Creating Form: Delineating Space & Defining Form

After the creation of the 6'' extruded letterforms, the class began the sketching and construction of 12" distorted letterforms. With this project, I wanted to really distort the letter while keeping the form recognizable. Because of this, I chose to explore the uppercase Futura letter "X". I also chose it due to its potential for movement within a static object. My desire is for the form to be seen as three-dimensional on two basic levels. The first being that it is an obvious three-dimensional, distorted extrusion. The second, standing completely in front of the form, one should see, through the slant of the "X", the illusion of a three-dimensional form as if it were to appear on a two-dimensional drawing/sketch.

With the given specifications of a minimum of 12" height and 4" depth, I started my construction with the height of 15" on the second diagonal (right). However, this made the fir

st diagonal (left) reach a height of 6" which didn't exactly fit the requirements. In the midst of the

basic construction, I decided to enlarge the letter to 12" on the first diagonal and the second to 37". (Not an equal increment due to the distortion). I used foam core as the base for the front and back and the support of the structure with bristol

lining the sides. For weighting I used pennies on the left second diagonal and right fir

st diagonal. After the glue had set, I used spackle

to fill in the edges and cracks. After a good amount of sanding, I covered the letter with a coat of white spray paint. The paint covered the form with a common white but, because o

f the thick application, created drips that made another long round of sandi

ng necessary. Throughout the construction, I learned spackle can be an evil enemy if applied too thick to fill in large cracks and, even when sanded, doesn't disappear (this is a definite critique on my craft). However, I am happy with my decision to enlarge the "X" and the letterform as a whole.

I started the documentation creating oppositional pairs using both the "X" and "z" letters, however, I realized today in our process critique that it was only contrast photographs of the 12" object. I took more photos today that fulfilled the requirements (see next post).