Submitted by: Cindi Hiers
UNIT: Personal Identity - Sculpture
Lesson: Ceramic Sculpture Bust
Grade Level: High School

Lesson Summary:

Read through the book “Portrait Sculpting, Anatomy & Expressions in Clay” by Philippe & Charisse Faraut. Students were told to use other reference books, Internet sites, and view the slide library to gather visual information for their clay bust. Once students sketched an image of themselves they liked, they also wrote a paragraph or two on the emotion they wished to convey and why. Students were given a 16’x16’ block of Indian Red Clay and told to compose a bust of their self that can be viewed from all angles. The project had a 3 week deadline (8 class periods, 150 minutes each), this included the research and sketching exercises, clay work, fire time, glaze or painting time, and critique.

Objectives: Students will

1. View - describe - interpret busts sculpture from a variety of sources

2. Interpret self in 3 dimensional form - create sculpture to be viewed from all sides

3. Create bust with realistic proportions 

4. Create an expressive portrait bust - showing emotion 

5. Demonstrate craftsmanship and problem solving in using clay

Procedures:

1. Critique various sculpture bust through time - various styles - examine media used

2. From basic head and shoulder form from 16" clay block - remove clay (subtractive sculpture) - carve out clay as needed. Reclaim clay that has been removed.

3. Hollow impression for eyes - add balls for eyes (fuse to form) - add coil of clay for eyelids

4. Add nose and mouth - ears etc.

5. Cut top of head (or back of head) to hollow out - Clay should not be more than 1 inch thick. Fuse together 

6. Cushion bust to hollow out shoulders - reclaim removed clay.

7. Support bust with newspapers to continue working

8. Continue sculpting - finalize features

9. Add hair

10. Allow bust to thoroughly dry. Fire slowly. Fire with one switch on low over night if possible. Fire slowly will keep clay from exploding if too thick.

11. Finish with acrylic, stains or glazing.

Alternate approach:

1. Begin with wood and newspaper armature. Nail approximately 12" long 2"x2" wood to a wood board. Build up basic head and shoulder form with newspapers.

2. Begin forming bust with shoulders first - fuse on slabs of clay - continue by adding neck and head form.

3. Form features - Hollow impressions for eyes. Fuse on eyeballs - then add coils for eyelids.

4. Remove from armature when leather hard. Pull out newspapers and hollow out more if needed. Cut off top of head if necessary and hollow out more. 

5. Add hair - Hair works best if added in clumps (not stringy). 

When students finished critique was given in this format:

Describe:  Materials used

• Clay Body

• Reference Materials

• Other Media

Analyze:  How you put your work together

• Talk about at least 3 clay processes you used

Interpret: What your piece means

• Talk about what techniques you used to show emotion

Judge:  Class discussion.

• Written comments on each piece, talk about the means of expression, and if it     conveyed the emotion the artist intended. Turn in after critique is finished 

Suggestion from Diane Davis:

I use the extra features of "Shrek" (animation video) to teach facial expressions and form when we do clay faces. The extras show how they worked out every muscle in the face before animating the characters, and how those muscles move for specific expressions. As many as 150 separate muscle movements can be used for one expression.

National Standards

1. Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes	2. Using knowledge of structures and functions	3. Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas	4. Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures	5. Reflecting upon and assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others
Students apply media, techniques, and processes with sufficient skill, confidence, and sensitivity that their intentions are carried out in their artworks	Students demonstrate the ability to form and defend judgments about the characteristics and structures to accomplish commercial, personal, communal, or other purposes of art	Students reflect on how artworks differ visually, spatially, temporally, and functionally, and describe how these are related to history and culture	Students differentiate among a variety of historical and cultural contexts in terms of characteristics and purposes of works of art	Students identify intentions of those creating artworks, explore the implications of various purposes, and justify their analyses of purposes in particular works
Students conceive and create works of visual art that demonstrate an understanding of how the communication of their ideas relates to the media, techniques, and processes they use	Students evaluate the effectiveness of artworks in terms of organizational structures and functions	Students apply subjects, symbols, and ideas in their artworks and use the skills gained to solve problems in daily life	Students describe the function and explore the meaning of specific art objects within varied cultures, times, and places	Students describe meanings of artworks by analyzing how specific works are created and how they relate to historical and cultural contexts
	Students create artworks that use organizational principles and functions to solve specific visual arts problems		Students analyze relationships of works of art to one another in terms of history, aesthetics, and culture, justifying conclusions made in the analysis and using such conclusions to inform their own art making	Students reflect analytically on various interpretations as a means for understanding and evaluating works of visual art