Turning boring 2D card into a fun sculptural 3D project!

Lets get busy learning about sculpture!

This simple sculpture activity is inspired by the Australian artist Howard Arkley, and the British artist Richard Woods. Both artists create bold and colourful representations of the house. Bricks, timber floorboards, tiled roofs, and stone walls are stylised using pop art-like aesthetics. The effects are like psychedelic cartoon homes far removed from the dull suburban house. 

I have come up with an extremely simple way of making some house sculptures that you can transform into Arkley/Woods inspired houses using your favourite colouring medium. 

You will only require some super basic resources that you will be sure to have in your art box!

 Materials:  A4 card, scissors, clear sticky tape, coloured pens/crayons/watercolours/ brush or sponge/ water

One piece of card will make two houses with NO WASTE! Fold the card as seen in the pictures above : in thirds longways, then in half short ways. Finally fold both short ends to meet in the middle. 

Cut along the folds as shown in the pictures, you should end up with two pieces with long sides and two tabs. These will fold into a house shape, test it out, but don’t tape it up yet. Figure out which is the outside of the sculpture and start to decorate.

Put aside those drab colours, choose your brightest pens or crayons. I chose to use crayons then watercolour over the top, but textas will work well too. Consider the textures you find on houses; tiles, bricks, timber, glass, and stone, and try to simplify those surfaces into really easy patterns you can repeat on the walls and roof. Don’t forget some simple doors and windows.

Finally get two short pieces of clear tape and tape together the walls, and finally the two roof panels. 

Don’t stop at just two, and experiment with the same method but different size card. Go tiny, go big, or make a city, village or town. This could be a great group project, that can be run over a number of sessions with your kids or class. 

I love how this projects turns something 2D into something 3D in a very simple and fun way. The perfect project for kids to learn about sculpture. Don’t forget to check out Howard Arkley’s houses, and also Richard Woods. These are two amazing artists to use as inspo for your project.

Happy building!

Until next week,

Tracy