How to Record the Carved Tentacles Joining Two Pianos in Maskull Lasserre’s The Third Octave

Record this scene by placing both piano bodies first, tracing the carved tentacles through their shared connection, and noting the visible overlaps and wood transitions. Keep the continuous sculpture clear before adding surface detail.

What must the visual record preserve?

The essential relationship is two piano bodies joined through carved tentacles. Maskull Lasserre’s portfolio describes The Third Octave as two pianos made to appear as one through that carving. Your record should retain both the distinct piano forms and the continuous sculptural connection between them. Maskull Lasserre’s portfolio description of The Third Octave (https://maskulllasserre.com/section/524499-Third%20Octave;%20a%20study%20of%20eighths%20with%20mathematical%20biology%20and%20speculative%20realist%20texts%20as%20shims.%20Carving%20as%20a%20redistribution%20of%20consciousness..html)

For a reader making a visual record, the concrete task is to capture how those forms connect. A useful result can combine a small overall sketch, an enlarged connection study and a few precise written observations. The method below is a proposed application of observational drawing principles to this particular subject.

Begin with one reference view. Use it consistently for the main drawing, and identify any separate detail view you consult. This keeps the outline, visible gaps and crossings tied to a single viewpoint. If another photograph reveals a previously hidden section, record that information in a separate study rather than quietly inserting it into the first view.

How do you place the two piano bodies accurately?

Start with the broad outlines of the two piano bodies and reserve room for the connecting carving. At this stage, leave out small surface marks. The National Gallery of Ireland’s drawing exercise begins with basic shapes and their arrangement before examining the spaces between them. That sequence provides a useful starting point here. Drawing Activity: Shapes and Spatial Relations (https://www.nationalgallery.ie/drawing-activity-shapes-and-spatial-relations)

Use a few visible landmarks to establish the arrangement. Choose corners or clear changes of direction that you can locate again without guessing. Compare their positions across the whole view before refining either piano.

• Mark the outermost visible extent of each piano body.

• Locate where the carved connection meets each body.

• Compare the height and width of the connecting area with the surrounding piano forms.

• Check the angles of visible edges against the same reference view.

An illustrative drawing choice is to use a horizontal page with a light bounding outline around the entire sculpture. This is a page-design example, not a claim about the artwork’s dimensions or the arrangement of any particular photograph. Choose a different format if your reference requires it.

Keep enough of each piano visible to explain where the carving belongs. An enlarged central detail is useful, but it needs the overall sketch beside it: otherwise, the record may preserve the curves while losing their relationship to the two larger bodies.

How do you trace the tentacles without losing the connection?

Treat the connection as a set of visible paths. Begin where a curved carved form emerges from a piano body, follow its edge as far as the reference allows, and mark where it disappears behind another form. Resume it only where its continuation is visible.

Contour drawing uses long, continuous lines to convey shape, according to the National Gallery of Art. For this scene, apply that approach to each visible stretch of an edge; the drawing line can stop when the edge is concealed. Lesson: Drawing Everyday Objects (https://www.nga.gov/educational-resources/lesson-drawing-everyday-objects)

A practical recording aid is to give difficult sections temporary labels. For example, label one visible curve A and a neighbouring curve B in a working sketch. These letters are illustrative annotation choices. They do not identify official parts of the sculpture or establish how an obscured section continues.

At each crossing, distinguish three possibilities: one form passes in front of another, the forms visibly meet, or the view does not resolve the relationship. York University’s drawing guidance explains overlap as one object partially hiding another. Use that distinction when deciding which edge continues and which edge stops. Drawing Essentials Series (https://www.yorku.ca/colleges/ccsc/drawing-essentials-series/)

An illustrative note might read: “A remains visible across this crossing; B disappears behind it; B’s continuation is unclear.” Such wording records the local evidence without inventing an unseen route. Keep these annotations outside the outlines, with short pointers to the relevant locations.

