Friday, September 2, 2011

Wire Sculptures

It is difficult to photograph these wire sculptures, because a photo doesn't give you the third dimension. Nevertheless I wanted to post a few images here in order to give you a rough idea what these things look like.
I first time I saw wire sculptures was when I visited Milt Kahl and had lunch at his condo near SF. Those things blew me away, Milt Kahl drawings that take up space.
For years I thought, don't even bother to try something like this. But eventually I wondered, what would happen if I do these sculptures MY way.
Milt used soldering to connect pieces of wire, I just made knots to hold them together.
My first two pieces were a small horse and a cow. It got me excited enough to keep going and develop my style into something presentable.

Most of these photos were taken by Hans Bacher, he actually produced a left and right eye slide of the object, and with the help of a sort of a view master  they can still be viewed in 3D.
A lot of these sculptures were part of a charity exhibit at Disney quite a few years ago (my second exhibit at the studio, not the one Miss Audley saw.). The proceeds went to the World Wildlife Fund to help the black rhino from extinction.












40 comments:

  1. These are amazing!. I'd love to see those in the 'real' world... Can they be viewed from every angle?

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  2. Wow, they're just like standing drawings. Brilliant!

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  3. Wow these look pretty amazing. When photographed they almost appear like continuous line drawings from life or something :) I'm particularly in awe of the last one, and the little swirl of water, a really nice touch.

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  4. Man, you didn't need to "keep your day job" these are very nice...i always believed that Disney sucked up a lot of the world's best drawing talent...they just missed locking up Frazetta....they got Paul Felix.

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  5. These are Incredible Andreas! Bravo! The weight, dynamic poses, and the little tidbits like the bird ( heron) on the buffalo's back. I hope you do some "Shows" to Exhibit these soon.

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  6. I still have the horse you made for my wife sitting in a place of honor - as well as the lion you tossed out that you weren't satisfied with, but I sure liked a lot

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  7. Capturing these with the camera doesn't seem an easy task. If we didn't know these were wire sculptures, it'd almost seem like they were line drawings in 3D. Beautiful work.

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  8. OMG Andreas these are STUNNING!!! And I bet in person they would look doubly so!
    Don't suppose you'd ever sell any of these? Probably not but it never hurts to ask haha.

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  9. I remember going to your 1985 wire sculpture show at Disney. It was the end of Tony and my internship at Disney. I was blown away (and still am) by how much they felt like guesture drawings! Incredible Andreas!

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  10. Finnaly! I cvould never find more than two of these wonderful sculptures! Thanks!

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  11. I'm.. I'm stunned. These are beyond amazing!

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  12. Very nice sculpture. Dont cut yourself knotting those sharp ends, eh? :)

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  13. Wow! I could never understand Milt's fascination with wire sculpture, until I read your words. They're like 3D drawings! Amazing stuff.

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  14. Wow! these are amazing! Maybe you can film them on lazy susan as they turn around. That way we can get the full 3D effect.

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  15. David, that's exactly what I was planning to post soon.
    Now, where is that lazy susan....

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  16. The movement conveyed with these is really great, amazing work.

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  17. I really like the hippo and the frog. I did some wire sculpture too, back in University, and I think they stole them. o_O

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  18. Ethereal is the word that comes to mind.

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  19. I once visited Frank Thomas at his home, and he had some wire sculptures in his living room. I didn't ask about them at the time, but could they have come from Milt?

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  20. Andreas, these sculptures are sooo beautiful!! How gorgeous!! I had never seen something like this :D I just looooooooove your blog, thanks so much for sharing with us many of your experiences, I really enjoy reading this page, it is one of my favorites :D

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  21. These are awesome Andreas! I'm curious as to your process. Do you sketch them out first from every angle or do you create one drawing and then figure it out three dimensionally as you sculpt? In any case, I really do love these!

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  22. Hey Andreas

    I've heard about these for years (OK, decades) now but have never actually seen one before. Truly amazing! They really do capture the spirit of your gesture drawings beautifully. I can't wait to see them on film.

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  23. These are great and there are so many little details I'd love to see in 3D! I do hope you get the lazy susan, because I'd love to see them turning!

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  24. wow.... kinda at a loss for anything else to say here... Just really fantastic work..

    P

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  25. Thank you for posting Andreas! I wanted to say thank you again for grabbing lunch with Brian and us interns. It was great meeting and getting to talk to you. It really meant a lot. Looking forward to more posts! :)

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  26. I woke up today with a wild drawing hunger and said: "Hey! How come I've never looked for Andreas in the net since I love his work so much?" And then I discovered you have this blog, mister! I've been reading for nearly 3 hours, checking your art, impressions and stuff... and all I can say is THANK YOU for share and the inspiration refill. :D

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  27. Hey Andreas! I few of my students have commented me about your blog. They are very grateful and excited about all they are learning through your discussions and posts. Thank you for the valuable resource! I do recall the fund raiser for WWF many years ago. I believe we were working on Rescuers Down Under? I hope you are doing well... kind regards,

    Mike Genz

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  28. Awesome. I'd love to learn more about your technique (that is to say... how you approach each piece)!

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  29. Spectacular stuff - as everyone's said here, gesture drawings in 3D! Wonderful concept. I saw the ones you had at the animal drawing exhibit that Bill Stout curated at Forest Lawn a while back - just amazing to see in 'real life'.
    Dean

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  30. Glad to hear it helped a great cause. I love that lion and the horse sculptures.

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  31. Floyd,
    Frank had a wire sculpture of Captain Hook, which I gave him. I don't know of any others.

    Joe,
    I start out with a sketch, just to figure out what kind of a pose I want to do.
    Then I usually try to figure out -on paper- what the head will look like in wire. Once I finished the head in wire, I use one long piece of wire, starting at the back of the head to define the whole body in profile.
    Arms/legs are added, starting around the shoulders.
    It's just following basic anatomy.
    But occasionally I break the rules, because it just might look better or make the sculpture more solid.
    Overall I try to leave out as much as I can, using just enough "lines" to make the object recognizable.
    The viewer's eyes should add the mass which is defined by lines only.

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  32. Absolutely gorgeous.

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  33. Get Hans to post some 3Ds, I've got my glasses ready!

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  34. Where do you get your wire? Also, how hard do you think it'd be to make a stop-motion picture with one or two of these?

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  36. My favorite was the Captain Hook you did for Frank. What an amazing piece that was!

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    1. Thanks, I need to take a look at that one again, to see if it needs any fixing. It has been a while.

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