Critiquing Shiwen’s Work
by Joe Morrison
In this critique, I will be writing about four works by Shiwen li. They’re 3d conceptual pieces that are vibrant, surrealistic, and have some elements of fantasy. I will be critiquing as someone who took the 3d modeling class and worked with the same 3d modeling program, Blender. I will be critiquing these works in
two parts since they come in sets of two. In the first set of 3d pieces are depictions of sky castles floating on clouds which are reminiscent of fantasy video games like Legend of Zelda or Final Fantasy. The design of each element on the piece is more geometric rather than organic, which makes me think of Minecraft. Though not quite the cubic shapes in that video game, the clouds design is closest to that comparison. I would also like to add that basic geometric shapes are
easier to work with especially for anyone starting at 3d design. As someone who had the same class, I used these shapes to help me get accustomed to the program.
On my final note, I would love to see the world that is built around the sky castles. I can imagine other castles floating in the sky while the main character has to fly a dragon to travel to them. I personally love the artwork
that depicts fairy tales and fantasy because many of my pieces are similar.
In the last set of works, I will be analyzing the pieces centered around floating mushrooms. Both pieces in this set look very similar in design to the first set. I
believe it’s the same subject and elements but different lighting. In these works, several floating mushrooms come together to form a bigger mushroom. The design of each individual mushroom is either green or red which makes me
think of a Christmas tree. As mentioned earlier, the variation between pieces depends on the lighting of the mushroom. Both pieces have a central light in the
conglomerate of mushrooms while one piece has more lights on the outside. I prefer the latter piece.
NFT 