Week 9 Tues - Fri

Tuesday:

The students had to pick a persona for their skeleton. One student made an army soldier with a bazooka, while another student made Shakira. They had to bend the wire to fit the actions of their character before the clay was applied.

The students began putting on the DAS clay onto their armatures. The clay is somewhat dense, but was applied pretty well. I showed them on my example where to put the segments for the joints and the ribcage location. The material started to dry out toward the end of class so we put out some water dishes and a sprayer to keep them moist. The students didn't get finished modeling them.

Wednesday:

The students continued modeling their figures and adding details such as ribs and fingers. Most of the students seemed to work pretty well with the DAS clay, although some had some difficulty smoothing it out and balancing the figure because of figure form or clay weight. The main idea for today was to finish the figurative form and its details. The students finished so we left them uncovered to dry for the next day.

*For this project and for one similar, I don't think I would use this clay because it drys out too quickly for young artists. When it is drying out, it is hard to add more clay on top of it, so it has less chance of adhesion. This is a problem that I would rather not deal with especially with this age group because they get a little aggravated.

Thursday:

The students came in and began covering their projects with gesso. The gesso gave them a nice bright white appearance that the DAS didn't have. The DAS was a rather dull white. The gesso will also allow for other materials such as paint and glue stick a little better to the skeleton. This was a step that didn't take too long, but had to dry before the next step. The students finished applying the gesso and then we talked for the rest of the class. I asked one student what aspect of sculpture is different than 2D. He replied that "we get to see things for real and in 3D stuff".
I thought this was a good reply for a middle school student.

Friday

The students began painting the figures today. The students painted the bones on the body, if applicable because some were wearing clothes and some of the skeletons were girls. The bones were to be painted on very simply as the Mexicans do to their Day of the Dead sculptures. The students seemed to do very well painting on the bone lines and the skull features.

This project seemed as though it was challenging enough for them to keep their attention. they also had a lot of fun with the project as well becaus ethey all said that they enjoy sculpture and working with clay.