Mask Modeling Part I

At the very beginning of the project, I was a bit nervous to work with clay.  I always thought that I wasn't very good at hands-on projects and didn't know how to go about "sculpting".  But by paying close attention to instructions and after experimenting with the clay more and more, I eventually became comfortable while I worked.  My nervousness faded and i began to have fun working with a different media.  
After being shown what could happen if the clay wasn't properly handled, I became nervous again, but it helped me to pay better attention to what I was doing.  We were first to create the shape of a face about the length of our back board.  That took about two class periods to finish.  The next step was to experiment with different textures to figure out which ones would work with our mask and which ones fit into what we were ultimately trying to achieve in designing our mask.  This experimentation led me to finally come up with a final make-up of what I wanted my mask to look like. Within the next class period, we were able to create a contoured shape for the mask as opposed to it just being flat, by using crumpled up newspaper sheets.  After this was done, I went on to attaching the common features of the face.  I went on ahead without any instruction, but it turned out I took the right approach in doing so.  I feel that this was by far my favorite part of the project because I got to see firsthand how versatile clay was as different shapes could be made over and over until you were satisfied with the overall outcome.  It is here that we stop and wait for our mask to dry before the final stages.  :)