I found two more artists this year that I have loved. These two artists actually work together and they are called Tim Noble and Sue Webster. They create interesting shadows from objects they have made out of everyday things like rubbish. They have even been known to use taxidermy creatures in their artwork. Now you may be thinking that this is very weird but their results are so astounding. The shadows created look like Noble and Webster’s head or a crow. Their artwork is very contrasting and distinct and this technique is so curious, I don’t think I had ever seen something like this before.
So a couple of months ago I did my own photo shoot using the technique of Noble and Webster. When I was doing the photo shoot, my current theme for my art was tree shadows. I made a tree out of rubbish.Although my results were not quite the standard of Noble and Webster’s, I did get some interesting and weird results, which worked well with my project.
I really enjoyed doing the photo shoot and I suggest trying it out for yourself. It is quite easy to replicate, so why not have a go?
All you need is some rubbish, a room that can be made fairly dark, a torch/light source, a camera and a blank wall is always useful. Creating the shape out of rubbish is probably the hardest bit. I would recommend doing a tree or something like it as they are quite easy to make out of rubbish, but if you’re feeling adventurous why not try to recreate your own shadow just like Noble and Webster!
Make sure that the sculpture made out of rubbish can stand on its own though, otherwise taking a photo of the shadow will be quite hard…
Black out all the lights in your designated room and place your sculpture about 2 metres away from the wall. Then get your lamp, torch, light source and point it at the sculpture, the shadow should be created against the wall and your ready to photograph it. I took shots of the shadows at different angles and I moved the sculpture around a bit to make the shadow bigger/smaller but have a play and see what works for you.
It’s really good fun, hope you enjoy it and feel free to post your results I’d love to have a look at them. Also have a look at Noble and Webster’s website to see some of their shadow photos for yourself.
oil onthe canvas 