Virtual Sculpture Sketchbook

Doodling

2012-01-09T12:42:00.000-08:00

This is a sketch I did in a couple hours. I placed it in front of a city street backdrop after learning which way the sadows fall.

My First Animation

2011-10-26T12:26:00.001-07:00

I made this using the animation feature on Google Sketchup.

Woven Stone (continued)

2011-04-25T13:29:00.000-07:00

As a follow-up to the previous post, an example of how I might use this form in a decorative knee-wall, or parapet.

Mold For Casting Woven Stone

2011-04-24T19:29:00.000-07:00

One mould that I've drawn as a study for casting a fence out of concrete that appears to be woven looks sculptural enough on its own.

Concentric Waves Over The Surface Of A Cube

2011-02-08T13:17:00.000-08:00

As part of a fascination with concentric wave patterns (such that one might see in tossing a pebble into a lake) I've thought of synthesizing that over the surfaces of a cube. This is the first application. I'm already starting to modulate amplitudes or frequencies until I get something that I am visually pleased with. Rather than get elaborate this time in creating the curved surfaces with the "follow" tool I simply connected the crests and the troughs on a linear-decreasing function.

If pressed to answer about an influence in this I might answer, fingerprint whorls, curb-stones at Newgrange, Buddhist rake patterns in Japanese gardens, simple meditation over waves themselves.

Collapsing Cube Moldmaking Studies

2010-12-18T15:57:00.000-08:00

I've been studying certain sizes and shapes of collapsing cubes and assessing a method of pattern development of an armature to be built up in styro-foam.

Starting at a size that will be five feet on each side, I've decided to convert to millimeters for simplicity as opposed to using fractions.

Intersecting this cube with a radius of thirteen feet I've come up with the above as a derivative that is one-eighth of a cube for mold-making purposes.

Pinecone

2010-07-04T10:05:00.001-07:00

Another try at the pineapple or pinecone shape. I increased the segments from 12 to 24 on the vertical axis. Worked on making the basic shape more elliptical first.

Prolate Spheroids - Egg Shapes

2010-06-26T18:27:00.000-07:00

After developing another shape I wanted from a simple egg-shape formula I nested a smaller version inside another and created pyramid studs across the surface by connecting intersection from one to the other.

Tube Cube

2010-04-23T12:55:00.001-07:00

Cubeholeio

2010-04-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

Octahedron

2010-03-26T10:09:00.001-07:00

Sphere Square

2010-03-19T16:26:00.000-07:00

I'm just now intuiting how unstable this would be with only four points of contact to structurally hold this together. But I also get the impression I could make this into a kinetic sculpture if they were helical gears linked across by two axles.

2010-02-05T10:21:00.000-08:00

A little fun with the extrude button across a wavy membrane.

2010-01-30T10:50:00.000-08:00

Preliminary sketch of an octahedron.

2010-01-29T18:44:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick exercise I did to study intersections from cylinders to spheres.

The following were sketches I did a while back changing the template to Google Sketchup's crayon or charcoal, if I recall correctly. It imitates looser line in a sketch.

Wavy Cube 2

2010-01-24T13:30:00.000-08:00

After reducing the wave amplitude.

Wavy Cube ~ Before Trimming Overlapping Intersects

2010-01-23T18:20:00.000-08:00

Modulated Cube

2010-01-01T20:51:00.000-08:00

Staying with five cycles of waves (across the diagonal on cube faces I lessened the amplitude of the cycles by half and got the above result.

Modulated Cube

2009-12-30T01:25:00.000-08:00

Curious about how I would be attempting to fabricate these surfaces from a mold, casting six faces and assembling them I drew some more on the subject today.

I'm also including a previous drawing that follows my curiousity with geometric objects.

Visualization Of A Site

2009-12-11T17:25:00.000-08:00

I've been playing around with certain tools that are readily available for public use to envision what it might look like to put a sculpture or two of my own design on a piece of land. This site I chose out of what seemed like an accrued life-long awareness of a simple vacancy on the edge of an urban residential subdivision. It's on a bluff over a river with a railroad also squeezed in below and in between. On the other side of the river is the Public Waterworks. So it's all marginal, public land already. It once had a water tower on it. What is left is the concrete base in an octagonal layout.

