Animals
2.24
3.1
For my plover I basically disassembled a jug of orange juice and put it back together again. I liked the shape of the OJ jug to use as the body, but needed it to be smaller for the plastic I was using for the head.
I later cut out the back part, where the opening of the OJ jug is. Yeah… it didn’t look appropriate. At this point I hadn’t planned a tail yet, but was thinking of cutting some leftover plastic into a fan shape; however, I felt that maybe this would count as manipulating the form too much.
Here I was looking at what I liked best for the beak. I wanted something with a black tip, so I bought the lip balm; but it’s too big and heavy to use. Maybe if I had cut it down it’d look better, but I still think the width was too much. I went with the pen cap at first.
I later switched to the glue tip so that it’d match the color of the body. I added the barrette so that it’d resemble the black markings around the neck of the plover. For the tail, I used the rectangle of the Nutrition Facts, but I’m worried this doesn’t count as finding a form that’s already there. But I think it’s amusing.
The shape in the last picture is the handle of the OJ jug, split in half then joined again. This is what I used for the legs. It can stand on it’s own well, but isn’t great at supporting the weight of the bird.
I think it’s pretty cute, but it doesn’t have great balance. I know I want it to be able to tilt forward, so I need to think of other ways this could be possible. I didn’t add eyes because I didn’t want to use anything that would make the eyes seem bulging. I don’t know if I’ll add eyes, but I’ll see if that’s suggested at all next class.
3.3
So about the first model… yeah… let’s move on and pretend that didn’t happen. The head was way too round compared the more oblong roundness of the plover’s head. And the color contrast made little sense.
I fear that my bird looks too much like a seagull. I’m also unsure of what plastic I could use to get a pointed bill with a dark tip. This one also doesn’t have the interaction I was looking for; it’s pretty late and I still have no good ideas. Oh well. I think I’m closer to an end result now at least.
Took off some weight so that it’d be leaner, replaced the beak with chopped up marker (one black, one orange) instead of using a glue tip, which I found too thick and did not have the distinctive black marking I needed. Kinder Joy Egg head (painted white) replaced with white “plastic crafting eggs” from Michael’s (what a stroke of luck!). Tail was shortened and body attaches directly to the legs by brads so that the bird is able to tilt forward and peck for food. Chest piece is now attached by sewn thread. Eyes are still little rubber adjusters for face masks. Body and legs are still milk jug and OJ handle respectively.
3.10
3.11
Decided I didn’t like how harsh the shadows were nor how stark the white looked, so I tried to reshoot the photos with more even lighting. I also wanted more consistency across the photos in terms of framing. I think the warmer and softer lighting represents the bird better because of its sandy color and beach habitat.
