- Aug 18, 2006
- 9,976
- 3
- 71
EDIT: I have scaled down, got materials, have been building since November 2007.
Scale: 1:350
This is for a college course on Art History, the assignment was to recreate some architecture or art from any part of the world before the Italian Reniassance. Being a huge fan of the classics, and the Bronze Age period in particular, I had been fascinated with Bronze Age Greece.
The peoples inhabiting Greece at the time were known as the Mycenaeans, a race known for building cyclopean structures--particularly huge citadels of literal boulders, some heavy as 14,000 Kilos.
With such huge citadels and the like, I decided to reconstruct in a roundabout manner, the fortress-citadel of Tiryns.
Tiryns was a good choice because it is on a uniform height of a hill, and its outward structure is relatively easier to create.
The hardest parts so far were creating a proper solution to the walls; the Mycenaeans used little mortar, but gravity was in their favor--something it isn't with mine. So I had to use mortar, and yet at the same time, present a uniformly stone wall, and not a bunker wall with little gravel pieces pushed in.
I then started working with putty knives, and I came up with battlements and parapets--the ancient Mycenaeans were quite skilled with ceramic and stone working, and I wanted to reflect that in my piece. Therefore, the parapet (walkway) and battlements are with a fine clay (femo) finish. This is also easier to carve and presents a uniform appearance that "crowns" the walls, and helps to instill awe into the observer.
Other challengers included exaggerating the hill on the West side, because there is a huge curtain wall and the likes.
EDIT: Picture provided.
EDIT: I bump'd with poast, and I have provided a pic of myself and the circuit walls.
Sorry for the bump, but I just wanted to keep people who are interested posted with what I'm doing. About a week ago, I was suffering because I couldn't figure out how in hell to frickin get the stones together and project a stony feeling that the walls have:
http://www.odysseyadventures.c...enae/tiryns_aerial.jpg
So, I started fooling around with some mortar and gravel, and I came up with my answer:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb289/teh_Mac/Me.jpg
I just finished completing the circuit walls, I'm nowhere near done, maybe 63% done at earliest, but I'm encouraged and excited.
What do you guys think so far? Right now, I am working on the interior and finishing up some towers as well as working on the clay battlements that the Mycenaeans might have used to finesse their parapets.
Massive Edit 1/2/08
Text
You can see, the wall is topped with the battlements. It took me approximately 8 hours to get it so that the "dragon teeth" are scaled properly.
Closer shot at it
Here, the interior wall is formed, and those walls running parallel to each other; thats the inner courtyard where troops would train.
To the right, you have the curving wall, that's the massive west wall that slopes out, and slopes down the hill a bit. The hill of clay and plaster had be painstakingly planned out ahead of time to accommodate such an intimidating part of the cyclopean structure.
Text
I am carving some clay up there it seems, trying to accent the battlements and the triangular crenelations the Aegean Peoples used at this time.
Text
There's me working on the battlements -- basically, gluing those clay battlements down into the walls, so they don't go walking off when I pick this baby up and dump her in my Teacher's classroom.
bump'd on page 2.
edit 1/12/08
Well, now I am 95% done.
I have painted the complex, and I have made hovels for the inhabitants of the bailey. I actually made pillars out of toothpicks, painted red, and I think they look pretty interesting. I also decorated the main courtyard, but the problem is my paint brushing isn't exact, and the pens I use to decorate are very inky, which can lead to undesirable results. So, it's been a whole day of painting, re-painting, fiddling around with various ideas.
Originally, for the complex, I was going to just stick balsa wood "columns" in a very 2-d way, but then I decided to incise into the painted clay, and create a 3-d space, and in that space, I produced 3-d pillars made of painted red toothpicks.
I then used tweezers and a file to file the toothpicks down to size and gingerly pluck them into that space.
It was very time consuming, but well worth it.
I'm on track for my projected finishing time of around 7:30 PST. I promise picks will be uploaded Monday earliest(), but I'm really happy with the way it's come along. Alot of the way it looks has been from incredible trial and error, which resulted (in my opinion) in more better results. If I had the time, energy, endless materials, and only one class to worry about, I'd naturally improve upon this any way I could. But right now, I gotta be happy with the way it is, and I hope I'm doing justice to the people who inhabited that massive fortress.
