Cats & Busts (for classes)

Best Friend's portrait 

Even though it's fairly far outside what I normally do, I decided to sculpt some cats this year. 

the protrait nearly completed, with most of the texture in place

Partly, I chose to sculpt something because my students were sculpting solid forms on armatures during my hand-building class this winter and I wanted to create some video demos showing some techniques for creating more dynamic textures.

early in the process the focus is on getting the proportions right

Around this time, we were also having a conversation among the art faculty about making portraits of all of us as cats, though the cats I made were just cats, not art faculty as cats. Maybe later.

I used photos of our cats from various angles to check the positions, proportions, and anatomy

As long as I was creating a solid form for the texture, I figured I'd create some videos of the solid building process for my students. 

by printing out the picture, I was able to compare the angles of the sculpture to the image

I already have a set of videos of how to sculpt a head, but my students have done this solid portrait project for many years now with those videos, I know what sorts of things are missing or could be improved in the demos. I'd really like to make videos showing all sorts of portrait forms (people, animals, full-bodies, busts only) and helping with the kinds of issues students typically run into, but making all those videos as demos takes a lot of time.

after building up the basic shape, I cut away material to make the chest area look fluffy

For the first cat I made, I used a bunch of pictures of my current cats for the pose, but modeled the fur after our previous cat who had a lot softer and flufflier fur. 

I used a lot of different tools to create a variety of textures

I tried to capture, in several videos, a demonstration of how to judge the angles of the sculpture compared to the photos, how to make significant adjusments, etc. I haven't uploaded the videos yet, even though its been nearly 6 months, but I didn't have any handbuilders in spring, so there was not rush.

the fluff on the back is different fromthe front fluff

After the first cat, which was more effort to make because I was also setting up the camera and narrating my process, I made another just for fun. The second one isn't as interesting to look at, because I tried to replicate the shorter fur of the current cats, but I captured a more interesting position. However, what I didn't do was take pictures of the process (or, apparently, the finished sculpture).

the short haired cat (and reference image) in progress

After the second cat, I started wondering how different the process would be if I used coil building methods, instead of solid building. I always tell my students that solid buildin allows them to make more immediate adjustments to proportions and position to create a more convincing portrait of an animal or person, but was this even true? 

the coil-built cat (and his awkward legs)

So I used coil building techniques to sculpt a cat. Building up the basic shape went fairly well, but I truly wasn't able to make adjusments that needed to be made. The front legs were too wide, but I couldn't change them too much without losing the structure and support of the whole body. I ended up with a hole between the front and back legs.

all the spheres were wheel thrown

I ended up covering up the coil-built cat with thrown spheres. I liked the idea of the bubble cat, and I'd like to explore it again sometime, but I ran out of energy or time to complete it, which in combination with the fact that the cat's base form wasn't great, let me to abandon the project. 

eyeless bust for use as a mask display

At the end of Spring, students in my first ever 3D Design class left me with three different masks/wearable artworks. One ended up displayed on the solid portrait I made years ago for the solid building demo for my hand-building class, but the others have nothing to hold them up. I figured the easiest option was for me to just make a few simple portrait heads to display the masks on. 

two heads and a cat waiting for firing and glazing in my studio

I figure these busts don't need to look perfect, since they'll be covered with masks made by students. I was feeling pretty good about making two of these in June, but the other day I was in a shop that had CPAP masks displayed on a series of mass produced heads and I realized that my solution was more fun, but probably not literally easier or cheaper than buying something.

 

Expressive Portrait, Glazed & Finished: Fall 2022

Last week, students in my Winter quarter class started building their solid portraits. I've been pretty busy so far this winter, so I had not gotten around to posting the finished sculptures created by my fall quarter class. 

painted solid portrait by Thai See

The solid built portrait project is probably my favorite hand-building project. I enjoy the format of the class, and the way the students separate into different tools and techniques, then come together for this solid building project. So this project is fun because we are all working together.

