Realistic Face Rattles - Student Work

It's always fun to show off my Beginning Clay kids' face rattles.  They dread the assignment because they feel  they won't be able to do a realistic face, but it's neat cuz they surprise themselves with how well their pieces turn out.  

So let me start with senior Michael Marin and one of my favorite faces this year, above.  He's put so much personality into this work, and then I really like how he finished it off with both oxides and glazes.

Above senior Kelsey Chang did an outstanding job, I think the whole face looks especially realistic.  

And then below, junior Rita Labib did this wonderful Native American, complete with braids and feathers.

This very expressive piece above was made by senior Shayna Franklin, and I love how she glazed it.  

Below, senior Tim Chai's piece fell off the shelf before it was fired and broke in several pieces.  So after it came out of the glaze fire, he salvaged as many pieces as he could and glued them back together, then mounted the piece.

Fabulous Save Tim!!!

The very talented senior student, Jaimee Chirico created the piece above, and did a great job finishing it off.

And then junior Fernando Jacinto did this very expressive fellow below, using oxides everywhere, but glaze to highlight the eyes.

Another very talent kid, sophomore Ann Munoz, crafted this wonderfully expressive head.  As it fired it began to crack which really added a lot of interest.

I loved  the cracks, Ann wasn't so sure about them.

And this last grouping belongs to seniors Shaun Pak, Lorena Morales and Alice Cho.  

Congrats to all of you for a job well done.

A Short Road Trip

A couple of Sundays ago Jim had some business to do in Pasadena so I tagged along for the scenery. And was so glad I did. What a gorgeous day for a ride. The 57 Freeway was barely crowded...

there was tons of snow on the local mountains...

and the sky was crazy wild with thunderclouds.

I had forgotten how close Pasadena is to the mountains, and what a great downtown area they have for eating and shopping.

And since I was focusing on finding my muse for my sketchbook class, I just had to snap a shot of this cool grouping of rocks. Maybe I could use it to practice my sketching with.

I had also forgotten how interesting the architecture is in this older community.

But my favorite sight of the day was this sculpture, so monumental in scale, fabulous! For EXTRA CREDIT in my Beginning 2-D class only, on a piece of brown paper cut into the shape of a book, put the Chapter number from Art Talk on the back side of the book, the one that dealt with size, scale and proportions. On the front side put your name and period. A clue, it was one of the last Chapters I tested you on. :) Good Luck!