An art project he did in high school is coming full circle for art teacher Fred Rodriguez as he brings back an assignment from when he was a student. Over the past few weeks, the ceramics class started working on a three-week project to make sculpture busts of either a famous person or someone they know.

“I like to do it towards the end because students have learned a lot about ceramics and this project applies all their skills into one project,” Rodriguez said.

Not only can they apply their newly learned skills, but they can learn new things such as placement of facial features.

“The point is to help students understand facial proportions and to be able to build by using a model/reference,” Rodriguez said.

To start out the project each student had to choose the person they wanted to sculpt and then draw them from three different views. They consisted of a straight-on view, side view, and three-quarter view. 

“I liked making the sketches using a reference photo,” senior Anika Roberts said. “It was fun and easier than sculpting! But it’s always fun to sit and talk with everyone even if we’re all struggling.”

Each student chooses their person for a different reason but Roberts chose her person because of an interesting fact.

 “I chose Julia Roberts because I think she has a recognizable face and I liked Pretty Woman,” Roberts said. “I think the process is different for everyone. I started by sculpting a nose out of a ball of clay and then adding features based off of that. It’s a very organic process and sometimes you need to add clay and sometimes you have to remove it in places to make it look right.”