FREEDOM final piece

stages of modelling
here you can see how the face of my final piece was created, how I built up the layers of clay and what techniques I used. Without any real picture to look at while creating the face and me working from pure imagination, it helped me try to replicate what I thought the average man looks like. This face is meant to be that of an average British man, working class. I decide to do this because in regards to censorship and having no right to freedom of speech, the average person is not high in power and is bound by the decisions of a higher authority; one that could be likely to censor what they say (no example).

here I have already added eyebrows, nose and started the eyes.

to make the eyes, I pushed in clay beneath the eyebrows to make sockets and then stuck simple blobs inside.

now the eyes have been sculpted with various tools to show eyelids and distinguish the eyeballs

now, the mouth, cheek bones and other simple details have been added. the eyes have now been smoothed out and restarted so i could make them look more realistic

the lips were simply made by adding a cylinder of clay to the mouth and carving it into shape.

the nostrils can been seen here as well as good depth in the eyes and brows

detail in the eyes has been added again aswel as smoother cheeks and around the mouth

the ears were put on as simple wads of clay before being moulded into shape and carved out. creases in the brow are now more prominent and face muscles shown more clearly

the hair is started with a sheet of thin clay placed over the top of the head

it is then molded around the head and details of depth are added

the finished model before painting, the eye now features a tear trickling down the face and etched details on the eyebrows, mouth, cheeks and hair are now present

here i have painted it white and with grey tones, created more depth within the cracks and crevasses. I think however, the final painted version may have looked better in normal colours, but I am very pleased with the outcome of this in black and white. I feel that it captures a comic book style of which is relevant to the work of Frank Miller, and the face looks darker in tone and has a ghostly feeling about it.

The final piece. Plasters have now been added to the man's senses, rendering him unable to speak, hear or see. These being imperative for human survival, the plasters are meant to derail the idea of the man being able to survive, and with the plasters used as a good metaphor for being censored in mine and Frank Miller's work, it ties in with censorship directly. THe main objective of the piece is to prove that just because you are not being physically prevented from speaking, listening or seeing freely, it makes no difference from being told what not to watch or say. I think I have achieved this. At first glance and without the rest of my work, it is quite vague in its message, but this fact adds to a mystery and would like to think that it intrigues people. It is more or less entirely based upon the drawing by Frank Miller that I attempted myself at the start of the project, I had planned not to stray far from the metaphor from the beginning due to it being very effective in its message. Although the man has a smirk and generally upbeat expression, the tear is the final touch that creates a disturbing aura and shows that although he is trying not to show it, the man is in pain. The plasters are meant to be the most detailed aspect of the piece, so I regret not making them more interesting; perhaps making them more tatty as if they were old or painting blood on parts of them would make it more disturbing as a whole. The grey tones are good in the way that they add depth to the face but I should have made them darker. Overall, the final piece is a direct metaphor to censorship and freedom of speech, of which I think is clear. I have stayed close to comic book art in the style of the features of the face and added a dark message behind it as I intended.