My first inspiration is the "Little dancer of fourteen years of age." I saw this sculpture in the Smithsonian museum back when I lived in DC and it is an amazing sculpture to see in person. This summer I watched a video on how the Smithsonian gave a new skirt to the dancer and they did a whole research project to see what would be most accurate on her. After that I wanted to make a sculpture of a woman. Therefore I made Degas my inspiration. I love the proud posture the girl has in the picture and how poised she is. I definitely want that attitude in the sculpture I make. Another thing is the detail of the sculpture. I find it amazing how much there is and I want plenty of detail like this does. As for material goes I will be using a red clay, therefore there will be a bit of color when it comes to the sculpture.
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My second inspiration is Matti Haupt. He is Finnish sculptor that lived in the 20th century. His sculptures really focus on posture and form of the female body. This is something I truly want to incorporate into my piece of work. I want to highlight and almost exaggerate the female form so there is a definite emphasis on the meaning and metaphor for this project. I want the model to be sitting down for two purposes. I can manipulate the clay to be super exaggeration and show every sharp angle of the female body. However, I also have only drying clay and a standing model would be hard to dry out without collapsing.
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All my sketches involve the positioning the of the body. With play it's hard to figure out what kind of pose to do and what would work with the weight of the clay. My preliminary sketch is a woman laying down. I wanted very exaggerated figures on the lady. Really strong features in this sketch are the hip bones and shoulders. This is also based off of Egon Sheile and his sketches. This would be the easiest to do since it doesn't require any standing and the drying process would be easy. The skirt however would probably be cut from it since it is hard to see such exaggerated figures through a skirt that limits that.
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My second sketch is mostly influenced by Edgar Degas and his little dancer. I was still wondering if it would be better to have her sitting than standing. Of course I still incorporated those exaggerated figures. However, this woman is seldom and her body language communicates that she isn't comfortable. I was leaning between "should I keep her full of pride or should I have her showing uncomfortable body positions." It took a long time for me to decide this.
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Sketch three was something very different from the others. These gestures are big and bold. Very open and outgoing is what I see. I interpret confidence when I see these poses, unlike the last sketches. This really adds to the meaning and manipulates it another way. However, I don't think I'm going to use the big gestures since it counteracts my meaning and metaphor of the piece. It all depends on which one's to do.
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The first step to the sculpture is the head. The first thing I did was figure out the shape of the head. I added a lot of extra clay in the back of the head due to it sitting and laying down with it. The extra part will prop up the head and keep it elevated. The softer, flatter side is where I will be constructing the face.
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Here is the profile of the woman. Very strong nose bridge to emphasize those dramatics. Of course there is the lips and the forehead. Again, this is a little weird in the head shape but there is a reason for that.
Then lastly I did the very dramatic body. It is a very weird pose and kind of sensual, however it really contorts the body so I could add that emphasis in it. |
Looking back, the biggest influence in my sculpture was Egon. However, one thing that I used was the high head and proud, neutral expression. For the head, I used a lot of realism. I added a few extremities such as the nose that is a bit exaggerated. These are the similarities. For convenience purposes, I made the woman laying down. I had to use clay that dries, therefore having a standing model was too heavy and it kept sagging. In the end, I didn't make her a dancer. I didn't really like the idea.
My second inspiration was Egon Schiele. I love the way he exaggerates his work and make it really different looking. I wanted to bring an aspect of that into the sculpture I was making. Therefore I made the hips and bust drastically different. However, the face has little exaggeration and that is where Degas' impact is more seen. |