I began my project by brainstorming potential ideas for my first large project. I ultimately decided on creating a portrait of an old man and found a collection of reference photos to use. I focused on creating a slightly smaller-than-life-sized version of my reference photos. I spent the first few days this past week bulking out the main shape of the head, mapping out the features, and refining the proportions. I struggled a bit with the way the face was coming together in relation to the rest of the head and found that the angles I was basing my structure on were off. While working on the head I had to do a lot of reworking of my already established features and forms in order to ensure they all fit together. I have yet to finish this sculpture, but I am hoping to finish it in the next week or so and move on to a larger body sculpture. 

Additionally, I found that it was difficult to stay working on the same sculpture for the entirety of my 25 hours last week so I split my time working on my sculpture, throwing on the wheel, sketching potential reference photos, learning more about the process of drawing the figure, and planning a painting that I will be completed later on in this project. I have enjoyed throwing in the past, but haven’t been able to do it for a few months and so it was very nice to be back in the studio working on the wheel. I also really have enjoyed sketching from references and watching videos to help me understand how to visualize the body. Sketching has been really helpful for understanding the proportions of the body as well as seeing the body in terms of shapes rather than outlines. I have also found that I really enjoy sketching and hope to develop those skills throughout the project. Looking forward to the rest of this week, I will be preparing grounds for my first painting, selecting a final reference photo, and hopefully beginning the process of creating the painting. Adding a painting to my project is definitely an added level of difficulty, but I think painting the figure will add a lot to my visual conceptualization of the body and allow my sculptures a greater amount of depth. I also hope to find a new passion in painting and be able to express myself in a manner that is much different than that of sculpture. 

Coming into the project, I didn’t expect to have the amount of freedom to add new aspects to my project and really find what I am interested in and be able to decide to change things up to meet my interests. I am really grateful for this freedom and I am excited to see what I decide to do in the future. In addition, my expectation for this project has definitely been exceeded and I am really proud of how responsible I have been in managing my time, holding myself accountable, and staying on track.