Armature
When thinking about what sort of armature I could make there were only a few options that I could consider that would be sturdy enough to hold the weight of the limbs and stay stable. Metal was then the most obvious choice and after doing intensive research into what other people have used and recommended I came to the conclusion of pipes. After seeing an artist years ago use steel pipes for her huge sculptures I thought I could do just the same. Having not worked with metal in a while and time getting shorter I decided on the quick option of using copper pipe and compression joints. and after watching a few plumbing videos on how they actually work and fit together I am very confident that it would work given the right measurements.
Beth Cavener - Beth creates large animal sculptures using clay and a steel pipe armature underneath. She explains that it takes her 1-2 weeks to design a well thought out armature in order to allow the most dynamic range of gesture and expression. Using steel pipes ensures the armature will not collapse under the weight of the clay.
After a few hours and pennies spent in B&Q the armature has started to come together. Using a blown up image of my drawing I was able to draw out the placement of the piping and corresponding joints for maximum stability and ability to disconnect and reconnect in order to allow for the limbs to be removable. Below shows the process I went through to fix the armature together:
Base
The base is comprised of a slab of dense heavy foam to act as stable ground for the sculpture above and using a simple system of metal rods embedded into the base and secured, the copper pipe armature will slide over slotting into place.
Not wanting the base to be a singular plain colour I had several designs to choose from, concrete, half concrete half tarmac, or all tarmac. I have chosen these designs because in the scene which I chose for the sculpture she is standing on a road. Tarmac has been used on roads since 1902 and so I thought it best to use on top of a concrete texture block to add a little colour and texture difference.
Plaque
I designed the plaque by putting together the unique colours of Ponyo's hair and the illustrations from the title sequence of Ponyo. I did this in order to incorporate more of the film’s imagery into the base which doesn't have much colour or detail. My original design of the plaque incorporated an art nouveau style border which reminded me of the fantasy genre, especially Ponyo because its all about a magical fish, however in my final design I decided against this as Ponyo's animation is more simplistic and so I wanted to match that same theme with a more simplistic frame.
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