self portrait

Self Portrait 2: The Making of

ceramics, FAT Project, Personal Projects, The Kiln Rooms/Ceramic works
The sculpture right at the start, built up out of shapes
my desk set up at home

A photo of the self portrait 2 sculpture in the early stages- you can see how the body has been built up of shapes stuck together
another early stage photo- you can see how parts have started to be smoothed out
the back of the sculpture in the early stages- you can see that the back and bum area are still quite flat and need more work
the finished greenware sculpture- you can see details like pubic hair, nipples and stretchmarks have been sculpted in
the sculpture after bisque firing- it is now completely white and ready to be glazed
a photo of the bisque sculpture being sprayed with glaze in a booth set up
the glazed sculpture before firing
the finished sculpture after the glaze firing, photographed in the grass at a local park
another photo of the sculpture in the grass, from a different angle

This was my second self portrait sculpture made over a few months in 2021- this one of my torso and upper thighs standing up, but still missing the arms and legs. I definitely became more confident with sculpting during this process, as you can tell by the detailed pubic hair, stretch marks, and nipples visible in the photos before glazing. The shapes are definitely more refined and less rough than the first self portrait sculpture I made, and I was really happy with the overall shape and sculpt. Unfortunately because I went for a thicker, opaque glaze that is made for dipping a lot of this detail was lost in the glaze firing, as the glaze obscured and covered up a lot of those details. I hoped that spraying the glaze (rather than dipping) would prevent this, but as you can see that didn’t work. The glaze also came out patchy on the shoulder area and inner thigh area, although you can’t really tell from the photos here.

I think if I wanted to attempt something so detailed in the future some solutions could be using a thinner, transparent brush on glaze, or just sculpting it on a much larger scale, which is something I would like to try once I get a bit more confident. Despite all the hiccups I can see how much I’ve improved already since my first self portrait, and I’m excited to keep practicing and trying new things!