Sgraffito Sculpture

The subject of this project is a fox that has different parts of its environment scratched into it, which could possibly qualify as the setting. The sculpture was made using a few different clay techniques such as pinching for the head and body; coil for the neck and legs; and slab for things like the tail, ears, and part of the legs. After the rough form was made, I could then begin to scrape it once it dried out to get the surface smooth, and closer to the final shape. The black underglaze was painted on in 3 light coats, then I drew the design I was thinking of directly onto it with a soft pencil. I began with the larger white sections like the tip of the tail, chest and ears, using a hooked tool which put a nice texture into it, looking like fur. I then used various scratching tools to do the rest of the design on the back. I chose to create this specific sculpture of a fox because this, along with a trout, was the first animal to come to mind. The specific elements and principles of design I used on this fox are line, texture, space, contrast, and pattern. This is composed fairly evenly with some of the weight being put to the side of the tail, but the designs are spread out fairly well across the whole sculpture.

The composition rules and techniques shown in this sculpture are formal balance since it is able to stand on its own and the design is balanced across the whole fox, leading lines since the lines in the mountains lead your to the center of the piece, and high horizon line since the horizon line of the mountains on the fox's back is above the middle of the piece. My project evolved because originally I was unsure of how to do the eyes and figured it out as I went; this also happened with the tail because I didn't originally plan on doing a river, but it just happened. Also, I came across the fur texture by mistake while I was trying to get large amounts of the black off, then I purposely starting using it because I liked how it looked.

The meaning behind this artwork was, for me, to get more practice using clay, and to create a project I was actually proud of, but it could also be to represent to habitat that the fox lives in. This project relates to my life because I live in Maine and was tasked to create an animal that lives in Maine. I think this sculpture could be stronger if I had added in more designs and details when scratching it because there are large white and black spaces that look a bit plain.