Sculptural Letters – Initials
Advanced Placement Art
3D Design - Career Center – Beard
Due Date: Friday, September 6
Objective: In this lesson plan, students design and construct a 3-dimensional letter sculpture using
their own initials or the initials of someone influential in their lives. The surface will be decorated
with descriptive words, objects and images that are personally meaningful and unique to the student’s
identity or the identity of the person chosen. Final projects can be presented as sculptures in the
round, wall mounted sculptures, or hanging sculptures.
Process
1. Design the shape of a letter on drawing paper using a
pencil. The letter should be a minimum of 2” thick in
all areas, but may be up to 14” x 22” in overall size. Cut
the letter out and use it as a pattern to trace onto both
mat board pieces, then cut out.
2. Take one mat board letter, right-side-up and glue paper
cups onto it, staggering them up and down so the cups fit
together (see image on right).The more cups used, the stronger
the letter will be. Allow glue to dry until tacky (or longer),
then glue the top letter in place, being careful to align it with the
bottom letter. Allow to dry completely.
3. Dampen a sponge and place it onto a plate. Cut paper
tape into a variety of lengths. Dampen the adhesive on the
tape and press an end on the top side. Smooth gently around
and adhere it to the back side. Continue until all surfaces
are completely covered with at least two layers of paper tape.
Apply the tape as smoothly as possible, avoiding excessive
overlapping. The letter will look like the “D” to the right.
4. As an option, apply two coats of acrylic gesso to make
the surface white and help seal any edges. Allow the gesso
to dry between coats.
5. Embellish the surface of the letter with descriptive words,
textures, colors, images and symbols that are meaningful to
the subject's personal identity. Some options for surface
decoration include:
Drawing: Coating the packing tape with acrylic gesso will create
a smooth, white surface for drawing with colored pencils or markers.
Collage: Collect photos, magazine cutouts, colorful paper,
tissue and more. Apply the decoupage-style to the surface
of the letter. Gesso is not needed as a primer for this technique.
You will use gel medium here as an adhesive. I will demonstrate this.
Painting: Priming the surface with gesso first will make colors brighter and easier to apply. Use
acrylic or premium-grade tempera colors to create designs.
Metallic/Gel Architectural Letter: Working on one side of the letter at a time, use a plastic knife or
craft stick to spread gel medium to about 1/16" thickness across the surface. Use paint scrapers,
modeling tools and other items to create words, textures and designs in the gel. Gel will appear white
when wet but will be clear when dry. After all sides of the letter are textured and dry, paint them with
black acrylic paint and allow them to dry. Sponge metallic color over the black paint.
Adding other textures and elements of relief. This technique will allow you to create raised
elements and textures on your letters. Many different objects can be used to create relief areas such as
cut board, twisted toilet paper/newspaper, found objects, yarn/twine, etc… I will demonstrate some of
the possibilities for this technique.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Preliminary Work: This must be done and presented to me before you can start on your final piece.
1. Decide on whose initials you are going to use. Write them down and start thinking about what
font style would best represent the person you chose and their personality.
2. Make a list of important attributes or interesting facts about your person. Why is this person so
special or intriguing to you? You want to relay these ideas to your viewer through successful
visual descriptions of these characteristics. This will help you think of descriptive ideas to add to
your letters. (For example, if you chose a musician as your influential person, you may collect
artifacts such as sheet music, guitar strings, guitar picks, song lyrics, concert tickets, images of
the musician, etc…..)
3. Now you are ready to design your sculpture. You must first consider the person or subject of your
work. Is this person bold and severe or are they happy-go lucky with a bubbly personality. These
cues should inform you as to what type of font style and size letters you will choose to use for
your letters.
4. HOMEWORK: Create thumbnail sketches of at least three different designs involving your
letters/initials. Make sure that the placement of every letter contributes to the balance of space
and creation of visual movement in your composition. Print the font styles that you have chosen
on a separate sheet of paper. Make the font size 100 and always keep this sheet with you while
creating your sculpture. Bring in sketches, references, photos and any other resources or artifacts
that will help develop the most descriptive sculpture based around your subject.
5. We will begin making the sculptures tomorrow after I have had a chance to review your
ideas with you in a quick one-on-one mini-conference. Have your ideas, references and
sketches organized when you come in the door. You may be the first person I call on.