Lesson video

Hi, I'm Miss Mia.

I will be guiding you through today's lesson.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Let's get started.

In this lesson, you'll be adding finishing touches to enhance the appearance of your sculpture.

Your key words are on the screen now, and I'd like you to repeat them after me.

Sculpture.

Fantastic.

Refine.

Good job.

Maquette.

Super.

Now let's find out what these words mean.

So, a sculpture is a three-dimensional piece of art made by shaping or combining materials.

Refine, making small changes to improve a piece of art.

Maquette is a small, rough model for sculpture used for planning.

Now, this lesson is all about refining and finishing your creature creations.

There are two lesson cycles in this lesson.

In our first lesson cycle, you'll be refining your sculpture, and then in your second lesson cycle, you'll be evaluating your sculpture.

I hope you're excited about this lesson.

I am.

Let's get started.

Now, you may remember creating a maquette.

A maquette is a small model used to guide a sculptor or artist when creating their final sculpture.

In this lesson, you will use your maquette as a guide to refine your sculpture by strengthening, adding details, and finishing touches.

Izzy and Alex think about ways in which they could refine their sculpture.

"There are so many things we can improve." Alex says, "I think refining our sculpture one step at a time is the best way forward." Hmm, we've got two words here, stability and details.

Now these are the things we are going to be focused on when it comes to refining our sculpture.

Let's start with stability.

Which sculpture is more likely to stand on its own? What do you think? Now there's definitely a difference between the two sculptures.

If we have a look at the base, we can see that one sculpture has a sort of square base attached to it.

I would think that the second sculpture that you see on your screen has more of a chance of standing on its own.

Now, Alex notices his sculpture will not stand on its own.

What advice would you give to Alex? Well, Alex could increase stability by: using a wide base to prevent hipping, placing heavy materials lower down to keep the structure stable.

Now, here are other ways to make sure your sculpture is able to stand on its own.

You could gently test the balance after adding each part to adjust if needed.

You could also add internal supports like wire or sticks for stability.

And try your best to keep both sides evenly weighted.

By doing that, it means your sculpture will hopefully be able to stand on its own and not tip over.

Over to you.

What is the best way to make your sculpture stable? Is it A, use a wide base and distribute weight evenly; B, place all the heavy materials at the top; C, build quickly without testing balance? What do you think? You can pause the video here and click Play when you're ready to rejoin us.

If you've got A, you are correct.

Using a wide base and distributing weight evenly will hopefully keep your sculpture stable.

Let's move on.

Alex has got back with his sculpture.

Izzy says, "Now that we have improved the stability of our sculpture, we can move on." Alex responds, "Remember, we need to make sure our sculpture remains balanced when we add details." So let's move on to details.

Andeep has refined his butterfly.

This is before, and here we have Andeep's refined butterfly.

What changes has Andeep made? Well, you could refine your sculpture by adding details such as: Adding small materials like paper, string or beads.

Adding tissue paper, aluminium foil, or fabric scraps.

You could also use paint or markers for colour and pattern.

Another option is to layer materials.

So by adding layers of different materials such as paper, foil, fabric, or even clay, you can enhance the surface of your sculpture and make it more visually interesting.

For example, you can use thin layers of tissue paper to build up the texture of skin or fur, or use paper to create smooth flowing lines and shapes.

Each layer can also be used to refine the structure of the sculpture, adding bulk where needed or smoothing out uneven areas.

Layering materials not only improve the look and feel of the sculpture, but also helps with stability as it can strengthen weak sections and ensure a more durable, finished piece.

It's really up to you.

As an artist, you have to decide what materials or what mark making tools you'll use to enhance your sculpture.

Over to you.

Look at your sculpture.

I'd like you to discuss with a partner what you might refine.

Are you going to focus on stability or are you going to focus on the details? It really depends on the stage your structure is at.

If you find that your structure keeps tipping over, it might be best to focus on stability first.

We'll pause the video here and click Play to move on.

So what did you discuss? Well, remember with stability, your sculpture should stand on its own and parts should not fall off when moved.

And the point of adding details is to make features like eyes or textures more realistic.

So having looked at your sculpture, what did you pick to make look more realistic and how might you do so? This will help improve the overall appearance of smoother edges or added decoration.

Let's move on.

One, strengthening your structure.

I'd like you to identify areas where your sculpture may feel weak or unbalanced.

Likely to use additional materials like gum tape, cardboard, or glue to make your structure more stable.

Two, adding details.

Think about how to make features like eyes or textures more realistic.

Think about how you could improve the overall appearance with smoother edges or added decoration.

You can pause the video here.

Off you go, and click Play when you're ready to rejoin us.

So how did you do? Well, you may have refined your sculpture by: Adding small materials like paper or beads to give it a more realistic look.

Attaching tissue paper or fabric scraps to create texture.

Using paint for adding colours and patterns.

Well done if you were able to refine your sculpture.

This part can always be a little bit tricky because we might not always wanna refine our sculpture thinking that we are changing all of it, but actually by doing so, we're creating a sculpture that, A, can stand in its own, and B, looks realistic.

