Cardboard Animal Sculpture Project

Unit Questions:

1. The past is worth preserving because it allow us to understand the world that the generations of people before us lived in. It also allow us to experience great connections to the environment and help us to appreciate the beauty of the Earth. We might preserve the past to understand it better and experience the amazing nature and environment.
2. As an artist, there are many ways that I can improve the environment. When an artist creates a piece, it should represent what they stand for. To improve the environment, I could make piece stand for environmental protection. An artist can also make a piece that would raise environmental awareness. I can also improve the environment by creating a piece using recycleable products, which don't create waste nor harm the environment.
3. The rights and responsibilities of an artist are to better the world through their paintings, drawings, sculptures and masterpieces. An artist shows viewers how they feel about certain things in the world and helps others understand the subject in this creative process. Artists can create things that can or can't normally appear in the world, and its their right and responsibility to create these realisitic or fictional figures in a way that they can represent positive or insightful things.

Project Report:

       To begin the cardboard animal sculpture project, I had to pick an animal to create. I looked through several pictures and decided to create a shark because I had used sharks in previous project and I was good at creating their frames. I began by drawing a shark's back fin. I originally had trouble with the big exacto knifes and couldn't cut the cardboard with them very well. I decided to try the smaller exacto and they work much better. I found that it was easier to control the smaller blade and I could cut more precisely. Therefore, I used the small exacto knife for the rest of the project. I cut out the first fin and traced the second onto the cardboard, which then I cut out. I now had to create the body of the shark. I followed the same process as before and had created two sides of the shark's body. Then, I made several slots on each 'body part' of the shark, making sure that they were lined up each time. After that, I had to connected the two bodies. Originally I thought that I would connect them with a striaght piece of cardboard, but I decided to use cardboard circles with slots in them because they add the form to my shark and make it more realitic. I cut out the circles, trying to make each bigger the closer to the middle of the shark they got. I had to recut some of my circles because the size was off a couple times. After the circles were done, I glued on the back fins. Finally, I drew an eye on each side of the shark's body.

       To create my shark, I used form, space and line. I used form by using circles as a shark's body frame, which increased in size the closer it got to the middle of the shark as a real shark does. Form was present with the shark's parts being in proportion to each other. For example, the shark's fin were glued beside each other because they are very thin. I created space within the shark with the space between each slot and the space between the two sides of the body. I used line for the shark's figure, the straighter lines would represent the stronger parts of the shark, whereas the curved lines would represent the parts that a shark uses to swim and move around in the ocean. Line is also used throughout the piece by creating parallel lines to each other for the body of the shark and the slots to attach correctly and accurately.

Process Photos:

Final Photos:

Final Drawing and Painting of the Horse in the Style of Matisse

         The dominant complimentary colour scheme in my piece is the complimentary colours of yellow and purple. I made them appear more dominant than the other colours in my painting because I used these colours for the horse (focal point) and are in the centre of the piece. Also, the yellow stands out from the blue trees in the backround and the dark red background colour. The yellow, being beside the purple throughtout the horse, allows both colours to be dominant. I choose this complimentary colour scheme because the two colours go well together. The colours also have a greater difference in lightness and darkness than other complimentary colour schemes.
         I used pattern in the foreground to create emphasis in the horse. The pattern I used was alternating the complimentary colours cutouts (parts of the horse). This pattern emphasized the focal point because the pattern creates depth and brings the horse into the foreground. Also, the pattern creates movement in the horse, which attracts the viewer's attention.
         The process began by learning about Matisse and his paintings through a video. We learnt his style and had to apply that to our horse. We used the horse that we originally drew, before we 'Picassoed' it in the previous project, and now had to 'Matisse' it. It was hard at first to change it because I didn't really know his style very well. But after looking at a few painting, I realized that Matisse used curvy lines and disportionated objects in his pieces. I add my curvy lines to my horse and disportionated some of its parts (e.g. made the head much smaller than it should be). After changing the horse, I painted a couple small pieces of paper, with one colour on each. Then, I cut out these pieces into shapes that I would put in the painting. I cut out blue trees, purple parts of the horse and yellow parts of the horse. Then, I painting the backround dark red. I glued the cutouts onto the painting. Lastly, I added the trunks of the trees and the hairs of the mane in a black colour. I decided not to outline the object in the piece because it felt that Matisse's art was free flowing and outlining objects would take away the movement the Matisse so magnificantly created.

Process Photos:

Final Photo:

Final Drawing and Painting of the Horse in the Style of Picasso

         I used both analogous and complimentary colours of orange for my monochromatic colour scheme. I used only analogous colours in the horse, both tints and shades. Some of these analogous colours were presented in shades because of Picasso's style of cubism. I used only orange's analogous colours so that the horse would be brought into the foreground by the warm colours. I used both analogous and complimentary in the Dove of Peace and Light of Evil. I used more analogous to bring out the middleground, but used a little monochromatic to bring the middleground deep into my painting. I still wanted the horse to be the centre of my painting, so I used blue to move the viewer's eye away from the middleground. In the background mountains, I alternated between a complimentary blue and an analogous shade of orange. I did this to create depth and make the viewer focus on the foreground and middleground first. The cold colours create depth and movement in my painting. I used a light tint of orange, ahead of the mountains, which surrounded the horse, Dove of Peace and Light of Evil. I used a slightly dark tint of orange behind the mountains (blended in with backround). These nice analogous colours helped create depth and complete my painting.

