Module Ten- Art Making/Material Exploration Blog: Mask Making

#1. A bearded man with a colorful feathered headpiece. 
#2. A lizard looking animal with large scales, bright colors, a tongue sticking out, large dark eyes, and sharp teeth. 
#3. A bird mask with a large yellow beak and very long white hair surrounding its face. 

I chose these three masks because I knew I wanted to create a sort of tropical mask with bright colors, like you would see in the Caribbean. The tall head pieces on two of the masks create movement by leading the eye towards the tops of the mask. All of the masks have bright colors, and they all use pattern by having symmetry with the colors, head pieces, and the hair hanging off the bird. The hair also creates texture and the 3D features, and roughness of the facial features also creates texture. The large beaks on the birds are a focal point and create emphasis since it is protruding out and is one of the first things I noticed. The hair also shows the value between the hardness of the mask and the softness of the hair. The feathers on the mask of the man demonstrate balance between the tall and colorful feathers and the light skin of the man.  Lastly shape is used on the yellow and green spikes coming off of the lizard looking mask, the sharp edges and space between each spike gives the mask a more intense and animated feel. 

I used texture in my mask by using feathers as a head piece. The feathers show pattern by using certain colors a set sequence of colors. The beak also shows texture. I used small beads to cover to beak in all different shades of blue. The feathers and the beak balance out the rest of the face since they are 3d features and the face is 2d. The face is a pale shade of red so the bright blue beak is the focal point and is emphasized. Value is used since half of the face is a little bit darker with scales. While the other side is just shaded, this is hard to see in the photo. Shape is used with circles and stars around the eyes. And color is clearly used on the entire mask to make it vibrant and fun.  

Creating a mask is actually harder than it looks. It didn’t come out exactly how I planned. But I think I used many elements and principles which helped to make it look alright. I tried to used materials that were some what unconventional like beads and feathers. Overall this project, and all the material exploration projects we are assigned are a nice break from art history which can get a bit boring. It is a lot more fun to be creative than read a text book.