Mask #119: Lemon-Yellow Fellow Mask

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This lemony mask started out with a tinfoil and masking tape base built over my favourite mask form. I cut out an eye mask shape first, giving it small round eyes, then used a piece of the jaw to create the nose shape, trimming it until I was satisfied and then taping it to the eye mask. After I'd covered the whole thing with another layer of masking tape to bring it all together I gave it a coat of gesso and let it dry. Then I started layering on the yellow tissue paper using varnish, purposely varying the thickness and placement of the tissue to make the colour deeper in some spots and lighter in others. The ties will probably be plain white ribbon.


I'd planned to give this some colour using transparent washes of acrylic paint, but liked the richness of the yellow so much that I left it as is. The texture really carries it, so it's not boring and plain. I know that this guy seems birdlike at first look, and maybe even second and third, but the more I look at it the more it seems alien and person-like rather than avian. So, I didn't call it a bird mask, but just a yellow fellow.

Bonus Art: Developing a new style

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"Untitled"
16x20
paper, acrylic paint and varnish

I had some canvas left over after Commingle Too, so was inspired to create something new. I've used tissue paper a LOT in 365 Masks and have grown more and more interested in the textures and colour effects I can achieve with it. I didn't start out with a specific theme in mind with this one, just layering blue tissue paper over black using varnish and coaxing as much crinkling and texture as possible.

When I let that dry and then give it a wash of diluted gold paint it turned into a deep-sea dark-greenish blue and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I used more diluted gold paint to add some impressionistic deep-sea effects, then finished it off with a single fish cut from a sheet of paper patterned with pumpkins, if you can believe it. I'd bought it for the colour, not the subject matter, and it worked perfectly for this. A couple of coats of varnish later and it was finished!

This is not a perfect shot, by any means, but I like how the side lighting highlights the texture of the tissue paper background. Colour-wise it's actually pretty accurate, although some subtleties have been lost in the gold paint.

Bonus Art: Commingle Too!

As many of you know I recently showed some pieces in Michele Jacot's show, Commingle Too; the second of its kind. It was a fantastic event and everyone had a great time. I showed pieces in Michele's first Commingle event as well, so this year I was much more relaxed about the whole thing and had much less nervousness about showing my work.

Michele had seen some of my cut paper work before and requested some similar pieces for the show. I obliged, although since I ended up using a different technique the look of these pieces is quite different from the ones she'd seen before. People actually kept assuming they were paintings rather than paper media.

The lighting at Hugh's Room wasn't terribly conducive to taking photos, and there were lots of glare issues as a result of the acrylic medium, but these are the best shots that Andrew was able to get that night after trying multiple angles. Without further ado, here they are:

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"Brown On Blue"
16x20
paper and acrylic medium

The octopus is my favourite, and was the piece used for the silent auction that night. I was thrilled in the end that it went to the home of a dear, lovely friend and may actually end up enjoying shared custody between two dear, lovely friends! I was so in love with both of the papers that I used for this that I plan to use up every single scrap that's left from them.

"Mostly Positive"
4 8x10
paper and acrylic medium

These four trees were all about the funky paper I used to cut them out of. It was a series of patterned paper and I couldn't resist the colours and designs. They reminded me of the seasons and each tree is actually mean to represent one of the four. I know which, but I'll let you decide for yourselves.

"Three Little Friends"
12x16
paper and acrylic medium

I used more of the beloved octopus paper for this one, and then used pages from the destroyed book, "The Little Friend," to add the birds and cloud. The title is obviously a play on the book name, but my favourite part of this piece is that the text on the pages used is from a very scary and disturbing bit from the later chapters and so if you read it it really clashes with the cute, friendly feel of the piece. This one is also now living with a dear, lovely friend. The friend who gave me the book in the first place!

"Warming Weather"
8x16
paper and acrylic medium

I had the positives from the trees I cut out for the "Mostly Positive" piece and wanted to put them to good use, so created this as a sort of complementary piece. I used more pieces of pages from "The Little Friend" for the background and layered a single sheet of pale blue crinkled tissue over it, then added the bookend trees. I liked the feeling it gave me of trees at the tail end of winter when the air is warming but it's still too cool for buds.

Masks #117 and #118: Cut Paper Variation Masks

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These masks are made only out of paper and water-based varnish. I drew out the design that I wanted on the patterned paper and used an exacto knife to cut out the interior designs. After that was done I traced the outlines on the blue background paper and cut that out, plus the eyeholes. I coated the front of the blue paper with varnish, smoothed the patterned piece onto it and then heavily coated the patterned piece with varnish as well, smoothing out any wrinkles if they appeared. When the fronts dried I then flipped them over and coated the back sides with varnish. I didn't add ties to these ones yet, but if you're making this project with kids just use a hole punch or poke a hole through by the eyes and tie ribbon on, or make it into a stick mask with a stick and a bit of hot glue.

I was once again trying to come up with an easy mask project that could be done with kids as well. The techniques that I used aren't totally kid-friendly, but can be modified pretty easily. I know that Crayola makes a thing called a Crayola Cutter that is designed to let kids cut holes in paper without using an exacto knife, and instead of varnish you can easily use decoupage medium or even plain old white glue. I like that these ones are basically waterproof and the varnish really gives them durability while still being flexible. Decoupage medium and white glue would not be waterproof at all.

Next time I make masks like these, though, I'll have to be more careful when applying the varnish on the back. You can see on the first one especially that some beaded up on the front edges and discoloured a bit.