This is a sample of one class who participated in the Halloween Hands project. These students learned about different types of sculpture: molded, casted, assembled, and carved. We looked at several examples of these types of art, and explored how the Elements of Art, form and texture, applied. For a 3D project, students were tasked with making a molded sculpture using plaster strips and their hands as a mold.
Because the project fell during a specific holiday, it was only natural that the subject for our project would be Halloween, or more specifically, scary movie characters. We talked about "movie magic," and the differences between special F/X (props, costumes, puppets, explosions, etc. filmed ON CAMERA), VFX (visual effects to special F/X done on a computer, post-production), and CGI (computer-generated imagery, done completely on a computer). We studied the work of Rick Baker, a special F/X artist who is responsible for many creature effects and designs in many movies, such as Gremlins 2 (1990), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), and Planet of the Apes (2001).
Texture was the predominant element we focused on, and students were able to create wonderful effects with not only plaster, but hot glue, dirt, and grass clippings.
Materials: Plaster strips (pre-cut), water, vinyl gloves, hot glue, cardboard, dirt, grass, sand, gauze, tempera paint, metallic liquid watercolor paint.
