Today we began making our masks for the Greek theatre scene. We bought masks instead of using plaster of Paris to save time. Once we took the masks out of the packets, we drew our designs we had made on to the mask itself. We then cut out the areas of the mask that we don't need; these areas were the mouth (as a Greek mask convention is to have a large mouth) and eye/nose area (as the mask didn't actually fit me at all). Moreover, I had to trim the forehead down as the mask was far too big for me. After we had cut our masks down to our desired shape, we used PVA glue to stick pieces of scrap paper over the whole mask to give it extra strength. We also used more paper to give more dimension to certain areas to emphasise features. Next lesson, we shall continue adding more paper if necessary, wait for the glue to dry and then finally paint our masks.03/02/16 Today we continued with our mask work. Although when I came to continue with my mask it was perfectly dry and hardened, unfortunately it had warped when it dried so it no longer fit my face properly. To resolve this I had to cut the areas off that made it too small; these areas were the tips of the cheek bones. However, when I did this, it made the mask a bit pointless as the idea of it is to look like an ancient helmet... but it would be a but pointless having a helmet that doesn't protect your face properly! To solve this, I built up the cheek area by adding rolled up paper to the areas that I needed to expand, and then adding a layer of paper over this to hold the extensions in place and give a smooth effect. Net lesson, I shall add features to the helmet (maybe a dent to show the soldier is an experienced fighter and has been in many battles). Afterwards, I shall paint my mask an appropriate colour (either a gold or bronze colour as these were typical colours for helmets).
04/02/16 Today I began painting my mask! I began with a base coat of orange paint to experiment and see what the mask would like this colour. I decided that the colour needed to be a little but lighter but bolder at the same time; therefore I decided to use an acrylic paint, but I mixed a yellow and an orange paint to make the colour lighter. I used acrylic paint as it is a lot thicker and covers the fact that I used two different colours of paper to build my mask (as there wasn't any other paper left). Although the colour was a bit too dark and bold still, I am glad I used this coat to give the mask one smooth cover. Next lesson, I shall add a lighter colour over the top in certain places to create the effect of light bouncing off the helmet, and darker colours in other areas to contour the mask and to give it more shape.
