Wednesday, November 26, 2008

miniseries: SPACE SHIP TIME

hi readers! (umm, hi mom and dad) today i am assembling parts to build a space ship. This task seemed daunting at first. Do you have to go to a fancy geeky model store and purchase some babylon star wars crap? Nope.
First off, major shout out to NASA for putting their entire image library online and copyright free. You can even download OBJ files of some of their spacecrafts. So there is plenty of scientific reference to use.
Now, Any NASA scientist will tell you that there are really only two parts to any space craft: the smooth outer metal shell, and the wiry, coggy electrical inside part.

I went to home depot to find some shiny outer shell parts.



Now for the innards. We happened to have a VCR player that doesn't work in our house, (but yet we still leave it near the TV) so i got a screwdriver and starting taking things apart.


At times this can be frustrating, but try and resist the urge take a hammer and smash things open because you will most likely break something that could have been interesting looking. It had to be put together by an assembly machine, so chances are there is a relatively logical way to take it apart.
And the deeper you go the more treasure you find. Here are the cogs:
and here are the weird plastic shapes

open the VCR, and here's all the JUNK

Now enjoy the fruits of your labor! Taking apart things is fun, especially when you don't need them to work. I also opened up a remote control because the plastic shell might make some great wings. But I'll save that for next time.
ps. if anyone has a working vcr, let me know cause i have this vcr tape i've been meaning to watch. thanks!

miniseries: cliffs and rocks

to make rocks: carve the desired shape out of foam, then cover with black acrylic paint (above). Next buy some spackling paste, and spread a thin layer over all or part of the rock (below). finally, cover in a light coat of black paint again and sort of wipe it off as you go with a paper towel. tada!... a rock.

these silly things are the base coat for a close up of a rock. it is a hard piece of foam, with sandpaper slashes and painted with acrylic paint. soon to be covered with some sand and stuff.

umm, tada!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

miniseries: hills close and far

these cliffs were carved using a peice of wire with handles at the end, it's usually used for cutting up blocks of clay but if you sort of sift through with different rythms you can strike some really nice organic patterns.




i am slightly dissapointed in this model as the end shape is too symmetrical. this is because of an indecision to commit to improvisation or to stick to the plan. during the process, i will often discover something by accident and want to completely change directions. this is usually not smart. It is better to note the discovery and save it for later.




this is the base coat for a hill. after the acrylic i will put on cinnamon and flower to tone it down, and then spray paint. i am trying to get at more organic patterns, find asymmetry while keeping order. i am getting further away from a constructionist approach and closer to a more rythmic sort of work flow. try to mimic the natural forces that would act on form: the wind, the water, tectonic plates and all that jazz.