Sculpture 1

Birds

Artists: Constantin Brancusi, Anna-Wili Highfield

Elements of Art: line, form, color, texture

Principles of Design: balance, movement

Vocabulary: Armature = inner structure or skeleton of a sculpture, Gesture = a line showing the
movement or underlying structure of an object

Criteria:
 Sculpture resembles a bird or other animal, not a cartoon
 Sculpture can either stand on its own or is attached to some kind of a base
 Outer layer is painted and attached with attention to natural form and color
 Armature is completely covered except for legs and feet (if wire is showing intentionally,
check with me first)

Directions:

1. Look for a bird you want to represent. It can be a state bird, bird found in certain region
or country, or just a bird that catches your eye in one of the reference books.
2. Draw the bird as realistically as possible in your sketchbook, color and label it.
3. Start making the feet and legs out of wire following the directions given in class.
4. Make the gesture line of the head and body in wire.
5. Make the wings out of wire if they’re going to be spread out for flight.
6. Attach legs and wings to body. Leave wire for the beak.
7. Start with a small ball of newspaper taped to the head. Gradually build up the body
with more newspaper and tape. Don’t squash the newspaper too much—you want the
body to have some roundness.
8. Watercolor a sheet of paper to be torn into pieces for the feathers.
9. Begin tearing into small pieces and gluing in an organized way to resemble the growth of
feathers.
10. Add eyes and beak with paper shapes.
11. Paint the base and attach bird.