Kate Winslet as Clementine (from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) by Thai See

 

I also enjoy it because of the way the students work on this project. Most students use an armature, but they aren't required to do so. However, because the build is solid and fairly large, the first day consists mostly of hitting clay with paddles to make it stick to itself or the armature. It's hard not to enjoy such a physical project.

Charlie from Heartstopper by Amy Matson

I suppose it is also fun for me, because while the students are working hard, pounding on their pieces, making lots of noise and moving lots of clay around, I'm simply walking around, checking in with them, making suggestions, talking about their plans and proportions and the positiong of their armature.

Nien Nunb from Star Wars by Carlos Garcia Alcantar

On the second day of the project, they are cutting, hitting, and still making large changes to their project. Eventually they start to separate and work at different rates, but by the start of the second week or so, by design, they are all ready to cut. And again, that day, I'm walking through, thoroughly enjoying myself, while they are all cutting and hollowing and again making big changes to their projects.

Scream, by Amanda Goodrich, glazed

I never built this way, myself, in undergrad or in graduate school. I never really used an internal armature in my own work before I started teaching either. I've done so since, but I'm not even sure I had made and finished a full-side sculpture like this until my students had already done so in my class.

Scream, by Amanda Goodrich, side

This process is just a bunch of fun for me and the students seem to really enjoy it too, though I know it can also be frustrating--and some of them feel the frustration more than others, of course. Some of the students who feel frustrated with the project are those whose work looks great to me and their classmates, but who have really high expectations of themselves. These students may be bothered that their first portrait project isn't as perfect as they imagine it could be.

Medusa by Valeria Alvarez

Occaionally, I get a student who is so frustrated by the process that they end up disliking the end product. This happens in the throwing class sometimes, too. They expected the class to be easy or pure fun or something, but in the end they found it difficult and that somehow ruined the results for them. I find that both students who struggled and students who didn't appear to struggle can feel this way at the end of the quarter.

Two Geckos by Brooke Mason

Of course there are some students who struggle or dislike the project or their final results because they didn't really put in the time. I didn't really have that happen during most of the quarter this year, but it has happened in the past. 

Two geckos before firing by Brooke Mason

The clay can be unforgiving, breaking or squishing if handled incorrectly or worked on too wet or too dry. Just missing some studio time can result in clay that's too dry and needs to be entirely restarted. This isn't such a big deal on the wheel, most of the time, but it can be a major problem with a hand-building project that took weeks to build.

Dog by Yarelli Sanchez

The work I'm showing in this blog is (mostly) finished work as presented for the final critique. Students in the hand-building class had 5 builds during the quarter and they were required to glaze at least 4 of them. One of the 5 could be painted, the other 4 could be fired in the cone 10 kiln in a reduction or oxidation atmosphere, in the raku or pit firing, or in a low fire kiln. 

Dog by Yarelli Sanchez

Finishing the work mostly meant glazing or painting, and many students used underglazes with glazes. Horsehair raku firing was also an option, though none of the solid portraits ended up being finished with only horsehair raku (one was done with horsehair then re-fired).

Dog by Yarelli Sanchez

I also tell students that they can bring in non-ceramic materials after glazing and firing. This includes paint of course, but could also include epoxy, clear acrylic medium, hair, paper, or any other materials the student wishes to use. In the past students have added a dog collar, rubber, beads, staples and pieces of metal.

Dog by Yarelli Sanchez

This quarter, just two or three students used something besides paint. One added some acrylic medium to increase the shine on her piece after firing. Another added hair to her Gollum. Though Gollum doesn’t have a lot of hair, it makes a real difference. His particular hairstyle reminds me of when my hair was falling out near the beginning of chemo. 

Gollum by Amy Matson

Amy, who created Gollum, actually used her own hair. She shocked her classmate when she cut it off during class, yakima more than she probably needed. Whenever I’ve made sculptures that incorporate hair, I’ve used the fake kind that you can buy in a cheap hairclip—but maybe that’s because I knew I’d eventually lose it all. (Hmm, now I’m wondering why I didn’t save my hair that fell out for use in my future sculpture.

