Criteria:
- Complete all the design steps (practice landscape, sketches, final design layers, and sawing practice)
- Create a design with a defined foreground, middle ground, and background – 3 layers with optional Plexiglas layer to add color to the shadow box
- Each layer is visually interesting (no big open or solid spaces)
- Activate the sense of depth with recession, overlapping, and scale changes
- Consider how all three layers will align and work together to create a unified sense of a shadowy world.
Terms & Techniques You Should Know
Aluminum- Grey brittle metal, that cannot be soldered. Melts at 1221 degrees.
• Positive Shape-the object itself, in this project the positive shapes will be metal and must all connect to each other and the border.
• Negative Shape- the area around to object, in this project the negative shapes will drop out and be open to reveal the layers beneath.
• Contour lines- the defined edges between positive and negative shapes, in this project the contour lines will be where you cut. Careful to erase all extra lines so you don’t accidentally cut them.
• Foreground-objects are close and appear larger with more detail (vertical elements usually touch the top and bottom of the composition)
• Middle Ground- the area between the foreground and the background, less detailed object that are smaller in scale than in the foreground.
• Background- far in the distance, where the sky meets the earth – more generalized shapes with less detail
• Overlapping- one item sitting in front of another object
• Scale changes- items getting smaller towards the background
• Spatial Recession (Perspective)- moving towards the middle of the composition with a horizon line
• Know the proper way to drill a hole through metal (Center Punch & Drill- see video notes)
• Saw Frame & Blade (know the proper way to hold the blade and best practices for sawing- see video notes)
• Know the proper way to assemble the layers (similar to setting a rivet- see video notes)
• Positive Shape-the object itself, in this project the positive shapes will be metal and must all connect to each other and the border.
• Negative Shape- the area around to object, in this project the negative shapes will drop out and be open to reveal the layers beneath.
• Contour lines- the defined edges between positive and negative shapes, in this project the contour lines will be where you cut. Careful to erase all extra lines so you don’t accidentally cut them.
• Foreground-objects are close and appear larger with more detail (vertical elements usually touch the top and bottom of the composition)
• Middle Ground- the area between the foreground and the background, less detailed object that are smaller in scale than in the foreground.
• Background- far in the distance, where the sky meets the earth – more generalized shapes with less detail
• Overlapping- one item sitting in front of another object
• Scale changes- items getting smaller towards the background
• Spatial Recession (Perspective)- moving towards the middle of the composition with a horizon line
• Know the proper way to drill a hole through metal (Center Punch & Drill- see video notes)
• Saw Frame & Blade (know the proper way to hold the blade and best practices for sawing- see video notes)
• Know the proper way to assemble the layers (similar to setting a rivet- see video notes)