Let's move on.

Now we're gonna evaluate our sculpture.

Artists might evaluate their sculpture by comparing it to their maquette.

And here on the screen, we can see the maquette for butterfly.

And here's our sculpture.

Now, artists do this to check if the proportions, structure, and key details match their original plan.

Remember that the sculpture doesn't have to be an identical copy of the maquette.

The maquette is only a guide for the sculpture.

Artists often make creative adjustments as they work, so your final sculpture may have changed from your early plan.

Use your maquette as a guide and focus on whether your sculpture is stable and check if it includes the key features.

Over to you.

When evaluating a sculpture, what should you focus on? Is it A, the sculpture must be an identical copy of the maquette; B, the sculpture should match the maquette as a guide, but some changes are okay; or C, the sculpture only needs to look colourful? What do you think? You'll pause the video here and click Play when you've got the answer.

So what did you get? If you got B, you are correct.

The sculpture should match the maquette as a guide, but some changes are okay.

Andeep and Alex are evaluating their sculpture.

Alex compares his maquette for his sculpture.

Alex says, "I think the wings on my butterfly are the right size, but the body is a bit smaller than in my maquette." Andeep and Alex now move on to evaluating the stability of their sculpture.

Alex says, "The structure is stable and the wings are securely attached to the body." Finally, they move on to evaluating the details of their sculpture.

Alex says, "The details look good.

I changed my original plan by adding buttons to decorate and add texture." Over to you.

True or false? When discussing the details of a sculpture, it's important to focus on features like textures and shape.

What do you think? Is that true or is that false? You could pause the video here and click Play when you've got the answer.

So, how did you do? Well, if you got true, you're correct.

Discussing the details helps make the sculpture more realistic and interesting, focusing on elements like texture and shape.

Well done if you've got that correct.

Let's move on.

Here, we've got our sculpture of the butterfly.

Hmm, what would you suggest Andeep and Alex can improve? Alex and Andeep think about what they might do differently next time they make a sculpture.

Andeep says, "I think the wings could have more patterns and colours." Alex says, "We could add legs to make it look more realistic." To you.

True or false? All parts of the sculpture must be detailed.

Is this true or is this false? Pause the video here and click Play when you've got the answer.

So how did you do? If you got false, well done.

It's better to focus on key features like the face, wings, or textures, rather than decorating every part.

This keeps your design clear and makes your creature stand out.

Andeep and Alex look at the artwork that Izzy and Sam have made.

Andeep gives feedback as he describes what he likes about the design.

"I really like how the wings turned out.

They look like they're ready to flap." Alex and Andeep give feedback by saying how the artwork might be improved.

Andeep says, "Next time, you could try adding more colour, maybe by using tissue paper around the body." Says, "You can improve your design by adding more fabric strips to the wings." To you.

When giving feedback on a sculpture, what should you focus on? Is its A, just how colourful and refined it is; B, whether the sculpture is stable and improves on the maquette; or C, how quickly it was made? What do you think? Is it A, B, or C? You can pause the video here And click Play when you've got the answer.

So how did you do? If you got B, you're correct.

You could focus your feedback on whether the sculpture is stable and improves on the maquette.

Let's move on.

This is the main task for this lesson cycle.

So, one, you're gonna evaluate your own artwork.

You could write a sentence on a sticky note.

I used in my sculpture and it helped me.

I think my sculpture shows because.

Next time, I will try to, to make my sculpture more colourful.

You could use the sentence starters to help you evaluate your work.

Two, discuss a friend's artwork and give them feedback.

You could use these sentence stems to help you.

I really enjoy the way you.

Your artwork makes me feel.

Your artwork looks because.

I think you could try next time.

I noticed that you.

You can pause the video here.

Off you go.

And click Play when you're ready to rejoin us.

So how did the evaluating go? You might have evaluated your own design by saying, I used a wide range of fabrics in my sculpture and it helped me to show the different textures of my bird.

Or you may have said something along the lines of, I think my sculpture shows the different colours that an octopus can be because I used purple, brown, pink, and orange.

Next time, I would try to use more tissue paper to make my sculpture more colourful.

Part two, you might have given your friend this type of feedback.

So Izzy says, "The body is the right size, but I think you could add more texture to make it look like it has fur." Andeep says, "The wings on the butterfly look great, but the body is too small.

You could make it bigger so it's more balanced." Alex says, "I think you could try adding more natural colours to make it more lifelike." Fantastic, we've made it to the end of this lesson.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Let's summarise our learning for today.

So in today's lesson, you are refining and finishing your sculpture of your creature.

You should now be able to use tools, paint, or additional materials to refine your sculpture.

This adds realism, texture, and character to your sculpture.

You understand that you can adjust and strengthen the sculpture structure by securing joints and balancing weight.

And lastly, comparing your final sculpture to your maquette helps to reflect on what worked well and what could be improved.

Thank you so much for joining me in this lesson.

I you really enjoyed it, and I look forward to seeing you in the next one.

Bye.