Bantha by Julia Snow

Hair and fur texture make a bit difference in making a sculpture look realistic, stylized, creepy, beautiful, or strange. In the fall, we had some pretty different approaches to hair and fur. Julia's Bantha has these tufts of fur, Yarelli's dog fur varies quite a bit across different parts of the body. Some others focused more on the form than the surface.

Bantha by Julia Snow

I can't wait to share images from this quarter, with student's permission, because we have some very different approaches to surface texture happening. I feel like each class cohort can have a very distinctive feel, energy, or approach. This quarter 6 students from fall are continuing into the Winter quarter, meaning this cohort combines new and continuing students. I've been kind of surprised how different the energy is. The winter group is a good group, they're making work and rising to the challenge of the class, but the humor and perspective is just a little different. It's a little bit difficult to name.

Dog on Pillow by Thunder Morales

I suspect part of the reason it feels so different is simply because half the class is working on different projects than the other. I've got six or seven beginners, doing the same assignments as the fall students, but with sometimes very different personal approaches. Then I've got 4 intermediates working on pretty independent and thus quite varied intermediate projects, and I've got 2 intermediate students who took the beginning class online or while I was on medical leave, which means their experience, background and perspective is pretty different.

Dog on Pillow by Thunder Morales

I'm definitely not complaining. I've been really happy with how the group has worked together even with the different projects. They've now completed two and a half builds, and I'm pretty much always happy when the builds get done. Some of them had to push a bit to meet the last deadline, but that energy (oh no! here comes the deadline!) can yeild some very interesting and surprising results.

Dwight from The Office by Jordan Golob

This week my three clay classes all start glazing. I'm looking foward to seeing what we get for the first firing, but I'm also interested to see how my intermediates approach glazing, having already had one or two quarters of experience prior to this class.

Derek Arneecher's Winifred after the second firing (with underglaze)

Student Portraits, Works in Progress, Fall 2022

Solid Scream sculpture, with the thin parts covered while the thick parts are left to dry out before hollowing

This quarter I'm teaching hand-building, something I taught throughout the pandemic and again last fall before my medical leave. This is the first time since Winter 2020 that I've been able to teach this class with as much hands-on and interactive elements as I like. 

Scream, by Amanda Goodrich, after hollowing

I feel a bit funny saying this, since this class translated suprisingly well to an online format and the online format forced me and the students to make some interesting changes that resulted in some projects I'd never done before. 

Amanda did a nice job of capturing the sense of weight in the cloak

But while they were online, we weren't able to work at the scale of this portrait project. Even last fall, though we did this project, we had fewer on-campus days and we were awkwardly trying to maintain social distancing. This quarter, with those restrictions lifted, the class has felt pretty much back to normal.

After building the solid sculptures, we let the surface dry, then cut the pieces apart in order to remove the armature and remove the excess clay

This quarter has also felt like it absolutely flew by. Maybe it always feels like that, and maybe time is always relative, but it feels like I just blinked and we're already at week 7!  On the other hand, I counted the other day and was surprised to realize that it has been less than 3 weeks since I started my hormone therapy to try to keep the cancer from returning.

Kate Winslet as Clementine (from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) by Thai See

This quarter's classes are larger than the ones I had last fall. Though they aren't full, there are enough students to make the studio space fun and energizing. It helps quite a lot, actually, that most students are working hard. I have always observed that a solid group of students working hard in the studio, coming to class regularly, and working in the studio outside of class has a positive impact on everyone in the class.

Thai really managed to capture the hair texture as well as the nearly-crying expression

Students feed of each other's energy to create a studio atmosphere unique to each class or quarter. When they come in to the studio outside of class and other people are there, or when they can arrange to come in a the same time as their classmates, it makes it easier and more pleasant to stay and work for longer periods of time. When they can work at the same time as classmates, they compare notes, borrow from each other, and help each other along in their work. 

