The First Head

Posted on by crow

SO, I started taking a sculpture class two years ago. I had never worked in any kind of art medium besides drawing (no, you won’t see any of those) since I was a teenager. Writing had been my thang for as long as I can remember. My stepfather was an artist and painted and encouraged me to do so, but when it came time to decide on a future, art major was argued down by both of my parents. No money it it, apparently.

So, almost 30 years later, I find myself somewhat disillusioned with my writing (no one wants my YA novels) and while the poetry is a very important and necessary creative outlet, I itched to do something with my hands. My wife and my daughter are both very talented artists, but I didn’t want to paint or draw or do digital art. Those were their pursuits, and I would always feel like I was crashing the party or playing catch-up. and I liked play-doh and sculpey  as a kid. Why not sculpture?

Below, you will see my first attempt at a human head. I have done more, and will post more later, but these things take a long time (for me) to do. If I put them all up now, I would have nothing else to talk about (who am I kidding? I never shut up).

The sculpture is not based on any one person. It is instead based on the ideal face, as my sculpture instructor puts it, the faces you see in mainstream advertising. The course I took was once a night for about three hours, for ten weeks.  It took that long (plus a handful of weekends) to get this young man into shape. Maybe about 40-50 hours total.

Anyway, I was pretty proud when I finished. Looking at it now, though, I think, so many things I would change…

I may follow up with some process pictures of this piece if I can find them. Thanks for looking in!

Published by crow

I'm a writer and a dabbler. I live in Washington.

26 thoughts on “The First Head”

  2. That is quite an achievement. I imagine it was extremely rewarding to see the sculpture take form over a period of ten weeks. Congratulations, I look forward to seeing more.

    1. Thanks. It was rewarding. I’ll write more about the process in other posts, I think. Certainly a fun way to work with your hands.

  4. I find the eye and hand for sculpture to be very different than that for the flat media. And difficult for me! Impressive. (K)

  5. I really like this! I’m no expert in sculpture but I like the look of him, and his hair especially looks so cool, I want to feel it ^_^
    My mom drew and painted but never sculpted. Her landscapes were decent but she had a lot of trouble with getting the mouth right when she drew faces

    1. Thanks so much. Of course, all I see are things that need fixing.

      Mouths are hard. So much more than just a line through face under the nose.

    1. Ha haha. So many questions! His hair was probably my least favorite thing to do, even though it turned out okay. It’s all about controlled chaos.

      His eyes are basically just scooped out. It give you that follow you everywhere effect.

      2. Well, you’ll have to stay tuned. That’s the first one I ever did from two years ago. I’ve got a handful of completed pieces and I’ll be posting them. But not all once…

  8. I think sometimes we must pursue certain things for our own self, irrespective of how the result turns out to be. That said, to me, for a first attempt, this looks pretty spectacular. I’ve always wanted to take a class in pottery, but there is no time. So, for the time being, I’m gathering joy from the artistic pursuits of others. Hope to see more of your work soon. 🙂

  9. That’s quite a lovely first piece! As for taking a second look at it and wondering what you’d do differently now, we all know that feeling never goes away! 🙂

Comments are closed.