Week #8 rockin thru the pages

sketches-anatomy of a watch

Detail from "Retro Rocker"

   This has been a long stretch of one sculptural project after another with sketching as the only saving grace that has made the work successful. Because I have had so much to work out on paper before I was able to move forward with confidence, I have invested many a pages in the sketchbook on this one.
   It began with drawing the chair (repeatedly) to get a feel of it's base design (circular/curves and spokes) so that I could incorporate the original motif into its transformation (cogs and gears). Then there were a few drawings of the chair trying different ideas so that I could eliminate that which was clogging the clear concepts and troubleshoot the ideas that had merit. Once I got the general theme then I began sketches on the graphic elements like the seat's record label, mocked up from the original 45 from which it is suggested. Afterwards the cog parts needed to be fully understood before I had the confidence to do the two watch like hand inserts above and below the clock face on the back support. In researching I found watch repair instructions which included photos of areas of adjustments in a watch. Furthermore I have two pocket watches with cut away faces or open backs which reveal the mechanics of a watches interior. I did 4 pages of drawings (just on the inner workings of a watch) before I got a rhythm of how the cogs/gears worked and were laid out. Although I did not intend to build a functional mechanism nor an example verbatim within the back support's (what looks like) watch bands, I did feel like it needed the understanding (from all my sketches) to translate to a believable area that reads "working mechanics". Without becoming acquainted with the chair/ record label/ watch parts through weeks worth of sketching, I don't feel as though this piece would have worked as I had hoped.