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and with that, the 2025-2026 season finally comes to an end

materials: DSM 5 pages. staples

processes: weavinggggg

framing: linear

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is this an improvement idkkkk

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my phone camera locked in who cheered

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the brain

doesn't really look like a brain tbh

materials: dsm-5 pages, glue, ink, cardboard, tape, water

processes: made the brain, paper-mached pages onto it

framing: angular to show disbalance/assymetry

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okay sooooo. maybe we're going to make a giant blanket and then hold it up just under our eyes or smth

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for slide

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bulletin board. let's do it. took me long enough.

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Final photograph coming tonight; submitting this just in case (also, I do intend on it being in my final portfolio so...)

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so take a cardboard and fold it to make like a triangle pattern sorta. and then make two arts with pill bottles and then cut em up and put one on one side and the other on the other and one is like a healthy before spiral and one is after or like smth.

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i swear it's done i just haven't photographed it (so it's technically not done uhhhh)

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lowkey i feel like the quality is...off...

materials: medicine bottles, wire, hot glue

process: followed a tutorial to make a body out of wire, then posed it to make it look like it's doing a balancing act of sorts with the botle (and failing, as evidenced by the dropped items). proof that people say they have it under control, but alas.

framing: triangular? idk lowkey

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this is an alternate. there are more. I don't like any of them :(

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also remember to buy the medicine capsules

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This wire figure sculpture lesson is one of my favorite lessons of all time. It is engaging, challenging, and allows for students to explore personal expression. The artist connections are endless, and using the human body as a subject allows students to explore what it means to be human.

Do you have a short attention span like me? This quick video will give you a 35 second snapshot of this technique.

This full length tutorial will walk you through everything we do for this wire figure sculpture. It is classroom and Canvas ready, and my students use it frequently to review steps as they work.

Materials for Wire Sculpting

Buying the right wire will make the creating process more enjoyable. I have added a link to my favorite wire that I order from Blick Art materials. Pliers can make life a little easier, but I tend to mostly work without them. I cut the wire about a yard (both of your arms outstretched) for students to use at a time with just a heavy duty pair of scissors. If you cut too long of a piece, it can be really frustrating for students to wrap around their body parts. They seem to find it easier to just add more wire at key points instead of using one or two really long pieces.

I like to use a hand held staple gun to attach the wire sculptures to the base. The staples make it secure and balanced and I love how finished the painted wood looks. I have a woodshop at my school and scraps are easy to come by. I have also used thick foam board and styrofoam in a pinch, but wood is my preference

Understanding Proportion

We start this unit by discussing human proportion and anatomy. Depending on the grade and ability level of the class, I will either have them draw the human body using references or we will trace a reference image in our sketchbooks. This will be used as a guide as they sculpt and as we draw/trace we discuss the key aspects of human anatomy. There are tons of guides and visuals on the internet for free. I am not going to add the one I've been using because it is not my original material and I have been too busy/lazy to make one of my own!

Gesture and Movement

I have also incorporated live gesture drawing after the previous proportion discussion. Again, it just depends on time constraints and whether it is an intro 3D Design course or a more advanced sculpture class. Another option is to have students copy gestures sketches in their sketchbook to get their brains thinking about how the human body moves and how that can express emotion.

Wire Figure Artist Inspiration

I like to teach using essential questions, and I will often ask my students to explore the question "What is it like to be a young person in the 21st century?" as inspiration for their sculptures. We look at sculptures by Elizabeth Catlett, Alexander Calder and Alberto Giacometti and discuss how their artwork is influenced by the time period in which it was created. I recently discovered artist Barbara Licha and I love how her wire figure sculptures occupy space with wire. Leslie Dill is another artist that is super inspirational and the meaning behind her work makes wonderful cross curricular connections. There are unlimited artists that sculpt the human figure and students always appreciate the challenge of representing the human form.

Time to Sculpt!

