Process: Self-Portrait Sculpture

Over the past month, I have been working on my self-portrait sculpture, made of clay with a wood and plastic armature. This project in particular has been challenging for me, as I am not extremely confident in the medium of clay. However, I do feel that I have learned a lot, both about clay and the face in general.

After completing my 2D self-portrait, it was really interesting to see how a face's features feel so different in the 3D. For example, while completing my 2D self-portrait, I was mainly concerned with the distance between features like the eyes, nose, and mouth, and less of how they actually connected. When completing a 3D sculpture, I really noticed how the ridge of the nose transitioned into the brow bone, how the jaw connects to the ear, and how the lips present themselves with distinct relation to the nose. In that way, sculpting was an extremely rewarding process, as it taught me anatomy in a whole new way.

The project, nevertheless, was challenging. It was particularly difficult for me to make the eyes proportionate to the rest of the face, especially the nose. While I am happy with how the nose turned out, I still feel the eyes aren't quite right. At the end, though, I am still very happy that I was able to experience this project, and I feel I learned a lot about clay and the face overall.