I love seeing unfinished sculpture as it develops. You see where all the lovely little details that ended up being essential to the finished piece first appeared. Sometimes you see how a really perfect expression was sort of ruined by an attempt to make more realistic hair. Strikes and gutters, my friends, strikes and gutters.
I usually take pictures of my work as it is underway because I find it the easiest way to actually see what is in front of me. I have a tendency to see only my favorite (or, on bad days, my least favorite) bits and ignore the fact that the head is out of proportion or that light hits the piece in a weird way. Pictures help to capture that. I take pictures as I'm leaving the studio and try not to look at them for a few hours. I usually last as long as the first red light on the drive home.
Occasionally, the best a piece will look is while it's completely unfinished, still in greenware. I have a picture in my Heads and Faces gallery of the eyes of one piece that I just love. The piece was called Approaching 40 and I wanted to exaggerate all the signs of aging and the dread of aging that I was feeling. I still love the finished piece, but my favorite picture is just these eyes. I posted this picture on Facebook and had someone ask if it was a picture of my eyes that I had played around with digitally. So, I guess the eyes really told the story. Also, I guess I must look quite a bit older than I thought . . . .