This free illustrated guide will help break down each part of the body. It is really helpful for students who want to work more independently, missed instruction or struggled during the live demo.

Students can feel a little nervous about wire sculpting, especially when creating something as recognizable as the human figure. We start out together and I demonstrate step by step using my beloved Elmo document camera. Ten years ago, before I had the love of my life, I would walk around the room holding up my wire sculpture like a game show hype girl. We start with the head and wrap 2-3 times creating an oval. Every student will be slightly different, but I try to get them to work on a similar scale.

Next is the torso. We reference our proportion guide and sculpt about twice the length of the head creating a triangle. It is important to loop wire securely two to three times to create a tight knot. If the wire slides around too much the body will lose it's form.

Next is the pelvic girdle, which may be my least favorite word combination of all time. I call it the Batman Bikini because it gets a laugh from my students and immediately puts a visual in their head. We are talking about the crotch and the butt, so coming at it confidently with humor before the teenage mind gets there first puts me in control of the conversation. This area students tend to struggle with once we move down to the legs. It is a triangle just like the torso, but half the size. It needs to be the same length and approximate scale as the head.

Now that the upper body is complete, it is time to work down one leg at a time. I either travel from the point of the triangle down or the hip down to the foot. We get out rulers and measure from the top of our head to the hip (wide part of the triangle) of the Batman Bikini. Believe it or not, and many students do not, the hip to the foot is half of our bodies. It seems wild that our legs make up so much of our frame, but here we are.

This is a key proportion point in the sculpture and I make sure to visually check each one. Students will often make their legs much shorter. I will ask "Did you measure?" and I emphasize the importance of checking the length before moving on to the next step. It is really frustrating to unwrap wire and backtrack, trust me! I've had many personal wire fails.

Proportion Checks

Sometimes students will doubt the proportion to the point of making their legs too short even after demonstrating and checking their proportion guides in their sketchbooks. Some will say "Well, my sculpture is sitting down so the legs are shorter." Which is a great segue to discussing how your skeleton won't change no matter what position your body is in.

This is also a great opportunity to discuss body standards humans have imposed on ourselves. We discuss what it means to be able bodied and how proportion can vary from person to person. I grew up with a disabled parent, and watching my dad navigate the world as an "in-valid" (this is the term he coined for himself when he had to use a wheelchair) made me hyper aware of body sensitivities. Exploring deformity, disability and acceptance of our bodies is a huge theme in my personal art. I want students to be able to challenge what we accept as normal and be aware of how our own bodies navigate in the world.

If I have demonstrated and discussed and a student still is stuck on the topic, I will just say "Okay" and move on. The best way for students to learn is to do it themselves and make mistakes. If they see everyone else's sculpture resembling an accurate skeletal frame and theirs looks a little off, they will usually come to the realization on their own (eventually).

After the length of the leg is measured, we make a small loop to create a foot and wrap it around the ankle 2-3 times. Next we travel to the halfway point of the leg, using our proportion guides, and loop 2-3 times to create the knee. Finally we attach to the pelvic girdle at either the point of the triangle in the center. It depends on where your wire started the leg. It should be thick and resemble a thigh. Sometimes students have just one leg starting and finishing at the point of the triangle. This is what I call uni-leg syndrome and will need to be adjusted before creating the other leg.

This is a satisfying part for students, because they can often make their sculpture stand on it's on two feet (see what I did there). Depending on where the wire ends, we travel back through the waist and torso to create the arms. I recommend looping wire at each key point. It is important to remind students that after we make the skeleton we will bulk them up with muscle mass so this is beginning this process. We usually loop around the waist and either the neck or one side of the large triangle that makes the torso.

I have to remind students at this point not to overwrap their wire around the same areas. For example if you always wrap around the neck, the neck will become overly bulky. Balance is key!

We then move back through the pelvis and torso and loop to create the shoulder and arms. We loop our wire through the wide part of one side of the triangle and loop the hand around mid thigh.