         The process of the painting started off by learning about Picasso through a video. After learning about the great artist, I started to draw my horse. First, I drew it exactly, with all the lines and body parts in the correct positions. Then I "Picassoed" it (created it with Picasso's style). I made all my lines straight, added half of the horse's head on top of the original horse's head and added designs that Picasso had in his paintings. I originally had trouble changing my drawing, but overcame this trouble and made the necessary changes. I then added the Dove of Peace and Light of Evil to my drawing. I added these objects because I wanted to add more of Picasso's style, so I added two famous objects from his paintings. I then added mountains in the backround. The next step was to transfer my drawing on the sheet of paper that I would paint it on. To transfer, I had to trace the drawing on to a tracing sheet. I then flipped the tracing sheet over and traced the just copied drawing with the sheet I would paint on under the tracing paper. I was able to see a lighter outline of my objects, which is ideal for painting. I was able to start my painting. I decided to used orange as my main colour because it's a bright colour that goes well with blue (its complimentary colour). I started painting the  horse. I used orange and analogous colours of orange in my horse in the form of shapes. I then painted the objects in the middleground using analogous and complimentary colours. I used a dark shade of orange and blue for the backround mountains. I used a light tint of orange around the object in the painting. The last part of the process was outline things within my painting. I used black to do this because it brought out the part that was being outlined. My only major difficulty during the project was changing my piece to look more like Picasso's style. But, I was able to overcome this problem and used Picasso's style throughout the project.

Process Photos:

Final Photo:



Joseph Cornell Box - Critical Analysis

            I found many discoveries and techniques helpful throughtout the process. I found lots of my painting brush techniques useful while making my backround (ocean) of my box. For example, I used the wet brush technique to make the ocean look more like water. I used the dry brush technique to create waves in the ocean. I used the shading technique for my middle ground (shark). The shading technique helped me to create shadow on the shark and make the shark look more realistic. I found the pencil crayons techniques useful while creating my foreground (fish). I was reqired to implement the pencil crayon technique into my box, so I decided to draw my fish in pencil crayon. I did this because I would be able to use this technique to make my fish look more life like and the pencil crayons would allow the fish to be the first thing that caught your eye. I discovered that the sand at the bottom of my box would add more of an ocean feeling to the box. I also found that the placement of the objects in your box can create more of a sense of depth within the box.

            I learnt a couple skills while created my box. I learnt how to create movement of the ocean waves through brushstrokes. I was able to use the wet brush technique while painting in a wave motion. I also learnt how to create a foreground, middleground and backround in my art piece. I did this using colour, depth and positioning of the object in the box. The bright colours stand out, whereas the darker colours blend in with my backround. Depth helps to destinguish between the foreground, middle ground and background. The foreground is positioned closer to the front of the box than the middle ground, which is ahead of the even farther back background.
            I improved my cutting skills during the duration of the project. I was forced to cut the fish, shark and espically the coral very precisely. For the fish and shark, I had to cut around the fins of the animal, but make sure that I only cut out the fish and shark (not white around it). For the coral, I had to cut extremely close to the coral because many of the picture had a black backround colour. For some picture of the coral, I had to cut inside the coral (not only the outline) so that the background can't be seen.

            I have created a sense of depth and movement using many elements. Colour was a big way that I created depth between my middle ground and foreground. The shark (middle ground) is a dark gray colour, whereas the fish (foreground) are bright colours that attract the viewers eyes. Colour also helped to create depth between the fish because they are different colours. Line help me to create movement in the box. I used line in the ocean (backround) to made waves in the water. Value help to create depth with my fish and shark. I used shadow to make these animals more realistic. Value also help to create movement and depth in the ocean. I made the top of the ocean lighter in colour than the ocean floor. I used scale to create depth between the shark and fish. I made the shark bigger than the fish because that the way it's in real life. I also made the fish different sizes to create more depth between them.

            The overall process of creating my box was very long. Originally, I had to decided whether to doing an underwater or space box. I decided to do an underwater box. I thought that I would take blue clips from pictures in magazines and layer them to create the ocean. But, I decide to paint the ocean so that it would look more realistic. I made the top of the ocean lighter and as it descended on the page made it darker. I painted two pages like an ocean (one was the front backround and the other page was cut for the sides). I decide to made a few bends and folds in the ocean while glueing it because it created texture and waves. I then found, cut and glue on images of coral to the ocean. I decide to put sand at the ocean floor. I thought that wetting the sand would make it look darker, but when the sand dried it became light again. I glued the sand on the bottom of the box. Then, I found a picture of a shark (in reference photos below). I sketched the shark and I decided to shade the shark to create a three-dimensional animal. I shaded it because it was gray and we had previously using shading in the hand drawing project. After creating the shark, I found three pictures of fish (also in reference photos below). We were required to use the pencil crayon technique, which we had just learnt when drawing the tree, as a part of our box. I decide to use this technique for the fish so that I could use bright colours to attract attention to the foreground. I cut out the shark and the fish. I attached the animals with fisherman's wire to the box. I painted the wire blue so that it would camoflauge with the ocean background. After that, I attached the wire to the top of the box and the animals. I placed the fish closer to the front of the box because they are the foreground. I decided not to do anything with the outside of the box because the ocean in so vast and I wanted the viewers eyes to be attracted to the scene I selected.

Reference Photos:



Process Photos:



Final Photo: