In this project, we had to create a clay tile based on a biome. The two biomes that I researched were the tundra and deciduous forest. After we had researched our biome we had to make our own tile which as much more difficult than I would have expected. After we had our tiles made we could finally start to build onto our tile using a background, middleground, and foreground. Once all the clay was crafted on the tile, they were fired in the kiln for a few days. After they came out, we could finally paint and finish our tiles.
My source for inspiration was the tundra. This biome is normally covered in snow, but I decided to show it during the warmer months to show more vegetation and mountains for a better composition. Also, I could include more colors into my tile this way.
The main new material that we worked with in this project was clay. I found working with clay to be very difficult. It was hard to make sure it had to right amount of moisture in it because it could easily because too dried out or too wet to mold. Also, there were many rules that we had to follow in order to make sure that our clay stuck together or didn't explode in the kiln. I didn't really like how messy it was either. Overall, I didn't enjoy my experience with the clay too much.
When I first started sculpting, I had this vision in my head that I thought would make it look so great, but the more I tried doing what I imagined the worse my tile looked. I had this idea to sculpt out individual pieces of grass. I knew that this would take a while but I thought it would look so great, in the end the pieces of grass look more like fingertips. I had to ask a classmate to help me to figure out how to fix it, and finally she helped me make some changes to my tile to help me fix the grass and everything else I had managed to mess up. After that, my tile looked pretty decent.
I am decently pleased with how my tile turned out and how after painting it, the colors really helped to make it look better.