Loop once at the halfway point and then connect to the triangle a little lower than the shoulder. You can create more or less bulk depending on how muscular you want your sculpture to look.

Adding Form and Musculature

After you have your basic skeletal outline, we move on to creating 3D form by looping a series of wire to each body part. I tell students to loop once or twice to each joint as they move around the body. I personally think the torso is the easiest place to start. The head is a little tricky, I tell students it should resemble a whisk or a beach ball. I prefer the look of longer vertical loops instead of really tight circular coils, but to each their own. Some students just two or three vertical loops to each body part and some add a bit more. It depends on their personal style and preference

At this point, students are much more comfortable with the material and work independently. Just like with any other technique, some students whiz through the steps and others stare blankly at their wire as if it's a foreign language. (Which visual art is for most students, right?)

I have not made an illustrated guide for this step yet because....laziness? Procrastination? I will do a live demo and also show clips of my detailed video tutorial around the 10:35 minute mark.

Once their sculptures start becoming more 3D, we return to the discussion of expression. We have looked at many different figure sculptors at this point and have discussed themes through daily art history warm-ups using the artists listed in the beginning of this post.

It is so fun to watch students explore their own experiences and use the human body to portray emotion and mood. Their wire sculptures are so easy to move into multiple positions so they can decide which conveys their idea the strongest.

This short video about Rodin's The Thinker is a great prompt to get students thinking about expression through the human body.

Once the pose is decided, we get out the staple gun and start attaching to our wooden bases. I like for students to paint their bases first, and we reserve a little paint to touch up staples so they don't stand out or blend in with the wire. This is such a fun moment to see their sculpture fully formed and fully balanced.

Here is the latest rubric I've used for this assignment. It's not perfect, but it helps students understand their objectives and it fits my district's grading practices.

This is a tough assignment in many ways, but it has one of my best outcomes out of all of my sculpture lessons. Fighting with wire can be challenging as is understanding and applying typical human proportion. Expressing personal experience can be tricky for young artists at first, but I find that students rise to the occasion and their personal expression blossoms as they work.

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Wire Figure Sculpture - THAT ART TEACHER

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This wire figure sculpture lesson is engaging, challenging, and allows for students to explore personal expression.

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for writings

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I combined process photos and a final piece for this one. Ehh.

materials: clear plastic, acrylic paint, & medicine bottles

processes: painted with pill bottles & acrylic paint

framing: sure

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Reference for brain: https://wfneurology.org/activities/news-events/archived-news/2022-04-28-uva

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UvA scientists create highly detailed 3D reconstruction of a human brain

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A team led by scientists from the University of Amsterdam, have combined MRI and microscopy to produce 3D images of two entire brains with a previously unmatched level of detail. Their findings have been published in the journal Science Advances.

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idk,,,,,,

i was trying to go for a knight's helmet as protection, but while the prop is fine (potential edit: airbrush some dark gray paint for shadows?), the lighting and camera work isn't. more thought required for the final piece, but this isn't awful,,,,

materials: cardboard, masking tape, aluminum foil

process: cardboard base; attach foil to it via tape

potential framing: circular- might need people to reach out and pull off the mask (ask anavi and hari during class if they can help with that part maybe?)

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buy pill cases and make a Guy out of them. yippieeeee

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can we tie this back to paranoia. we've gone too far I think?

use the medicine bottles to . idk. make prints or something.

maybe paint a portrait of someone using the medicine bottle. on something 3d. idk.

maybe something transparent and just layer it over in different colors? oohhhh.

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(✿◡‿◡)

a book cover for realsies. mightttt add the hands to this because i ;pve me a good vertical photo. that being said i won't do it anytime soon!1!!1 (lazy)

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it's giving book cover. ok?

materials: clay. hot glue. standard photography equipment.

process: there's a whole SI about this. i made circles out of clay. rolled them into logs and then shaped and smoothened. uh. let dry, cracked a little and repaired with hg. practiced rings: ended up lopsided and too thin.

framing: erm. it's lowkey like. triangular? is there a vision? ot radiating, in a sense. kinda. not really.

