I'm in the progress of making a 3D portrait sculpture for my narrative and identity project, I researched many different ways to produce a sculpture using may different materials but none of them stood out to me. I looked on Pinterest at different art work and creative designs, I produced a few different designs of my own using my favourite things like makeup, art supplies etc, but was never certain of any of them. I then started to look towards my favourite artists for inspiration and Rene Magritte's The Lovers piece caught my eye. This is where I eventually gained my inspiration. 

 

The materials I am using are chicken wire, metal rods, wood, fabric, and cotton. The reason I am using these materials is to achieve the effect of the inspiration I get from Magritte's work The chicken wire I used to form the shape of the head is self, joining different pieces together by cutting the wire and twisting it round one and another. I then used metal rods to thread through and round the chicken wire, forming the nose in the process; this made the model more stable and sturdy. I used wood to form a plinth by measuring and cutting three separate pieces of ply wood then joining them with wood glue and clamping it to dry. When the main block for the plinth was dry; I drilled a hole in the centre, chiselled and filed the hole bigger into a square like shape to push a long piece of wood through to form the stand.

 

My plans are to thread the wooden stand through the head to just under the top of the head and secure it in place with a U-hook. The fabric will be wrapped around the head just like seen in Magritte's art piece using cotton to secure it in place. I'm also going to stitch into the top of the fabric leaving a long trail of cotton out of the stitch to form hair down to the top of the plinth. I am also thinking of painting on top of the fabric but this feature is not yet certain. I then want to create the effect of facial features somehow, but I've not yet decided how I want to do this.

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I've chosen to use these materials not only because they are the most practical in the factor of creating the effect I'm hoping for, but as I also believe they represent myself as the crafty person I am. I didn't want to stick to one material or just use a predictable material like polystyrene. I wanted to think outside the box and put together a range of different materials to show how creative I can be.

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In my original design I had newspaper for more support within the head but I decided that the newspaper would make it more difficult to thread the wooden stand through the head to hold it up. I also thought that this would just give it more weight rather than actually provide the stability. Upon looking for another way around my issue I came across a relatively thick and sturdy metal wire which I cut down into rods and threaded around the chicken wire, this also allowed me to make the shape of the nose whilst working with the wire.

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I've bumped into a few difficulties along the way but none that majorly effected my piece, just minor things like bending the metal rods into the right shape and threading them through the right spaces to get it to hold up in the right places. I resolved things like this through general trial and error, the wire was easy to bend here and there to get it to where I needed it so it wasn't as difficult as I thought it might be. I think the most effective difficulty I reached was when making my wooden stand to go in my plinth. I found the right size piece of wood that was made from MDF. I measured it out and cut notches in the bottom so that it could slide into the hole that I made in my plinth without any misshapes being seen. As I was sliding the stand into my plinth it became a little stiff. I started to hammer it in with a mallet as it needed to be a tight fit anyway and the whole bottom of the MDF just split completely in half. To resolve this I made another stand out of pine which is a lot stronger, and filed the notches in the hole down a little more so it was more of a snug fit rather than tight, it went in perfectly!

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The strengths I have shown in my work so far are being independent within the making process and when sourcing the materials I needed. I think when it come to problem solving I was very independent in finding a solution to my issues and thought them through very well. I haven't strayed from my original design too much and whilst adding things I've kept my inspiration throughout. Whilst producing my piece so far I've learnt how to put a hole through a sturdy block of wood and how to control a chisel a lot more than I would have done before. I think this is a very useful skill to have in the future when producing pieces of work.

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From creating ideas and designing my 3D sculpture I've learnt that its not easy to use general objects; like makeup items; as shapes for facial features, its also hard to think of the logical side of things like how its going to piece together and how its all going to hold up. I've had to think differently about many things throughout the process like using lighter materials or things that I may be able to attach better.

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Overall I'm enjoying producing this sculpture and even with a few hiccups up to now I think its piecing together great. I'm happy with my design and I'm exited to see how much I progress, add or change anything along the way.

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