Plasterrr

Well hey there!

I said before that I wasn't planning on posting until after finals and everything and by golly, I MEANT it.  I managed to survive and turn in all my final projects on time and show up to my exams and apparently pass them, so I have to say I'm pretty pleased with myself.  This past semester was a doozy to be sure, but all things considered I got a lot of work done that I was happy with and I think that's something to be proud of :)
Now that the holiday is done (I hope everyone out there had a wonderful time!) and things are calming down a bit I finally have time to sit and make a new post!  Ohmygosh yaaaayyyy!!

So here it is, project 5, the final assignment I had for my 3D media class.  For this one all we had to do was create 3 separate, abstract plaster sculptures.  There could be an overarching theme to them if we wanted so that they functioned as a set, or they could be totally independent pieces, it didn't matter.  For me, I started out with a sort of theme as my initial inspiration/starting point, but in the end the pieces sort of took on a life of their own.

We had to cast the blocks of plaster ourselves and then using a hammer and chisel (and other filing and sculpting tools) we pretty much could do whatever we wanted here.  Let me tell you, it really gave me a whole new appreciation for the old-school masters who sculpted this way.  I mean seriously, I can't even begin to IMAGINE working on the scale or at the same level of precision that they did.  Truly amazing.

Sculpture 1

 Sculpture 2

Sculpture 3

The complete "set"

Just in case anyone was wondering, the way we got the plaster to appear so smooth and shiny was due to hours and hours of sanding followed by several coats of a mixture of water and ivory soap that we used to buff them at the very end.  This shiny look wasn't mandatory at all, nor was the sanding.  Some people chose to leave their chisel marks or to only buff up certain parts of their sculptures.  It was all up to the artist and what look they were aiming for.  Obviously I chose to sand and shine all 3 of my pieces.

I hope everyone continues to enjoy or has enjoyed their holiday break!  It's always so nice to have the time off to rest up and be lazy for a little bit :)  Stay safe and warm!

ps.  I got an awesome new 'toy' for my computer for Christmas, so you can expect to see some new work showing up in the near future.  Ohboyohboyohboy!