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evil brain that's cardboard and paper mache dsm-5. left out to the rain and wind and whatnot. put in on the porch and weigh it down with rocks idkkkkkk. let it die. over time. and then photograph it.

^ can replace an old SI mayhaps

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Question as of rn: How does paranoia cause hyper-vigilance and eventually, self-destruction?

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Feedback as comments on this post!!!

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progress photos so far- probably will include in final project.

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SELF-REFLECTION:

Inquiry Question: How does paranoia cause hyper-vigilance and eventually, misery?

Shown in pieces 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8

Meaningful Materials: Plastic layers (Saran wrap/plastic sheets), coffee grounds, & pill bottles

Shown in pieces 2, 3, 4, 5, 7

Practice/Revision: In SI 9, which is a progress photo, I show my first attempt at making a ring versus my semi-final one. In addition, SI 3 builds on SI 2 by adding blood-stains to the piece. SI 7 is also an addition to SI 6; I added clear layers and drew upon it.

Experiments: I'm working with rain in SI 9; I previously experimented with mirrors and coffee!

Greatest Strengths: I think my lighting and composition is really strong in my photography.

Support Needed: I'd owe you my life if you could suggest me meaningful materials and project ideas!!!!

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done ig

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okay see this isn't that bad. lots of editing in this piece, as is for any other piece but ESPECIALLy this piece. digitally spliced them and also removed background and probably added gradients but I cna't remember

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i don't really like it but ok. I do have an alt. for this piece. will post it after. not sure if i'll use either. could just photograph my process tbh. but given that the other piece similar to this is a collage idk if it'd be a smart idea.

materials: posca, foam board, thin plastic idk what it's called. tape and hot glue

process: carved lines into base, hot glued on side panels. painted it all black. drew furniture on plastic. cut them out & taped them together for final pieces; attached into room w/ tape.

framing: nonexistent. in hindsight that's probably why I dislike this piece.

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how have I done SI 7 before 6. what is my process.

materials: foam board. hot glue. nails. posca. like a lot of posca. cannot stress how much posca. plastic NEW! plastic (roof). also ink! yippeee!

process: so I took SI 6, which doesn't yet exist. and I. went crazy. crazy? I was crazy once. they put me in a room. a rubber room. a rubber room with rats. rats make me crazy.

framing: I! don't! know! I just photographed! I will say that some of the photos look vaguely angular. like sauntering vaguely downwards.

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Reflection (for me)

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Drop feedback as comments on this post tysm <3

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not done yet: it's the thingy sitting by the laptop :(

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EVIL si5 that HATEs me and wants me to SUFFER forever. because it SUCKS. btw.

materials: idk. canvas. clay. white paint. hot glue at one point because the clay broke off the thingy. attempted to use ink and coffee. no comment.

process: yes.

framing: well it was SUPPOSED to be diagonal and stuff when it was tilted and photographed right. however the world is evil and hates me specifically. <- fancy way of saying idk

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addendum: process photos

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+process photos

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will add thoughts and commentary and other pic later

materials: pill bottle, air dry clay, Posca, assorted paper types, fountain pens, hot glue (for making the pill bottle +paper) black paper, mirrors, lamp (for staging)

process: you tell me. made clay thingies and put them in bottle. experimented with fountain pens on paper types to record facts about benzodiazepines (?) and alprazolam overdose. staged it surrounded by mirrors and photographed. edited on Canva to put on background and add gradient

framing: can I call this radiating. i'm not quite sure

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Question as of now:

How do people's defenses from a world where paranoias are reality spiral out of control?

