Unit 1 Final
My famous artwork: Girl with the pearl earring
Background:
This painting was painted by Johannes Vermeer, a Dutch painter, in the 17th century (1665). Vermeer was considered one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age, who specialized in domestic scenes of middle-class life. This particular painting was a tronie, which means it was a character study, not a portrait; the identity of the girl is actually unknown, but thought to be a maid. I chose to bring this painting to life because I've always thought it was beautiful; I love the lighting and the colors, which contrast with the dark background. I also like the girl's expression and clothing, including her turban, so I thought it would be fun to sculpt her.
Plan:
The way I wanted to bring this painting to life was to make it into a sculpture. My plan was to...
1. Create a solid sphere for the head (will be hollowed out later)
2. Create a cylinder for the neck and another large shape for the body, score and slip all of the pieces together
3. Add details (facial features, earrings, head piece, etc...) by adding and taking away clay by scoring and slipping
4. Hollow out body and head
5. Glaze with blue and yellow underglazes, leaving the skin unglazed​​
Reflection:
Going into this project, I think I underestimated how hard sculpting her would be. I did my best, but even then it didn't look like her. I was still happy with it though, and liked the direction it was going. I picked out a brighter yellow and blue for her clothing and turban, but mixed them with white to tone them down, and then I used a bright white for her pearl earring. Unfortunately, even though I did hollow her head and body out, it was still too thick and exploded in the kiln. I believe I hollowed the body out enough, but not the head, because that was the part that exploded. This, combined with the fact that it probably wasn't completely bone-dry on the inside, caused this, which was also my fault for not starting sooner. In the future, I will start big projects so I have time to spare and will also spend more time making sure they'll make it through the kiln.