Masks/Armor Class Projects: Maquettes
This semester, as i've mentioned, i'm teaching the graduate crafts seminar in masks and armor production. Our first project is to make a maquette, a small-scale version of what will eventually be a finished mask. Because in theatre, mask artisans often work with a costume designer from a rendering of a mask design (which may not include side/front/oblique views), a maquette is an invaluable tool in the transition from "page to stage." Refinements and alterations of scale and proportion can happen at 1/2 or 1/3 or 1/4 scale much faster than on full-size finished sculptures.
I have the students start with a research image or mask design rendering of their choosing and create a small maquette of polymer clay, to get into the mindset of sculpting and thinking about the 2D/3D translation. They paint the maquette in a less-detailed fashion than one might a full-size sculpture, with a mind to conveying color and motif information for a consultation with a (hypothetical) costume designer.
Here's their first round of projects!
Top left: styro egg matrix used as sculpting base
Bottom left: 3-faced Viennese carnival mask maquette by Claire Fleming
Right: African mask maquette by Shanna Parks
Left: African mask maquette by Samantha Coles
Top right: winged Viennese carnival mask maquette by Kaitlin Fara
Bottom right: jester Mardi Gras mask maquette by Lisa Raymond
outsized Brazilian carnival mask maquette by Candy McClernan
Candy used a different scale than everyone else in the class, because her source mask was nearly four times the height of the wearer's head! So, instead of the 1/3-scale styro eggs, she used a child's toy male doll for her matrix, which also shows clearly the difference in scale between the mask and the wearer. Pretty cool!
I have the students start with a research image or mask design rendering of their choosing and create a small maquette of polymer clay, to get into the mindset of sculpting and thinking about the 2D/3D translation. They paint the maquette in a less-detailed fashion than one might a full-size sculpture, with a mind to conveying color and motif information for a consultation with a (hypothetical) costume designer.
Here's their first round of projects!
Top left: styro egg matrix used as sculpting base
Bottom left: 3-faced Viennese carnival mask maquette by Claire Fleming
Right: African mask maquette by Shanna Parks
Left: African mask maquette by Samantha Coles
Top right: winged Viennese carnival mask maquette by Kaitlin Fara
Bottom right: jester Mardi Gras mask maquette by Lisa Raymond
outsized Brazilian carnival mask maquette by Candy McClernan
Candy used a different scale than everyone else in the class, because her source mask was nearly four times the height of the wearer's head! So, instead of the 1/3-scale styro eggs, she used a child's toy male doll for her matrix, which also shows clearly the difference in scale between the mask and the wearer. Pretty cool!