Skip to content

Course Syllabus

ART 2660 Portrait Sculpture

  • Division: Fine Arts, Comm, and New Media
  • Department: Visual Art
  • Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 3; Lecture: 3; Lab: 3
  • Prerequisites: ART 1110
  • Semesters Offered: TBA
  • Semester Approved: Fall 2021
  • Five-Year Review Semester: Fall 2026
  • End Semester: Summer 2027
  • Optimum Class Size: 12
  • Maximum Class Size: 15

Course Description

This studio course is an introduction to the art of portrait sculpting, emphasizing the techniques and process of rendering the human image and likeness. Demonstrations, lectures and assignments are used to inform and develop students' sensitivity and understanding of effective portrait sculpting. The exploration of basic clay modeling and casting techniques will be covered. This course will address the fundamental processes consistent in historic and contemporary portrait sculpting practices. A lab fee is required.

Justification

This course is an integral part of figurative art foundation curriculum for visual arts programs in the country. Its primary goal is to provide a sound foundation in the visual representation and composition of the human head and features. Our colleagues from other fine arts institutions and commercial industries have encouraged us to make available as much figurative study as possible to emerging painters, illustrators, animators, sculptors.

Student Learning Outcomes

  1. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate an understanding, proficiency, and fluency in the following Snow College Visual Arts Student Learning Outcomes of Material Proficiency:
  2. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate an understanding, proficiency, and fluency in the following Snow College Visual Arts Student Learning Outcomes of Conceptual Principles:
  3. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate an understanding, proficiency, and fluency in the following Snow College Visual Arts Student Learning Outcomes of Historical Context:
  4. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to demonstrate an understanding, proficiency, and fluency in the following Snow College Visual Arts Student Learning Outcomes of Critical Analysis:

Course Content

•Sculpting from live models, and photographic reference.•Methods of photographing models to develop effective reference materials•Exercises designed to train the mind to consciously recognize angle, size, position, form, and texture relationships•Study of armature materials and construction techniques•Study of various sculpting clays, and the traditional and contemporary applications of each•Application of various mold-making, casting, firing, and surface finishing processes•Methods of clay manipulation and tool use•Anatomical study of the muscles and bones of the head and neck•Study of the similarities and differences of the human head based on gender and cultural morphologyPortraiture has been an integral part of artistic practice in nearly every civilization throughout the world for millennia. Students will be introduced to cultural and historical approaches to portraiture and the impact those approaches have had on aesthetics and on material processes.