Midterm

I knew that this last Tuesday was going to be our midterm in the class, but I had no idea what it would be. We were told that there would be no way to prepare for it, so I just went into class with no expectations or anything. We first went over traditional sculpture. Then we received the assignment. It was the best midterm I have ever had. We had a "contest" to either sculpt something out of spam or soap. I was thinking about using spam, but it all was passed out before I really decided, so I had to go with soap.

We had to have something done by class on Thursday and I was thinking, "I can't get this done in time!" I had no idea what to make out of the soap. I was asking people throughout the day what I should make, and I never received an idea that I really liked. I was thinking about soap and what it's used for. I was thinking about the culture that's associated with it, and I thought of washing your mouth out with soap. It's something of the past now, but I had to do it when I was little and I know others did too. I thought of making a mouth with a piece of soap coming out. I liked it, but didn't know if I would be able to make it look good.

To start, I made some sketches of a mouth. Then I just grabbed the soap, lightly outlined some lines, but then just carved away. I was surprised at how easy it was to carve the soap. I have never used it like this before. I shaved the top to get rid of the dial written on it too. It didn't take me too long to make the whole thing either. I was expecting it to take me awhile, but it really didn't because the soap shaved off so easily. I didn't try to make it realistic, I wanted it to be kind of like those mouths you see as examples at dentists. So here is my mouth, it's not completely finished here:

When we turned them in, we had to leave the class for awhile then come back to see who won the prizes. Everyone did a really good job on their sculptures. I was really impressed. It was nice because after we knew who won we just had to take them over to the PA building and then we were free to leave. I only had one more day to go and then a week of break! (The only thing is that I will be doing many posts over this break to get myself caught up).