Nerf Battle Arena

Ever wonder what to do with those boxes from IKEA items that you've already put together? How about a Nerf Battle Arena for your 8 year old? Here is what I did for my sons birthday.

First, I sorted out what types of boxes I had, how they could be used, what extra pieces I might have for detailing, and what dimensions I had. It was all pretty simple and easy to sort since most of the boxes I had were the same size.

Next I came up with a concept on what I wanted to do. Here I made a simple sketch to give me an idea of where to go once I got started. I planned to make a tower and wall base structure for each side of the arena and then a small bunker to go between them. I used some color in the sketch as well so I knew how I wanted to paint it when I got to that stage.

Next I started measuring, cutting, trimming, folding, gluing, etc. For cutting I used some dollar store razors and they worked just fine for cutting cardboard pieces.

After figuring the spaces I wanted to build. I measured the same distance from the end as the width of one side, so that I could fold the two pieces together to make a stronger end to hold up the wall. I used some 3M spray on adhesive to hold all the pieces together. I repeated this step for each wall.

I quickly found that I wasn't making sure it was tacky enough before pressing the sides together and I had to reapply a few parts to keep them from falling apart. Not to mention it was over 90 degrees outside and it wasn't helping with gluing things together.

After all the cutting and gluing was done. I started with a plain flat white base coat and covered the entire face of each box. I used about 2 cans per tower box and 1 for the bunker and another 2 each for the walls I made. I only originally bought 2 cans, so I had to go back to the store for more paint.

For the paint, I used Rust-oleum Painter's Touch. This is my go to paint for almost any purpose. It holds up well and is easy to use. It also claims to cover 50 sq.ft. per can with 2 times coverage. I'm not sure about those numbers for the sq. ft. but it worked fine for me. It comes in an large assortment of colors and finishes.

Once the white was all done, I started cutting out stencils and using them to dress up the boxes. I made a few pieces of text on my computer using illustrator and printed those out, then used those as guides for the cardboard stencils. I also made a few hex graphics, radioactive logo and some simple shapes to dress it up with.

I had a blue, orange, silver and black paint for the stencils. As you can see, it really starts to pop when you add in some graphics to the white spaces. I randomly placed those onto the surface and also added some orange bands at the top of the boxes with two long cardboard strips I taped together with a gap between them.

In the final stage, I added some black edging with a sponge brush. I only used acrylic paint for this because I had more control when doing it by hand vs. spray paint. It gave the whole assembly a cell shaded look. In addition to the cardboard, I also used some Styrofoam pieces for stabilizing the inside of the towers and padding the floor of the bunker.

The final results are pretty fun. I added a few pieces of silver painted cardboard to add more depth to the front of the pieces and I was all done. I also made a sweet ammo/gun crate to go with it all.

Overall, it took me about a week to put it all together from concept to usable pieces. It cost around $50 for all the paint materials and the boxes, well, if you buy some furniture, you get those for free I guess.

Now, it's time to battle!

Jackson Pollack Painting

When I learned about the Jackson Pollock style, I really enjoyed the simple freedom of it. I had seen these works before, but never really understood what they were about or why they were made.



So, after discovering Jackson Pollock in Art History class, I decided to make a work of my own, using the Jackson Pollock style and enlisted the help of my 6 year old son, Ian.

I started out with an old canvas that my son and I created that I wasn't happy with. It was supposed to be a bluff, with forest and stream below, but just wasn't working and I felt like we didn't get the results I was looking for. So, I covered it with thin a layer of white spray paint to give us an even surface to work with and we started our new creation.

Then, we got out a bunch of our acrylic paints, and laid out the canvas in the yard. From then on, it was a free for all. 

We opened acrylics and plashed, swiped, dripped, sprayed, threw and flicked.

Color after color, layer upon layer, we just added more until it looked like a work of art, and you know what? I think it turned out pretty darn good.

Although some of the old image shows through, I think it adds to the variable colors in the piece.

Dadaism and Duchamp

Last semester, when I was researching my short film about Double Exposures. I didn't think I would come across something as fascinating as the spirals by Duchamp.

I also didn't think I would ever do anything with them. But I did. I have been busy with After Effects this semester, doing special FX for my final project. So I took some time to play around with the spirals. This is what I came up with.

As you can see, I got progressively more complex with the rings, and added more and more as I went along. I also got more varied with the way that the spirals were placed.

All in all, I think this turned out pretty well.

Double Exposure Film Experiment

I became fascinated with the double exposure images and experimental photography of the dadaism and surrealism movements this semester. I decided to play around with some of those ideas in a short film I put together for my final project.

First I collected images on a Pinterest board to have some inspiration for the film. That can be found here: http://www.pinterest.com/nodgedafunk/dadaism-in-photography/

The images in the course reading material also inspired me, specifically works by Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray. But the image that gave me the inspiration to work off of as a basis for the concept in my film was this:



Landscape Specimen 004 (Havisu Falls) by Derek Johnston.
His image of Havisu Falls in a glass jug was where I decided to take the direction of my short film.

I began to collect short clips of anything I could find interesting and caught my eye, like roads, landscapes, wildlife, etc. Then I went to Michael's and The Dollar Store and found a bunch of glass bottles of various shapes and sizes. I also borrow some from my friend Jinx Vesco, who had many unusual glass jars. Then I used a black cloth, draped over a stool or chair, and set up some lights to get the effect of the glass on a field of black.

After that, I used After Effects to take out the color and up the contrast. This created a clean piece of glass I could place over the clip I wanted to show inside the glass bottle. Then I set the glass layer to hard light, making it show the layer beneath where there was white (or light sections) and no image where it was black. In a few cases I had to make a mask around the glass to get the effect as well.

I then rendered out each of those clips, and then pieced them together in Premiere into a two minute timeline. Then I found some music to suit my mood and rendered out the final cut.

Before I decided on the glass jars, I tried to play around with double exposures here.

As you can see, it gets a little confusing, and maybe that is alright, but I didn't like it.

This is my finished film:

As you can see, I tried to fit a lot into two minutes, and I believe I was successful in creating something interesting with the images I was able to capture.

Call to Arms

Before this project, I had only played around with some clay or sculpy. I had never taken on a sculpture of any kind or to this level.

How I started:

When I was reading about some of the 19th century sculptures, I was fascinated with "Call to Arms" by Auguste Rodin. The original piece was created between 1912-1918 out of bronze.

Then I collected as many images as I could at http://www.pinterest.com/nodgedafunk/call-to-arms/
The best ones I found of the front and back where from the Philadelphia Museum of Art website.

For my material, I thought I would try to use some pottery clay that I had sitting around in my art supplies, but it wasn't as stable or usable as I'd hoped.

Changing Materials:

I did some research online and had seen a wire frame base that looked like it would work well. So I decided to try that. I also say others using sculpting clay that is easier to work with.

Wire Frame:

I had some soft wire in my art supplies and was able to make a rough form for the skeletons of the two figures in the sculpture.

Plasticine:

Now that had the right material for the job, I started over.

Then I started with a base.

Next I began to apply the clay to the skeleton and piece by piece, they began to take shape.

It was exciting to see them grow up from the base to the wings.

Adding Details:

After I got the form complete, I took to adding details to the faces and wings.

Final Result:

This is what I was able to make on my own from some images I printed out as guides and I'm pretty happy with the results. I believe this project to have taken around 12-15 hours. I would have liked to add a little more detail, but I had too much going on this semester to dedicate more time to this one project.

It has been a wonderful experience and I found that I really like sculpting forms.  I have a greater appreciation for the process now and look forward to making more of my own creations.