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crushed Tylenol in painting

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shout out to hari for modeling and absolutely devouring this!!!!! anyways. umbrella

materials: plastic, tape, wire, the circle tape rolls in the center of the roll. hot glue

process: idk i was not conscious during it /silly. uhhhh i made wire triangles and taped plastic on and prayed

framing: angular my beloved <3

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Improve art skills w/ focus on:

- clear composition

- clear lighting source

- more texture

- layering

- dynamic angles

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My pieces explore fear, hyper-vigilance and self-defense. I explored over-protective responses to amplified potential worst case scenarios in everyday life.

(magnified, hyper-vigilance - fears/ paranoia were justified - worst case scenario actually happened, protection)

- be okay with the question changing over time as long as the central idea remains the same

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installation

how can a space/ room be your canvas

scene of protection, bars on windows, use silhouettes

fear

monsters, heights, spiders, dark, unclean areas, quiet, abandoned, scale

amplifying - use repetition, scale, obscure

contrast/ tension

repitition (ears)

silhouette, negative space, about removing pieces

Broken ( 2 states)

hyper-vigilance/self-defense

Layers/ Covering/ Obscure

2 perspectives/ same subject

mask/ layers/ peeling back

weapons/ armor

locks

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- Consider documenting practice/ planning in sketchbook

- think about how you would make a revision on each piece and show them together - digital layering can be revised easily (photos)

- think of submitting pieces as multiple versions (a vs b) (series over time)

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FROM KAYLEE:

What I like most about your sustained investigation question is:

I like how you can really relate to the themes of paranoia and how the vibe of your question and pieces can be easily understood by the audience

You could expand this idea by exploring:

Ways in which you can imply a feeling caused by your theme, like bugs for a creepy crawly feeling or a maze for a trapped with nowhere to go kind of feeling. You could also look at cases where people lost their mind. You could also look at crossing the line of obsession

You could make this idea more specific by focusing on:

Making it focused on the general people, or a certain group?

One way to experiment with materials and processes related to your question is:

String, clay, perspective in which the drawing itself moves or the audience moves

An artist, material or technique you should check out is:

Cameras, recordings, video tapes

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FROM STEPH:

What I like most about your sustained investigation question is:

I like the two “what if” questions because it really feels like an exploration of sorts

You could expand this idea by exploring:

The paranoia that would come with the world being out to get you, or conspiracies being real.

You could make this idea more specific by focusing on:

Same with the paranoia

One way to experiment with materials and processes related to your question is:

This is more staging but if you’re doing 3d then playing with distance and having creatures or whatever is after you kinda far in the background like looming over.

An artist, material or technique you should check out is:

For sure cameras that would be so cool

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"what if the world really was out to get you"

things that go bump in the night

Material suggestions: Camera parts!!!, fake bugs?

Ideas for another piece: Immortal Snail, shivers down my spine (spiders)

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"what if the wildest conspiracies were actually true?"

moving everything over here to make myself happy. um. not much to say here but to trust the process.

Material suggestions: security cameras, shifting angle paintings

Ideas for another piece: Flat Earth, UFOs

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"how can I show figurative language literally through art?"

you know this one- the walls are listening

Material suggestions: clay

Ideas for another piece: I’m all ears, need a hand, I got your back, eyes in the back of your head

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this piece is a physical story of hubris. it started off so well. and then i attempted to photograph it.

materials: cardboard <3, acrylic paint, hot glue, string, and tape. so much tape.

process: i x-actoed the cardboard based on vibes. taped it together with joy. painted it cautiously. attempted to attach the stand- mistake one. with hot tape- eventually switched to hot glue. photographed Hari looking at it

framing: diagonal and somehow circular? idk how the bg factors into this.

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Try playing more with materials like cloth, aluminum, and plastic. Dark rooms? Shattered glass?

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how is this my second year in ap art and my first revision omg. shout out to hari again!!!!

materials: si2 + acrylic paint.

process: mix together colors to look like blood; flick on with paintbrush. also coat hand in it and smear yayayay

framing: framed!!!!!