As part of a one-day Life Drawing project at university, we were asked make masks so that we might created themed tableaus for people to draw from. We were given three briefs for us to choose from; Goblin Market by Rossetti, The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier, and Shiny Shiny Boots of Leather by Velvet Underground.
Making The Mask
I’ve often enjoyed designing and drawing fantasy characters. Monsters are usually my specialty, so Rosetti’s Goblin Market felt like a perfect fit for me.
I started out by sketching up a few rough designs and picked the one that most resonated me, which was a design that followed closely to the goblin designs of Chris Riddell. After this phase came the challenge of turning it into a mask. Since the design I chose was 3D, Modroc felt like the best material to use.
For the base of my mask I used a cheap paper mask I bought from a craft. On top of it I used masking tape, cardboard, and paper to build up the structure of the mask. I also used cardboard to shape out the ears and taped them to the side of the mask. After I found the shape I wanted, I applied Modroc and continued applying layers to build out the nose, brows and chin.
With the base of the mask complete, I attached strips of brown paper to represent hair, braiding some of them together to give the mask some interesting detail. The final steps then involved hot-gluing strips of strong elastic to the back to attach it to my head and then outlining the eyes and lips with a mixture of coffee and ink. The shawl I made to finish off the costume was a quick job of stitching together scraps of hessian with twine.
I learned a lot from the process of making this mask that I expect will impact my practice in the future. I’ve never used Modroc at length before taking on this project. In fact, I haven’t really worked in 3D at all outside of small projects when I was much younger. While it was a big challenge, I found it very enjoyable. I relished the problem solving aspects and it was satisfying to have a tangible end product. The fact that I was recreating a character of my own design also made the project particularly enjoyable. I’m certain that I would like to experiment with more 3D work in the future, although looking at some of the obstacles I had to work through, I know that in future I will take more time to plan the process rather than jumping in head first like I did.
Life Drawing
On the day of the life drawing event, I noticed that most of my observational drawings focused on the masks rather than the compositions of the tableaus. This probably has something to do with my affinity for character design, but it is something that I would like to address in the upcoming project. I would like to practice constructing scenes rather than drawing characters floating in space like I have gotten used to doing.
A positive thing that I took away from the experience is that I am improving on my ability to observe and capture detail without going overboard. I usually tend to waste time trying to perfect minor details when I observe from real life, but drawing these masks allowed me to practice drawing quickly.
Most of my sketches from the day were quite basic, but there was enough information in them that I was able to go back later on and develop them with watercolour and ink.
Overall, I found the project to be a very positive experience. I thoroughly enjoyed making my mask and made a note to make more of them at a later date. I have even been mulling over the idea of making a photography series using the mask I mad and others. Drawing other people’s masks also gave me an opportunity to experiment with my style and practice fast and efficient observational drawing.
alicia hempsted 