Scale: 1:350
This is for a college course on Art History, the assignment was to recreate some architecture or art from any part of the world before the Italian Reniassance. Being a huge fan of the classics, and the Bronze Age period in particular, I had been fascinated with Bronze Age Greece.
The peoples inhabiting Greece at the time were known as the Mycenaeans, a race known for building cyclopean structures--particularly huge citadels of literal boulders, some heavy as 14,000 Kilos.
With such huge citadels and the like, I decided to reconstruct in a roundabout manner, the fortress-citadel of Tiryns.
Tiryns was a good choice because it is on a uniform height of a hill, and its outward structure is relatively easier to create.
The hardest parts so far were creating a proper solution to the walls; the Mycenaeans used little mortar, but gravity was in their favor--something it isn't with mine. So I had to use mortar, and yet at the same time, present a uniformly stone wall, and not a bunker wall with little gravel pieces pushed in.
I then started working with putty knives, and I came up with battlements and parapets--the ancient Mycenaeans were quite skilled with ceramic and stone working, and I wanted to reflect that in my piece. Therefore, the parapet (walkway) and battlements are with a fine clay (femo) finish. This is also easier to carve and presents a uniform appearance that "crowns" the walls, and helps to instill awe into the observer.
Other challengers included exaggerating the hill on the West side, because there is a huge curtain wall and the likes.
EDIT: Picture provided.
EDIT: I bump'd with poast, and I have provided a pic of myself and the circuit walls.
Sorry for the bump, but I just wanted to keep people who are interested posted with what I'm doing. About a week ago, I was suffering because I couldn't figure out how in hell to frickin get the stones together and project a stony feeling that the walls have:
http://www.odysseyadventures.c...enae/tiryns_aerial.jpg
So, I started fooling around with some mortar and gravel, and I came up with my answer:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb289/teh_Mac/Me.jpg
I just finished completing the circuit walls, I'm nowhere near done, maybe 63% done at earliest, but I'm encouraged and excited.
What do you guys think so far? Right now, I am working on the interior and finishing up some towers as well as working on the clay battlements that the Mycenaeans might have used to finesse their parapets.
Massive Edit 1/2/08
Text
You can see, the wall is topped with the battlements. It took me approximately 8 hours to get it so that the "dragon teeth" are scaled properly.
Closer shot at it
Here, the interior wall is formed, and those walls running parallel to each other; thats the inner courtyard where troops would train.
To the right, you have the curving wall, that's the massive west wall that slopes out, and slopes down the hill a bit. The hill of clay and plaster had be painstakingly planned out ahead of time to accommodate such an intimidating part of the cyclopean structure.
Text
I am carving some clay up there it seems, trying to accent the battlements and the triangular crenelations the Aegean Peoples used at this time.
Text
There's me working on the battlements -- basically, gluing those clay battlements down into the walls, so they don't go walking off when I pick this baby up and dump her in my Teacher's classroom.
bump'd on page 2.
edit 1/12/08
Well, now I am 95% done.
I have painted the complex, and I have made hovels for the inhabitants of the bailey. I actually made pillars out of toothpicks, painted red, and I think they look pretty interesting. I also decorated the main courtyard, but the problem is my paint brushing isn't exact, and the pens I use to decorate are very inky, which can lead to undesirable results. So, it's been a whole day of painting, re-painting, fiddling around with various ideas.
Originally, for the complex, I was going to just stick balsa wood "columns" in a very 2-d way, but then I decided to incise into the painted clay, and create a 3-d space, and in that space, I produced 3-d pillars made of painted red toothpicks.
I then used tweezers and a file to file the toothpicks down to size and gingerly pluck them into that space.
It was very time consuming, but well worth it.
I'm on track for my projected finishing time of around 7:30 PST. I promise picks will be uploaded Monday earliest
(), but I'm really happy with the way it's come along. Alot of the way it looks has been from incredible trial and error, which resulted (in my opinion) in more better results. If I had the time, energy, endless materials, and only one class to worry about, I'd naturally improve upon this any way I could. But right now, I gotta be happy with the way it is, and I hope I'm doing justice to the people who inhabited that massive fortress.
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