Model Making Week 2 - Playing with Clay

The main gist of the modelling class is to expose us to different modelling materials and have us experiment with them, eventually helping us define a set of materials and tools to suit whatever circumstances we face. This week we were using modelling clay, in particular plastilene. A modelling clay that you use "indefinitely" as it never sets. It is used to quickly create and explore forms, leaving the permanent samples to be created with other materials.

The bulk of the homework revolved around creating expressive figures of small and large variety, all of which you can see below.

As you can see, my expressions are  a little too subtle, leading to a little ambiguity of what they are actually expressing. They are also all very static, so overall they just aren't as interesting as they could be. I'd soon address this issue later in the week, but overall, working with human figures was one of my weaker points. Try guessing the expressions of the figures, you'll find an answer key at the end of this post.

The other part of the homework for the week was to create a clay sculpture of a car or a shoe. I don't know shoes, but I do know cars, and surprisingly as a person who used to dream of being a car designer, this is the first clay sculpture of a car I've ever made. I tried my best to make it a car of my own creation, but the keen eyes among you will see that it can be boiled down to being a composite of some more prominent supercars in existence. No matter, as I immensely enjoyed this task, and learned a lot, being the car person I am. While it does cut a nice, if somewhat conventional silhouette overhead, I do need to work on proportions. I also discovered yellow brown plastilene is far too soft a clay for a model of this size (at a little less than 3" x 6"), details and creases get smooshed too easily, so handling the model is a nightmare. That's another issue I would address later in the week.

With the feedback received in class for our clay human sculptures, we then moved back to abstraction. Choosing one expression, we were challenged to re-create it with the basis being a rectilinear form of a rectangular prism approximately 1"x 1" x 3". I had eventually moved to grey plastilene and while it's more difficult to shape, requiring more heat before it's mouldable, the way it held its form was more than worth the effort.

I tried my best to make this one expressive and dynamic, and with the feedback received in class, it's quite clear what mood this guy's in. And no, after it was finished I didn't have to defend my fingers and toes from its gaping maw!

So how did you go with the expressions?
Main: Thoughtful
Left to right, top to bottom:
Confused, surprised, dissappointed,
angry, scared, sad,
hopeful, apologetic, frustrated
annoyed.

Abstract expression: Anger