I wanted to teach students how to do portraits in wire because it was a different medium from graphite, but similar in line quality. We first drew our faces while I demonstrated on the board. It was difficult without mirrors, but they used their hands to feel their features and I think it was helpful to draw them as a class. Then, I showed them Alexander Calder's work as inspiration and students sculpted their portraits in wire. As a way to transition from drawing to wire, students traced their portrait with wire (see Violet's in-progress work) while figuring out how to connect them so that it was all in one form. I think they look really Neat! (BTW, students used colorful wire, but the colors came out awful with my camera so I'm showing them b/w).
Alexander Calder
Cooper
Max
Miles
Stefy
Zac R.
LE students learned about Alexander Calder's sculptures. We compared them to his contour drawings and discussed how contour drawings were similar to wire in line quality. After my demo, I had them choose a reference of an animal, draw the contour and trace their drawing with wire. Several students had difficulty with the wire so in the next class, I had them follow each of my steps in sculpting a bird and then finish their previous sculpture.
