Papier Mache Sample
Process of Creating my Papier Mache Sample
In order to construct the body for my papier mache mini beast that I have drawn on A3 paper in my final illustration. I first cut cardboard into small squares then flattened them, I placed them inside like the picture above and wrapped 2-3 sheets of newspaper around it in order to strengthen the overall structure of the body for the minibeast. I did this because the legs and arms must be attached to the body and they would need support so that they do not come loose. I believe I did this part well although this was the very first step of the beetle so there isn't much I could have improved on at this stage.
After I wrapped the newspaper around the cardboard I required it to stay like that. Therefore, I wrapped a line of masking tape around the circumference of the rolled newspaper and this kept the cardboard in place rather well. I twisted both ends of the newspaper to try and keep these together. However because paper is soft and even when twisted may not stay together for a long duration I had to close the gaps in the twisted paper to create a whole body for my papier mache mini beast.
After the body started to come together I need to create a more rounded shape for the body of my mini beast because it has a wasp like body. It also supports the overall structure and makes it stronger and has less surface area so the entire beast is more dense. The process of shaping the body has also given me a decent structure.
I then decided to add some legs to make the papier mache beast look more realistic. I immediately noticed that the legs are not stable, meaning when I pierced the newspaper with the wire I then had to pierce the cardboard to make it a little more stable.
The next part was too add newspaper too the legs to give them a solid shape (because the legs of my mini beast are not wire thin). This was quite challenging, I needed to add them to the tip of the wire and the wire consistently pierced the newspaper. To resolve this issue, I simply added duct tape to the end of the wire then wrapped the newspaper around the entirety of the wire legs. This required the newspaper to be pulled very tight so it would not come loose, once tight enough and covered enough surface area, I held it in place whilst connecting it to the wire structure using masking tape.
As shown by the picture above I was not required to put masking tape all over the legs, but it did require a lot of support because if I hadn't put this much on the legs may have un raveled and became lose, all in all weakening the overall structure and most likely not supporting it's own weight meaning it probably couldn't stand up. As I wanted the creature too still have thin legs, I tried as hard as possible to wrap the legs with as little newspaper as possible whilst still giving it shape and support, this was a hard task but I would definitely do it again considering the time because it turned out very well.
In the image above I have added then wings. To do this, I referred to my final 2D illustration for a basic shape, but that was too large to just copy, I had to scale it down and I did a rough shape of what the wings looked like with fairly accurate measurements, I used a crafting knife in order to slice through the cardboard fairly neatly to ensure the shape and detail was kept. Once the cardboard was cut out, I needed to flatten it, I pressed onto it to reduce the overall thickness of it, this may have weakened the structure but that strength would be kept once the wings hardened after the papier mache was applied.
The wings overall position was also inspired by my 2D illustration and this can be shown from the image above. In order to add them to the body I added a large amount of masking tape to the centre of the body that came off to the left and right of the mini beast, I then connected the cardboard wing shaped pieces to each side and supported it with more masking tape on the under side of the wings. In order to keep them in a flat sort of position I needed to add quite a lot more to suspend them like this on top, this is because they previously they fell down to the floor without it.
After this, I added the papier mache to the wings, This also had it's problems. Firstly, the wings are delicate meaning I had to constantly re-attach them if they ever came un-done. The wings were also quite flat and I wanted to keep them that way, unfortunately the masking tape did not let me do this, this is because with each layer I added they became thicker and this also created the problem that I had before where they would fall due to the weight so more masking tape support was needed to suspend them. Applying the masking tape was straight forward and I did it using the same materials as I did before. (Large paint brush and diluted glue.)
Before I put the final layer of papier mache and glue over the top of the mini beast, I had to do a few tweaks to the creature. The first one was to bend the back legs slightly In order for the structure to actually stand up, this was fairly straight forward and their wasn't any issues because the wire is so easy to bend and is able to hold it's own weight.
Another small part I wanted to tweak was to make the wings look as if they were actually flying due to some feedback, I did this by adding tape to the under side of the wing, wrapping it around the front of the wing then connecting it to the body of the mini beast, this pull the wing up then supported it their, There was one issue with this which was that the masking tape that currently connected the under-wing and the body was actually creating a new shape of it's own, I resolved this by flattening it down slightly but enough so that the wings would still be raised.
The Front legs also needed to bend in slightly as they do in my Final 2D illustration. Much like the back legs there wasn't much of an issue with this. I had to add more masking tapes too parts of the mini beast to either support the structure staying up or strengthening the whole design.
Wire Sample
Process of Creating my Wire Sample
I started my wire mini beast sample by first making the long egg like shape that you can see in the image above. It required me to twist to pieces of wire together in order to make a larger shape, this process was rather easy and the wire is very easy to manipulate, I used both my hands and pliers in order to shape it.
Next I had too make the oval structure stable enough and less easy to bend so that it can stand up and support itself, In order to create a support, so that each side would not collapse when creating a 3D structure. I added wire in the middle to support the structure which spans the length of the body, after I did this, the body was further supported at the top and bottom and could not bend as easily as before.