Charlie and Clementine during their hollowing out phase

This is the organic process that makes a shared studio so great, and I try to replicate in a critique when I ask students to give each other helpful feedback and suggestions. Usually, in a shared studio where folks are already talking during and between classes, a more formal critique works well because students feel more comfortable discussing their work and giving suggestions, not just compliments to classmates.

Charlie from Heartstopper by Amy Matson

In a studio where folks don't really know each other or don't feel comfortable, it seems like the critique ends up being more awkward and more focused on compliments than on suggestions for improvement or sharing ideas.

Amy managed to capture the facial features as well as the hair texture and added leaf imprints to the shoulders to reference the imagery in the story

Trying to replicate the sharing and support of a shared studio in an online class is tough because students don't know each other as well and because they aren't really together. It's harder to make a connection via typing comments and sometimes waiting hours or days for a response.

The plastic in the middle is covering the armature that most students used to hold up their heads during sculpting

Last fall, because of the social distancing requirements and the more limited class time, I chose to keep the critiques online and I really, really missed critique time in both classes. This fall I immediately made the adjustment to come back to in person critiques. I also took back the extra on-campus class time that had been shifted online. We also no longer have to maintain social distancing, though the studio is spacious enough that we can keep that distance much of the time.

Nien Nunb from Star Wars by Carlos Garcia Alcantar

This quarter, in the hand-building class, I returned to the structure I'd had before the pandemic. They start the class divided into four groups, each of which starts with a particular tool or technique: coils, slabs, the extruder, or 3D Printer. A week or so into the quarter they switch to a new technique. In the middle of the quarter everyone comes together and builds an expressive portrait, then they return to the two techniques they didn't do the first time around. 

Nien Nunb has such interesting surface layers on his face that it's easy to miss the smirking expression when you first look at him

I love this format because they get to try so many different techniques. It isn't really feasible to demonstrate all this during class, but because I've flipped the class, I can assign the demos as homework. They also couldn't all fit on one slab roller, one extruder, or the 3D printer at once, so dividing them up into groups of 3 or 4 allows them all better access to the tools. By the time they switch techniques the first time, they can often help each other. By the time of their first critique, they are able to give advice to classmates who move on to those techniques later in the class.

Winifred from Hocus Pocus, during the hollowing process, work in progress by Derek Arneecher

For the solid portrait, students are asked to choose a particular person, animal, or creature, real or fictional and create a dynamic or expressive portrait. The idea is to work from photos or from real life and capture something of the real expression or position of that subject. Most students work on an armature and most choose either the full body of an animal, or the bust of a person or humanoid form.

Medusa by Valeria Alvarez

This quarter most students picked characters from TV or movies, including a couple of non-human creatures from Star Wars, a particular Spiderman, and the Scream mask guy. There were four pets (two dogs and two leopard geckos) and Medusa.

Two geckos in progress by Brooke Mason

The students were asked to work from photos and to take or find photos of one position or expression from multiple points of view. Sometimes students choose to bring in a physical object, like a stuffed animal or statuette, or work from life by sculpting their classmate.

Dog on a pillow, work in progress by Thunder Morales

This is always harder when the subject is a pet, because pets won't always pose in the right position for long enough to take photos from multiple views. This is especially hard when the pet is no longer with us.

Dog after hollowing before he was put back together

This can also be tricky with famous people or characters from TV or movies for the same reason. Family and friends can be easier to get the photos of, but then it is more frustrating when minor details are off, because we know those faces so well.

Dog by Yarelli Sanchez

This quarter had some fun expressions or poses and several students did a particularly nice job of capturing some of the subtleties of facial expressions. 

Besides the soft bumpy fur texture, Yarelli captured the dog's funny sitting position and the idiosyncratic expression in the lips

Now that the builds are (mostly) done, we need to dry them slowly to prevent cracks. Assuming that students thinned out their walls enough when they were hollowing, they should all survive the firing and be ready for glazing late this month or early next.

Gollum by Amy Matson, work alarmingly covered by plastic to keep it wet