I imagine it amounts to about five to eight acres that is flat enough to still use as a park for public sculpture.

Other Artists

2009-06-11T11:53:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while I go to the Google warehouse looking for influence or drawing tips. I found another artist whose work I'd like to show here, Fred Bartels, "Cardboard Venus"

This can be found in Google Sketchup's warehouse under it's title or his name.

Armature For A One Gallon Egg

2009-05-25T22:53:00.000-07:00

Going from the previous sketch diameters I constructed the armature for an egg that will hold one gallon of liquid when it is finished. Having tested the development of half I found that the foamboard was 9/16" thick, not 1/2". I redrew the development this morning and applied the new intersections of the radii to the egg countour, losing one full thickness after nine pieces.

This last photo illustrates how I converted a barstool into a sculpture stand.

Armature Development ~ One Gallon Container

2009-05-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

After some thought I have decided to first develop an egg-shaped container that will conveniently hold one gallon of paint. I had to look up a volume formula for an ellipsoid and convert some measurements back and forth. I might go back to metric and refine things a bit. At this point I'm merely happy to develop an armature out of styro-foam that can be found in a home improvement store at 1/2" thick.
Illustrations follow which approximate the measurements I need:

The basic armature.

The short side.

The long side.

About the Size Trebuchet I Need

2009-04-14T21:58:00.000-07:00

Got to admire the Dutch. Properly placed bottle openers say a lot.

Egg-Shaped Containers ~ The Trebuchet Project

2009-04-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

I have an outline for a project I've been dreaming about doing for a long time. I want to use a trebuchet-launched paint projectile to paint upon the Arkansas River Levee. The projectiles themselves will be big enough to hold five gallons of acrylic house paint, an approximate fifty pound payload. My intent is to make them out of a thin-walled reinforced plaster which can withstand the sudden acceleration from the trebuchet, but not the sudden inellastic collision with the concrete berm of which the levee is made. In essence, I want to channel a once terrorising weapon built for destroying castles to paint a very inviting canvas that's been sitting there waiting for me for about eighty years.

I've started a rudimentary plan on the trebuchet.

I have also accessed one of the better target areas with Google Earth that is still rather blank, and sites from where I anticipate having the best ranging.

Hatching Contours

2009-03-14T00:44:00.000-07:00

Androgyny 2

2009-03-13T23:13:00.000-07:00

Sphere with Portal

2009-02-02T12:56:00.000-08:00

Modulation ~ Continued

2009-01-27T15:58:00.000-08:00

"Androgyny"

Geometric Solids

2009-01-25T22:03:00.001-08:00

I am fascinated by modulating faces on geometric solids with waves and textures.

I've always have wondered what different things I could do with the basic solids, whether restlessly kneading an eraser in my hand or simply looking at nature and ruminating over the sheer anomaly of straight lines.

Fireplace Surround ~ Romanesque Derived

2008-05-08T17:24:00.000-07:00

32' Double Helix

2008-05-08T17:22:00.000-07:00

2007-12-25T20:33:00.000-08:00

forty-foot diameter spiral ring

2007-12-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

translucent spherical intersection on cube pattern 12' x 12'

poly chrome sketch of same before "nibbling off the edges".

2007-12-23T14:11:00.000-08:00

oval tubing in flatter weave (4"x8")

2007-12-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

Initial study of woven tubing fence, in 4" diameter cast stone.

Spending some time a week later I re-drew it with a tighter weave.

(As of this post I have only been playing with it two weeks, self-taught. I think that with any in-depth amount of time drawing with Google Sketchup6 one will learn at an exponential rate. My biggest challenge at this point is in how long I can sit.)

2007-12-22T09:33:00.000-08:00

hollowed sphere

(A proposal in tunnelling through a sphere with a logarithmic, conical shape.)

2007-12-22T09:24:00.000-08:00

cube

Beginnings

2007-12-01T15:48:00.001-08:00

cylinder through sphere