However, I needed to support the sides of the wire oval as well because they were flimsy. I essentially did the same technique as before but instead I connected wire from side to side of the mini beast body rather than top to bottom. This worked well and was fairly simple to do as I had previously done it before.
The right side of the body was getting weaker again, meaning I had to further strengthen it. To do this, I needed to add more wire to the design and bind it to somewhere, the only problem I faced doing this was how much it actually changed the shape of the design. As shown from the image above the design got "pulled" towards the center once I added the final piece of diagonal wire.
After fixing the issues I had last time, which included various strength problems, I then decided to add a 3D element to the body since at the moment it was very much a 2D design. The plan I had was to add wires that 'arch' from one side to another.
The archs were added by bending the wire around in a semi cirle shape then securing each of the ends of wire to the main 2D frame. I tried to make the archs at the end of the mini beast smaller than the middle, this is because the body of a wasp is not the same size through-out, it creates a convex type of shape, and I wanted my wire mini beast to replicate this.
I believe this "convex" style of body worked quite well. I think that it looks very good as you can see the intricate body design as well as how it was structured. The wire itself was very easy to manipulate because it is very light and fragile. This made the whole process of creating a 3D body easy.
I think I could improve on the 'smoothness' of the body, the arches are slightly jagged in some parts especially at both ends of the body which (If I had the time again) I would definitely try to improve. Furthermore, any parts of wire that come out at an angle almost perpendicular to the wire it is attached to could be flattened down, although this is not that large of an issue I think it would still be nice and make the 2D base and even somewhat the 3D base very smooth.
During the time I was creating the 3D body for the mini beast I needed to secure the wire even more, this is because if the mini-beast well or collapsed for whatever reason then the arch in the body would bend because it was only 1 piece of wire. To fix this I connected each of the arches to the center arch that runs along the body. I did this by using a twisting technique, I took one arch off at a time then wrapped the part at the middle multiple times over the arch at the center, I did this for each of the arches until it was secure.
I believe this worked well, It stopped each of the arches of the body coming loose, if I had the oppurtunity improve it I think it would be a good idea to tie to arches to the body alittle tighter, even though this isn't crucial it would give the overall structure a much more stable and reliable strength.
I had to make sure the body was capable of holding itself up, to test this I made legs that came from the top section of the body near the head and the bottom section near the thinner part. In order to create the legs I first connected each of the 4 wires to where they were going to be by twisting them around the lower part of the body. After all of the legs were in place I then simply curved each of them in a way that is similar to my 2D final illustration.
Creating the legs of my mini beast was easy, I didn't really struggle with any part of it and I believe it works quite well in representing my 2D final illustration. If I had to improve this design I would try and keep the wire pointed towards the floor. Although it is hard to see on this picture the legs come up from the floor which wasn't intended. However besides this I believe this works well, the overall design of my wire frame mini beast accurately represents my 2D final illustration.
Clay Sample
Process of Creating my Clay Sample
Too start my clay sample I first (as done with my previous 2 other 3D samples) referenced my 2D final Illustration to think of a way to create it using the given material. Since clay is a soft material that has no real strength especially since it needs to be soft in order to start sculpting. I began working on a base for the body, my aim for this was to not go overboard with detail and just work on the very core of the body first.
I started by taking some clay and creating a long thin piece, I then folded this piece to extend the width since the piece I started out with looked nothing like my Final 2D illustration. I then created a "tail" end of my body and the "head" which essentially a thinner part at the top with a curve tip. The "tail" end of the body was much more rounded and extended further than the head did from the body.
I decided to add very basic detail because odds are I will likely work back into it. I used a crafting knife created slits in the top portion of the body, this was fairly easy, I softened the edges using water and the slits are mainly there to replicate the body's sections as shown in the 2D illustration. I feel like this works because it gives the mini beast depth to the body and brings a more 3D 'feel' to it.
Next I created the front legs for my mini beast. This was done by first piercing a single piece of wire through the body of the clay mini beast until it is roughly equal on both sides. Next I curved both pieces of wire up towards the head until they were fully extended out front. This made the wire essentially the base shape of the legs.
Next I used a technique of cross hatching the clay with a crafting knife and applying some water to connect the clay legs to the clay body. The reason I did this is because when testing the wire's strength, I held the clay sample up off the table and the wire legs simply flopped without support. The clay legs therefore provided a very stable support for the wire legs and made it so the legs would remain parallel to the body when the structure was moved.
In my opinion the legs do look out of place with the clay and then transitioning into the wire half way through. If I had more time to focus on this I would definitely try and add more of the clay to the front and back legs in order to make the structure look nicer. As well as this, I would like to fix the crack that is currently taking up the front right leg.As for the bottom legs I did exactly the same process. As the top except curved the legs downward. The final leg was added after the wire inside slightly "rusted" therefore it gave off a brown colour.
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