Beginning Sculpture: Day 1

To Sculpt or Not to Sculpt

Ms. Wager informed me this is the class I will be creating lesson plans for! (How exciting!) I have to admit…I was a little a nervous to be thrown into the Ceramic/Sculpture department because I solely studied Drawing/Painting in my undergrad studies at the University of Tampa.  I only touched base with 3D art in Beg. Ceramics and Beg. Sculpture.  I am thrilled to enhance my knowledge and skills in these disciplines, and who knows, I may end up exclusively working with these medias after my experiences at Averill Park. 

Today’s sculpture class was educational and....interesting.  Ms. Wager threw me in the students and as a class we created clay busts together.  The purpose of this project was for students to learn that molding clay is the Sculptor’s form of sketching.  (After class Ms. Wager also informed me she wanted to do this project to observe students’ strengths and weaknesses in regards of their abilities in working with clay.)

Just like the students I also had a difficult time creating a bust!  Ms. Wager was extremely detailed and articulate with her instructions (thank goodness--need to remember that for future references).  This class really emphasized the importance of understanding facial proportions in a 3D aspect (and not to mention Ms. Wager gave me a out on Facial Proportions, phew!). Though it was difficult to create the proportions on a small model it was a great and fun learning experience. 

Ms. Wagner's bust looked like this: 

Meanwhile, mine and the students' busts looked like this:

The students were very occupied with making everything “perfect”.  I kept on trying to tell the students to have fun with their busts and throw in something crazy to the features.  The students thought I was nuts until I gave my bust a Mohawk hair-do.  The students loved this and started to be more creative with their busts.  After witnessing my fun-flared hair-do the students loosened up a bit with their sculptures and started adding fun characteristics to their models.

After class I spoke with Ms. Wager about the next sculpture project…I’m not going to inform you guys just yet but when she showed me an example I couldn't help myself think about Lady Gaga and Alexander McQueen…. What do you think the next project is going to be about?! (And no, students wont be making outrageous hats.)