Art from my first year at university

Hello Adventurers,

Here I will be outlining the art pieces I made for first semester of university classes and the inspiration behind it.

In first year, students try the 5 different majors and in my first semester we tried sculpture and ceramics.

Sculpture

Part 1

Soft sculpture 'Crazy creature'

in this task we had to combine 3 animals into one soft sculpture creature.

WIP Pieces

Head and the body of a Scottish fold cat

Bird wings that ended up looking like insect wings

Peacock tail feathers

The Character

This creature is a Lyn, a fantasy cat/bird hybrid similar to D&D's tressyms with bird tail feathers used to hunt pests and rodents.

He is the pet to my retired Dungeons and Dragons Character Vesper and this particular Lyn is a Scottish fold cat crossed with a white Peacock.

Part 2

Wearable sculpture

For this project, we were tasked with creating a wearable artwork. I designed a pair of wings inspired by the Atlas moth. My idea was to have then represent both a shield and a mask—something I could metaphorically hide behind. As someone who can be very emotional easily, the wings represented a social shield, a protective barrier. The moth's eye patterns were meant to ward off negativity, similar to how moths use their eye spots to scare away predators.


I did not like the outcome of this work, but I still like the idea.

WIP Pieces

Painting WIP

Atlas Moth inspiration

Character inspiration

Part 3

Talismans

For this brief:

"A talisman is an object believed to bring good luck. A rabbit's foot is an example of a talisman.
A magical object worn for protection against ill will, or the supernatural, or to confer the wearer with a boon such as good luck, good health, or power(s)."

To do this I made 5 little talismans jars to represent 5 of my dungeons and dragons' characters.

The idea was to have them suspended from a mirror as I like the idea of mirrors as portals where a representation of my characters was coming into this world.

Most of the talismans contained a dice and 2-3 small handmade miniature tools that represent the character such as their weapon or musical instrument.

In the end I couldn't attach my talismans to the mirror, so I just presented them under it but, I underestimated the hight of the ceiling, so it didn't really work.

WIP Pieces

The little raw clay elements

The same elements painted

Trying to attach them to the mirror

Ceramics

Part 1

Hand building

For this task I just followed the pinch pot techniques, and I decorated most of these with an ocean/underwater theme ranging from just using blue to making different types of corals.

Part 2

Slab rolling

For this task I rolled out slabs of paper clay and made them into little cups and a jug.

These pieces followed the same ocean themes with pirate bones, octopus tentacles and coral.


The small skeleton cup is one of my favourite pieces from this semester and I wish I had made it bigger.

Final Presentation

Part 3

Ritual piece.

This meant that we had to create a somewhat sculptural piece representing a ritual or something you do regularly.

For this I decided to create a Dungeons and Dragons dice tray as I play at least once a week. I also wanted to use an old logo I designed for the Dungeons and Dragons game I was running at the time.

This piece did not come out in the colours I was aiming for after the glaze fire so imagine that the pastel WIP is the final.

Final Presentation

This was the piece with which I learned how different underglazes can be from their pre-fired colours as well as how many layers underglazes need for full coverage, specifically on purple colours.

Task 4, A Commination

For this task you had to take techniques from both studios and combine them into one piece.

In this module I wanted to build on module 2 of both sculpture and ceramics to make a sculpture of the character that inspired the atlas wings while making these wings out of slab-rolled clay.

To do this I modified a Monster High doll by giving her a face up, rerooting her hair, giving her an extra set of arms and building her clothes.

This ceramic piece had the opposite effect from the last one. Where I wanted the last one pastel, I wanted this one bright but as I ran out of time it was 'once fired'.

WIP Pieces

Face up

Added arms

Backside of wings

© 2024 Sarah Mitchell