RISD Students Create Portraits in Clay in Figure Modeling Ceramics Studio

Students in a spring Ceramics studio called Figure Modeling are creating life-size portraits of a live model in water-based clay. Taught by faculty member Ann Hirsch, the course focuses on symmetry, proportion and anatomy as well as gesture and aesthetic interpretation of form.

Hirsch’s intention is to facilitate three-dimensional thinking and a heightened awareness of the interplay between visual and tactile information about the human body. In her own practice, she works with a diverse range of materials—from clay to resin, wood and bronze—making pieces that merge her formal figurative training with contemporary approaches.

“What we want to do always is move from the general to the specific,” she tells the class as she circles the room offering feedback and advice about portraits in progress. Alexandra, the session model, is perched on a stool in the middle of the studio, a serene expression on her face. The students form a circle around her as they finish the in-class portraits, using their hands and small tools to make last-minute adjustments.

Some of the heads bear a striking resemblance to the model’s; others are more interpretive, incorporating the artists’ inner visions of the human face. Students periodically step back to view the work in progress or mist their sculptures with water to keep the clay from drying out.

When the timer sounds, work stops and the students move their portraits into a semicircle for brief critiques. Hirsch asks them to place the clay skulls they created for a previous assignment alongside their portraits so she can check their understanding of underlying bone structure.

“It looks more like my sister than the model,” sophomore Nat Stasiukiewicz 27 CR remarks when his turn comes around. “Every portrait is a combination of the model and the artist’s point of view,” Hirsch responds. “We all have prototypes for faces in our minds that can become the default.” She goes on to praise Stasiukiewicz’s well-resolved sense of form and the visible planes in the cheeks and overall symmetry.

First-year student Kaz Biniak 28 SC has also got a good grasp on symmetry but is struggling a bit with proportion. “It seems a little long in the face and short in the skull,” Hirsch notes, “possibly because the stand you started with was a little too short for you. You want to work as close as possible to eye level, and remember that your calipers are your best friends for double-checking proportion.”

Hirsch is a force of positive energy throughout the crit, offering each student encouragement and laser-focused feedback. She repeatedly refers back to the human skull she holds in her hands, pointing out features that could be more prominent in the student pieces: the maxilla, the parietal eminence or the zygomatic arch. She encourages students to crouch down and view their portraits from below or from off to the side. “Try moving around and seeing it from different angles,” she says. “Form reveals itself to us in space.”

Simone Solondz / photos by Kaylee Pugliese
March 20, 2025