Weeks Nine and Ten: Sculpture with an Armature
My work is a cartoonish frog caught in mid dance. I used brown and white oil-based clay to add dimension to the skin of the frog as well as make it stand out from the background. I knew that the design would be difficult to support with such a fat body and skinny legs so I added a small tree stump to serve as support without taking away from the piece itself.
Some problems I encountered when designing your armature were figuring out how to make the legs support a disproportionate body. Another issue I had was that I am used to working with clay that dries and stiffens over time. So whenever I went to adjust something I would smush the clay because I am so used to it hardening. I made the appendages properly so that they would have plenty of support and they were skinny enough that they didn't require a lot of support. Now that I have completed the assignment some things I would change that would have made the sculpture easier to create would be making the gesture to be in a seated position so that the heavy body could rest on the ground and the skinny legs would not have to support all that weight.
