Elise Bason Final Major

As I had created these time plans before the lockdown, I had based these plans around the fact that I would be able to work in the studio but I feel I have more or less stuck to this original plan anyway as I was quite vague and lenient with myself in case there was some kind of problem during the project in which this proved to be useful. I did however find it difficult to adjust to the lack of sketchbook work as opposed to the blog work in which I am not used to working in. I found that when taking photos to upload to the blog the images of pencil drawings especially would be quite difficult to see, so to solve this problem I had used a photo editor to adjust the contrast of the photos. However, I decided against using those photos as they lost some of the details and looked as if they had been manipulated which I did not want on the blog so I uploaded the originals. A slight change I did make within the time plan was to start the construction of the sculptural elements earl...

I have decided to remove the ribcage sculptural element of my final major as I feel I may have been overly ambitious with creating both a spine and ribcage sculpture alongside an illustration piece for my final major piece. I do not feel that the quality of this piece is successful enough and I feel this may have been caused by insufficient experimentation on the structure of the ribcage and the overall armature within. As I have incorporated a lot of ribs within this sculpture, it was quite difficult to keep the form and scale of each rib symmetrical to balance the piece and once I had tested the ribcage alongside the spine sculpture as a temporary hold, I discovered that the piece as a whole was too busy and would distract the viewer's eye from the focal point of the illustration element of the final major. After applying a layer of mod roc to the ribcage, I felt that the structure had become too bulky and the original shape of the ribs were somewhat lost. Alongside this I felt t...

I feel that the textures on this spine sculpture are very successful as they are similar to that of the bones that I have studied from life and create a sense of contrast between the areas of shadow and highlighted bone. I feel that the dry brush application technique was a successful choice as it creates an almost fossilised feel to the sculpture which I am very inspired by as I had referenced tones of fossilised and aged bones when mixing tones to incorporate within the sculpture. The choice to use mod-roc as a sculptural material was quite successful as the already textured properties of the mod-roc added layers of depth and dimension to the piece which when paired with the dry brush technique created an interesting surface for the viewer. I feel that the scale of the sculpture is successful as I am normally quite content within my comfort zone of small scale pieces, so I was able to explore new sculptural mediums within my final major project. However when the spine sculpture i...

 Here is the progress of the ribcage element of the spine and ribcage sculpture. Like with the spine sculpture, I have used a bamboo cane as opposed to the wire armatures that I had originally planned as they are much sturdier and offer more support for the structure. I have used newspaper and masking tape to sculpt the ribs and a separate structure for the sternum and at this point in the sculpting process, I am quite happy with the strength of the structure and the form of the ribcage as a whole. Here I have used a layer of burnt umber acrylic paint as the base layer for the spine sculpture and then added lighter brown tones using the dry brush technique whilst also incorporating white and yellow ochre tones as highlights. I feel that this technique is quite successful as it creates a sense of a rough texture similar to those which I have studied from life and I feel that the 'stippled' texture of the mod-roc also contributes to this effect. Although as the paint had dried, ...

Within these pencil studies I have explored the form of the vertebrae within a variety of unique and interesting poses that was able to create through my own researched knowledge of vertebrae alongside the anatomical works of Leonardo Da Vinci. From these studies, I feel that I can better understand the form of the vertebrae and can apply this understanding within my spine sculpture. I have used the hatching technique to create a sense of dimension and subtle textures and I feel that these studies were quite successful in this aspect as the texture created is similar to that of the textures that I have studied on bones/vertebrae from life. For these ink experiments I have focused on creating a sense of form using only tone. I feel these studies were quite successful as the subject can still be recognised within the experiments and the result is quite interesting to view. I feel that these experiments became somewhat abstract without the use of line to contain the ink tones and...

Here I have compared the measurements for all the vertebrae experiments that I have tested for usage within my spine sculpture. I at first experimented with sculpting the smallest vertebrae as a test for the materials and techniques that I would like to incorporate within my spine sculpture rather than the measurements for the scale of the piece. Although I feel this dry brushed acrylic layering technique is quite successful in terms of texture, I do not feel that the tones are accurate as they are too yellow/white rather than a light brown that I had studied on a human skeleton from life. From this experiment, I feel that I need to further experiment with creating tones that contrast whilst also closer to the tones that I have observed on bones. I had originally planned a very large scale sculpture in which I would incorporate the largest vertebrae (approximately 17x30cm) but due to the lockdown, I have been unable to obtain materials such as mod-roc and acrylic in large quantities so...

Vertebrae ink experiments text: For this experiment I have focused on creating a sense of form and texture within the vertebraes using ink and a dry brush technique. I feel that this experiment was quite successful as it creates a sense of a rough texture similar to that of the bones that I have studied from life. In future experiments, I feel that I may like to experiment with applying a wash of colour over the ink textures to create a sense of contrast and a unique sense of tone. I feel that watercolour may be the most successful material for this as it has a lower density than ink with a water base which should create the effect that I am looking for. I may also experiment with incorporating different styles of lines as the one used in this experiment was very sketchy so I would like to experiment with line widths such as bold or adding a sense of weight to the lines or possibly with no lines at all to compare the differences between styles. For this experiment I have focused on...