TINY WEIRD WORLDS - Clay Sculpture
SEASON 5 | PROJECT 6/37 | 03.01.24
MODULE: Sculpture | GRADE LEVELS: 1 - 6 | DURATION: 1 Hour
ARTIST VIDEO
Video Editing by Jorge Davies, Graphics by Melissa Sabol
PROJECT VIDEO
Video Editing by Jorge Davies, Graphics by Melissa Sabol
Video Editing by Jorge Davies, Graphics by Melissa Sabol
OVERVIEW
For this project, students will learn how to turn a two-dimensional sketch into a three-dimensional clay sculpture. The project will be divided into two parts. Part 1, will focus on constructing a miniature clay figure inspired by the Quirky Character project or students may sketch a new imaginary character. Part 2 encourages students to dream up a unique environment for their clay creature by creating a sculptural relief inside an Altoid tin. Playing with clay and letting their imaginations run wild, students will immerse themselves in a world of their own making.
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT​
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Create a piece of art through uninhibited exploration and imaginative thinking.
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Visualize how a figure drawing can be broken down into simple shapes.
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Translate simple 2D shapes into 3D forms, i.e. turn a circle into a sphere or a triangle into a cone.
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Experiment with basic clay shaping techniques – roll a ball or cylinder, pull or pinch specific features, and carve details.
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Learn how to combine pieces of clay by scoring and blending.
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Understand that a 3D sculpture needs to be experienced from multiple angles, as opposed to a 2D drawing which only displays a single perspective.
MATERIALS
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Paper
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Pencil
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Polymer Clay
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Wooden Dowel or Rolling Pin
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Toothpick or Sculpey Clay Tools
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Tin or Found Container
FEATURED ARTIST
THYRZA SEGAL
Joshua Tree artist, Thyrza Segal, grew up surrounded by weird art. Most memorable was Heironymous Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights which her mother had hanging above the kitchen table. Her love for painting monsters began when her brother asked her to paint Godzilla into a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. Since then, she has been carefully painting her alien-like creatures into thrift store art prints, matching the color and style of the original artist, so they blend into the landscape.
Not only does she paint monsters, Thyrza also loves sculpting them. Having been a set and costume designer for the theater and tv shows, she learned how to turn her imaginary worlds into a reality. Using polymer clay and thrifted containers, Thyrza constructs tiny little worlds for her unique creatures to live.
Thyrza looks at every object with wonder and sees just about anything as an art supply – even trash. She believes that whatever you have around you can be transformed into something entirely new and different. When she is searching for materials to use in her sculptures, she looks at objects with fresh eyes, as if she’s never seen them before and doesn’t know what they’re used for. This process opens her mind up to totally new ideas.
ARTISTS TO KNOW
Jordu Schell
Jordu Schell brings monsters and other fantastical creatures to life through his realistic sculptures. Schell has worked in the tv and film industries for over thirty years building monsters and other strange creatures. Schell likes to create all his monsters out of clay instead of relying on digital tools. Much of his inspiration comes from bugs! He is a big insect collector and he takes a lot of what he learns from them to use in his own monsters.
Jordu Schell, Schorr Worm, N.D.
Ron Nagle
Ron Nagle makes super detailed, pocket-sized sculptures. They look like bright, detailed miniature landscapes, filled with dreamy structures and shapes. Nagle thinks of his sculptures as 3D paintings that open up little worlds for people to look inside and observe.
JRon Nagle’s ceramic sculpture. Photo by William Pruyn
Arik Brauer
Arik Brauer was a Jewish artist who grew up in Austria during World War II. He faced a lot of hardship in his life, but this never stopped him from making art. Brauer loved to tell stories through his paintings, drawings, songs, and even his buildings. His bright, colorful paintings were of fantastical dreamworlds and strange, magical creatures. Brauer often hid secret meanings within his paintings, using symbols and stories to reflect his view of the world.
Erich (Arik) Brauer, Künstliche Gesellschaft, 1987, Oil on wooden panel. 43 x 94 cm (16.9 x 37 in.)
Marta Moreu
Through her sculptures, Spanish sculptor Marta Moreu, depicts a dreamlike reality. She gets a lot of her ideas from her own dreams, which she analyzes to understand life and the world around her. Moreu loves to work with bronze because it allows her to create long, bent otherworldly figures.
Marta Moreu, Gacela girafa peinándose, N.D., Bronze. 43 x 22 x 13 cm (17 7/10 x 8 7/10 x 5 1/10 in.)
Raqib Shaw
Kashmir-born artist Raqib Shaw draws inspiration from just about everything – nature, old stories, and most importantly, his imagination. His paintings are glimpses into dream worlds, full of fantastic beasts. The animals he uses in his paintings almost look normal, but usually have extra wings or eyes or something they don’t normally have in real life. Shaw uses a special paint that glitters in the light, making his paintings sparkle like jewels.
Raqib Shaw, From Narcissus to Icarus (After Déjeuner sur l’herbe), 2017-2019, acrylic liner and enamel on Birch wood, 60-5/8" × 71-5/8" (154 cm × 182 cm) 62" × 73-1/8" × 2-13/16" (157.5 cm × 185.7 cm × 7.2 cm), frame © Raqib Shaw
VOCABULARY
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2D / 2-dimensional: A flat shape or figure that has length and height but no width.
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3D / 3-dimensional: A shape or figure that has length, height, and width. It can be looked at from multiple sides.
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Condition: Making your clay sculptable, soft, and ready to work with by rolling or mushing.
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Constructed/assembled sculpture: This type of sculpture is created by joining preformed shapes together to create a final form.
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Mold: Shaping of material into a form.
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Relief sculpture: A type of sculpture that sticks out from a flat background. The sculpture does not stand on its own, but is connected to the background.
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Score: To scratch lines on multiple pieces of clay in order to join them together.
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Sculpt: To shape or carve a figure or object out of hard or soft material.
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Sculpture: A 3D piece of art that can be looked at from all sides
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Shape vs. Form: Shapes are created when a line reconnects with itself. They can be 3d or 2d. Forms are only three dimensional; they have length, width and depth.
ART JOURNAL PROMPTS
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Sketch an object. Look at an object in front of you and sketch it in your journal. Pay attention to all the different shapes – circles, triangles, squares, etc. – that can be found in the object and how they combine into one. After sketching a few, highlight the basic shapes you see in each one.
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Turn an object into a creature. Use one of your drawings from the Sketch-an-Object prompt to create a strange, otherworldly creature. Give it eyes, ears, tentacles, and anything else monstrous and weird!
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Turn something that’s annoying into a monster. Think of something that’s bothering you, big or small and draw how it makes you feel. You can give it a body, a head and eyes and make it look like an actual monster or you can create a more abstract drawing.
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Draw a dreamy landscape. What sort of magical world would you want to live in? What do the buildings look like? Or maybe there are no buildings and it's a forest. Are there plants? What do they look like? What color are they? Don’t worry about adding any people, animals, or monsters, just keep it a landscape.