I finally got the first layer finished. Most everything in the middle of a face curves in two directions, and noses are especially bad to fit the paper around, especially with thick, cut, not-terribly-narrow strips of paper - but I got it done w/ a minimum of wrinkles and disjoins. I don't always bother to get the entire middle of a face with construction paper...
-Note that I'm not covering the entire face, leaving off the top and bottom. An arch has more flex to get off the base later -and beLIEVE me, that MATTERS- and is more comfortable to wear. Including the very top of the face would also cover too much, unless the Captain was supposed to be bald - and I can actually cut out a nicer, square-jawed, profile during trimming if I leave out under the chin.
-It doesn't stand out in the pics, but I went over the outside edges with another layer -the edges are where I've always by far had the most problems with masks holding shape- before I switched to the newsprint.
So, it's not necessary to do all the strips in a layer in one direction -and some troublesome shapes let a strip lay flat better in a particular direction; the lips would work better for horizontal than this vertical- but it IS easier to keep track of what's covered and what isn't this way,
Like the first layer, I start the second -cut newsprint, now- on the edges. I'll do a few rows on one side and turn the base around and do a few on the other, working inward. -With the construction paper beginning, I tried to avoid overlapping strips as much as was practical -that thickness is surprisingly forgiving about a double-thickness, but still- to minimize distortions to the final outside shape. I went for touching, not overlapping, where I feasibly could. Newsprint is thin enough that overlapping is desirable; stronger that way, and an overlapped edge can't decide to stick up while I'm not looking.
Note here, the latest strip went up against a nostril and needed to curve around, so I let it veer off over the lips at a funny angle.
When I get to the cheeks and brows, I start tearing off/ending strips as I reach them and doing each row in two parts. The cheeks and brows are double-curves that are trouble to get a strip to lay flat over, and I'd be breaking up the rows even if I wasn't leaving cursory gaps -which will save me a minute during trimming- over the eyes. When you tear off and end a row early, you can continue in a slightly different direction; a great help in negotiating the complex shapes, like around the nose.
Sometimes, I can rub out a wrinkle with the blunt end of a sculpture tool.
This gets used most around the top of the nose, where it's curving into the brow/forehead, and down the inside corner of the eyes next to the nose, a deep bit tough to cover without making sloppy wrinkles in the paper.
The forehead covered now, I begin on the nose - it gets separate rows from the top and bottom...
The nostrils are a [girldog] to cover, pretty much every single time.
Covering the complex curves at the bottom of the nose left many strips haring off over the lips and chin at angles...
Not a lot left to cover at the bottom of the face, now...
A closeup under the chin, layer finished. The yellow paper is the vaseline-separation strips...
Note how the strips converge and overlap under the chin.
They do so to a lesser extent at the top, but converge non-trivially, they do - and must, lest that edge come out all wavy...
Layer two done.
Taking pics and writing it up is adding to how long it takes, considerably. I began over eight hours ago - and should have finished by six or less ago, normally.
-Losing patience, methinks I'll switch to torn paper a little early, and hope wrapping it up a layer or two sooner is made up for by I don't always bother with the tricky bits in the middle in the first layer...
