For this assignment, I was told to recreate a life-like sculpture of a food of my choice. Some of my brainstorming ideas consisted of the avocado toast, strawberry shortcake, sorbet, and apple pie. I chose avocado toast, because I felt that I could really make it look good. Here are some reflections of this piece.
I would say the craftsmanship of this piece is very nice. I think I executed the textures and proportions very well, as well as the colors and values of the different components. I would say my most well executed part is the egg and bread. Using the coffee grounds really helped add the grainy texture I wanted. The most difficult part of this project should have really been the easiest. The colors. Especially with the glaze, I could not get a nice color for the egg yolk, so it eventually turned into a mix between yellow and orange. I also forgot one of the rules of sculpting, and accidentally painted a layer of white acrylic, and then painted it with glaze. Once it was fired, it was all chipping off. To build this piece, I used clay techniques like scoring, slab constructions, and coil construction. The scoring was to connect all of the individual pieces together, the slab construction was for the toast, egg, egg yolk, and avocado, and the coiling was for the crust of the bread. The most accurate colors on my sculpture are the egg and the avocado, while the bread is on the more inaccurate side. The dull, but bright shade of green for the avocado is replicated nicely, as well as the off-white tone of the egg, and the orange-yellow of the yolk. The bread on the other hand is a little more yellow than what I envisioned, and the crust is a little too dark as well. I also loved how the red plate complimented the green of the avocado. I would say the sculpture is interesting from all views, because it has multiple layers to it. So, from all angles, you can see the bread, avocado, and then egg. Although it's a pretty flat sculpture, I think the dimensions look nice from all angles. Constructing a sculpture is very different than constructing something in 2D. For one, you have to make sure it looks neat and even from all angles, and you have to make sure it looks exactly proportionate to the reference photo. I feel like with 2D work you're able to easily get away with slightly off proportions. When constructing a sculpture, you also have to bring the values to life, adding shadows and light directly onto the piece, instead of painting or drawing a shadow. I created texture in my sculpture with paint, coffee grounds, and sculpting tools. I used paint on the edges of the egg to give a crispy look, as well as coffee grounds to add the texture of toasted bread. Using the carving tools, I carved lines in the avocado to give it a more realistic look. Using paint, I used multiple colors on the crust to give it a burnt look. I think my sculpture does look like the actual food, and I'm honestly not sure how I accomplished it, because this was my first time working with clay since elementary school. I think what makes it look the most realistic is the proportions. My research of pop artists didn't really influence my piece, I kind of just went with the flow, and used patience so I could get it done without rushing. If anything from the pop artist research did influence my work, it would be the use of colors, and making them as vibrant as possible. If I were to do this differently, I would plan out my colors better, and make sure I followed all the rules of sculpting. I messed up one rule, and had to redo a whole section. Overall, I really enjoyed this project, and learning how to sculpt. This was definitely one of my favorite projects this semester!