Preserving continuity does not require filling every hidden interval. It requires retaining the visible connections and being explicit about interruptions in the view. If a route becomes uncertain, leave it unresolved and continue with the next clearly observable section.

How can the gaps help you check the geometry?

Examine the spaces between the carved curves as carefully as the curves themselves. The National Gallery of Ireland identifies these intervening shapes as negative space and recommends isolating them for closer observation. Drawing Activity: Shapes and Spatial Relations (https://www.nationalgallery.ie/drawing-activity-shapes-and-spatial-relations)

For this sculpture, make a separate check of the openings within the connection and the intervals between the carving and the piano bodies. Select a few spaces with boundaries you can clearly follow. Describe their proportions and orientation without forcing them into regular geometric shapes.

For example, “a narrow opening that widens toward its lower end” is an illustrative description format. Use it only when it matches your reference. A rounded gap, an angular opening or an irregular sliver should retain its observed shape.

If an opening looks wrong in the sketch, inspect the edges that define it. A curve may have become too thick, a crossing may have shifted, or the distance between the piano bodies may need adjustment. Correct the surrounding outlines before adding more detail. This gives you a specific diagnostic sequence instead of repeatedly redrawing the whole connection.

How do you record the wood and surface transitions?

Keep material notes attached to locations. Distinguish what you can see in a piano surface, in a carved curve and at the transition between them. Record visible differences in colour, grain, finish or texture only where the reference supports them.

York University distinguishes actual surface texture from texture suggested through marks in a drawing. That distinction supports using a small vocabulary of marks rather than attempting to reproduce every visible feature. Drawing Essentials Series (https://www.yorku.ca/colleges/ccsc/drawing-essentials-series/)

An illustrative pencil treatment is to leave broad surfaces lightly marked, use selective strokes for visible grain and reserve denser shading for observed dark recesses. These are drawing choices, not a report of a particular lighting arrangement. Follow the reference when deciding where each treatment belongs.

The National Gallery of Art explains that closely spaced hatching makes areas appear darker. Apply it selectively so that shading records visible tonal differences without swallowing the edges needed to follow the connection. Lesson: Drawing Everyday Objects (https://www.nga.gov/educational-resources/lesson-drawing-everyday-objects)

Keep edge changes, surface changes and tonal changes distinct in your notes. A dark patch alone does not establish a gap, and a colour boundary alone does not establish a separate piece. If the image does not resolve a boundary, describe its appearance and leave its construction unspecified.

What should the finished record contain?

Assemble the record so that someone can move from the whole sculpture to the difficult junctions without reconstructing your working process. Keep the overall view primary and place any enlarged studies beside it.

• One overall sketch showing both piano bodies and their carved connection.

• One enlarged study of the most complex visible crossings.

• Brief notes identifying observable material transitions and unresolved sections.

• The reference link, with a distinction between the main view and any supplementary detail view.

Finally, follow the connection across your drawing in both directions. Check that its visible meeting points still align with the piano bodies, that overlaps retain their observed order and that the openings have not closed during shading. The finished record should make the scene’s defining relationship legible: two piano bodies connected through continuous carved tentacles, with each recorded detail grounded in the view you used.

Sources

• Maskull Lasserre — portfolio section for The Third Octave (https://maskulllasserre.com/section/524499-Third%20Octave;%20a%20study%20of%20eighths%20with%20mathematical%20biology%20and%20speculative%20realist%20texts%20as%20shims.%20Carving%20as%20a%20redistribution%20of%20consciousness..html)

• National Gallery of Ireland — Drawing Activity: Shapes and Spatial Relations (https://www.nationalgallery.ie/drawing-activity-shapes-and-spatial-relations)

• National Gallery of Art — Lesson: Drawing Everyday Objects (https://www.nga.gov/educational-resources/lesson-drawing-everyday-objects)

• York University, Calumet & Stong Colleges — Drawing Essentials Series (https://www.yorku.ca/colleges/ccsc/drawing-essentials-series/)