THE ONES WHO FLEW THE COOP

PAPER MACHE' BIRDS

BEGINNING 3-D ART

aluminum foil, cardboard, newspaper strips, starch, paper collage, wire

These wonderful birds were made last school year by my 3-D beginners,

and man oh man,

 did they have fun building up the foundations with the aluminum foil.

That was the first step.

Then 2 layers of paper mache' strips were put over the foil,

creating a very strong surface.

Wings were added with cardboard,

and legs with wire and nails.

All the students brought in a color resource to work from,

but they were allowed to distort or exaggerate to give the birds more whimsey if desired.

But I have to say that not many of the students took advantage of that option.

Let me show them to you.

We start with 8th grader Annie Nguyen's adorable piece.  

We all loved it's quizzical expressive quality as well as how she mounted it.

It was Annie who thought to use nails for it's legs,

and the pinecones for embellishment that she found outside the art room door.

I was most impressed with her paper collage work to achieve the color and texture she wanted. 

 Junior Dustine Ansibly really nailed this incredibly realistic toucan
and it feels as if it is giving us the business.

I also liked the way it looks so naturally perched on the piece of wood she found.

Senior Hana Kim was able to capture the sweet gentleness of her bird. 

Her paper collage was applied so very delicately with just the right amount of color

on her white body..

And senior Inna Sikar was able to pull off a highly realistic form

and then used primer and paint to finish it off so expertly.

I really enjoyed how senior Ricky Gallardo finished off his sculpture 

with select pieces of Asian newspaper over his primer for a very graphic style.

And junior Sahana Ramesh came into this class with years of painting experience

outside of school,

and impressed us all with her skills in both the building of the form and the finishing.

And don't you just love this little guy by 8th grader Shivani  Kedila?

Especially the eyes and legs.

And he has so much personality.

I just want to adopt him.

I'm hoping that this year the kids will name their pieces.

This beauty was made by 8th grader Sophia Oporto.

The form is outstanding as is the paper collage finish and the legs.

Way to go Sophia!

Here is another personal favorite by senior Sophia Yang.

I love how dimensional the body is, 

how she added the wings and the tuft on top of the head,

The paper collage is also remarkable.

But it was this last one by junior Angelica Luza that completely captured all our attention

when she unveiled it.

Hysterical,

we were all cracking up because it was so very realistic looking

and because of the way she posed it.

I believe she used textural paper towels for the paper collage

then she stained it brown.

And displaying it on the plate was a brilliant idea.

Can't wait to see what this years group will come up with!