2D and 3D Final Projects!

After many hours of toil and frustration I have finished two of my final projects. I am always curious to see how many hours go into the pieces I make at RISD but honestly I have no idea. It should be enough to say that in the past week my average bedtime has been 5am. But really the fatigue doesn't matter when you're doing something that truly fascinates you.

In any case, for my 3D project I made a sort of soap box car, loosely based off of a prototype I made earlier in the year. Working on it was a series of failures, redesigns, and reconstructions. I never learned how to use power tools with any semblance of skill, so I used this project as my own personal woodshop class. While the car (working title: rocketcar) didn't turn out like the idealized image I had first envisioned, I am happy with the amount of learning that took place while working on the assignment. I would love to make another soap-box style car again in the summer if I have the time and money.

The rocketcar does not have true axles. In each "axle" there is a five inch lag bolt in the 2x4 where the wheel (plywood) connects. Each wheel therefore rotates independently. The car has steering by means of pushing the front axle with your feet. I unfortunately did not put in any brakes yet, so I won't be flying down College Hill anytime soon -- But the car is functional and I would estimate holds up to 180lb.


I test out the car during crit


Comparison to my early prototype (illustration board)

My 2D project, entitled "Furs," is a short animation based on the concept of climate change. It is comprised of approximately 250 hand drawn and scanned frames on tracing paper. I unfortunately had to put the thing together in iMovie, which probably added at least three hours to the editing time. I started with the idea of animals removing their fur as one would take off articles of clothing. It turned out a lot darker than originally intended, but I suppose that's all you can expect from such a creepy idea.



Still to be completed is my drawing project, art history final, and a research paper for English...But with these two projects out of the way my workload is essentially halved. Maybe I'll get some sleep this week? One can only hope.