see below.

As you can see, my expressions are  a little too subtle, leading to a little ambiguity of what they are actually expressing. They are also all very static, so overall they just aren't as interesting as they could be. I'd soon address this issue later in the week, but overall, working with human figures was one of my weaker points. Try guessing the expressions of the figures, you'll find an answer key at the end of this post.

The other part of the homework for the week was to create a clay sculpture of a car or a shoe. I don't know shoes, but I do know cars, and surprisingly as a person who used to dream of being a car designer, this is the first clay sculpture of a car I've ever made. I tried my best to make it a car of my own creation, but the keen eyes among you will see that it can be boiled down to being a composite of some more prominent supercars in existence. No matter, as I immensely enjoyed this task, and learned a lot, being the car person I am. While it does cut a nice, if somewhat conventional silhouette overhead, I do need to work on proportions. I also discovered yellow brown plastilene is far too soft a clay for a model of this size (at a little less than 3" x 6"), details and creases get smooshed too easily, so handling the model is a nightmare. That's another issue I would address later in the week.

With the feedback received in class for our clay human sculptures, we then moved back to abstraction. Choosing one expression, we were challenged to re-create it with the basis being a rectilinear form of a rectangular prism approximately 1"x 1" x 3". I had eventually moved to grey plastilene and while it's more difficult to shape, requiring more heat before it's mouldable, the way it held its form was more than worth the effort.

I tried my best to make this one expressive and dynamic, and with the feedback received in class, it's quite clear what mood this guy's in. And no, after it was finished I didn't have to defend my fingers and toes from its gaping maw!

In the first class of this course we were given the task of creating quick and dirty abstract models using only paper, scissors and tape, sketching but in 3D. I can't say I did very well at first, as being raised very culturally Chinese means that you aren't really encouraged to express yourself creatively. Fall into line, reproduce, and refine.

Cultural grievances aside, the task was also given to us for homework, but we could use materials of our own choosing. Since I didn't do very well in class I decided to keep trying with paper. I tried to utilise different techniques of shaping the paper with each sample, and I am much happier with the homework samples.

My mind thinks very rigidly, and symmetrically, so here I tried to make something more elegant and organic. Main techniques used were cutting and gluing sides together to create curves.

Main techniques here were cutting, folding and gluing to create something more structural. As suggested before, I struggle a lot with creating asymmetry in my models so ironically, I had to think really hard making this one. And no, when I finished it didn't jump up and try to strangle me!

Up until now I had been mainly cutting and folding to create a single form, so here I decided to create multiple forms and combine them. The main sheet tying them all together is reinforced with wire so it is rigid. The class suggested I make a coffee serving set of this one. I kept thinking, a platter of some sort, or even speakers with the right combination of elements.

Our homework for Week 1 was to create an abstract self portrait. We were asked to think of 3 words that best describe our character, and to create it only using chip board, 1/4" dowel, wire mesh and wire. Gluing and fastening choices were up to use, but if they aren't the above mentioned materials, they cannot be plainly seen.

Can you guess what the 3 words are?