Heroes and Self-Portraits

In my 3D Art and Design class, students are currently finishing up their clay self-portraits.  They have already worked with clay material during 1st semester and in this project they work with both additive and subtractive methods in clay.

Students first practice by looking in the mirror and becoming familiar with their features and the proportion of the face.  They will then journal about a hero they have and collect visual references of this hero.  Students can choose to depict their hero, or blend characteristics of themselves with the hero as a means to "follow in their footsteps."  Some students may choose just to work more expressively with their own features or symbolically through fictional characters that they have brought to life.

Each student receives a 25 pound block of clay to begin the subtractive process.  They use large loop tools and wire cutters to carve out the head.  Some students start with the coil method to build up shoulders and then attach a head later.

After the piece has dried to just before leather-hard, they use the wire cutters to cut the head in half (top of head behind ears, to shoulders/neck) and then hollow it out and score and slip it back together.

Here are photos of works in progress:

Plastic Tape Casting

As a method to learn casting and work with life-size sculpture, I have my 3D Art & Design students work on packing tape casting.  This is less expensive than plaster and much easier to clean up, not to mention a lot faster!  The tape is a great medium because the transparency allows for interior experimentation.  I have had students place lights, colored paper, and objects within their forms to portray different concepts and ideas.

Students can create the sculpture piece by piece and attach once finished with a limbs.  They wrap the sticky side out first, twist the tape around, and then complete an additional 3-4 layers of tape sticky side down.  Tape is then cut off of the body using scissors and taped back together.  When completing the head, I recommend students to place a grocery bag over their hair or use a shower cap.  Of course, they leave the nose open and add that in later.

Students use the school's library as a place to display the work when finished.

Fun with Photoshop

I challenged my students to use the school as their environment to capture multiple compositions to help them understand design and camera functions.  After we imported these photos, they were then asked to practice using Photoshop to enhance or modify value and color.  Their work was pretty impressive!