Masks and other Art

[Buster's Uncle]

Ooh.  Glamor shots of a mold-and-water damaged mask that wasn't finished to begin with.








BTW, when I talked to Buster this afternoon, I got her to ask for a mask for the first time in about eight years - Dixie, her puppy, who is pushing 50 pounds at two or three months old and is some brand of giant beagle-looking flop-eared hound.  I told her in the old days, I would have slapped the short animal snout on my face base and tried to paint the half mask in his markings.  -But I'm going to give this the cat mask treatment and make an entire new base from scratch that's actually shaped somewhat like his long head, but wearable -unlike the cat masks, really- by a human.  That'll call for a half mask all right, but stick out over six inches...  Working out those flop ears as something sturdy that isn't a huge struggle to get off the base is going to be a [girldog].

[Rusty Edge]

If it's a hound, for ears, why don't you just plan on attaching velvet or some such cloth? The dangle and softness are part of their charm.

[Buster's Uncle]

Hmm.  I had considered cloth add-on ears, but rejected it as a lame dodge.  Your last sentence is persuasive, though...

[Rusty Edge]

Some things are essential, like the hair in the eyes of an Old English Sheepdog. A candle or a bust is one thing, and a mask is another, right?

[Buster's Uncle]

You are correct, sir.

Floppy mache ears would need to be very strong, too, to survive much handling - and would just be in the way, as a wearable mask.  You've convinced me that cloth is the way to go.

[Buster's Uncle]

I ran it past Buster and Momma -who sews like crazy, so I want her in on the ears- and they both agree that velvety cloth ears are the way to go.

---

This just in many hours ago: Buster & Rev. Dr. The Fink were by again this afternoon, this time it was for several hours and Mylochka had a thing and wasn't there to hog the baby, and the Kid TALKED to me again -and two days in a row more than an empty sentence or two and unconnected to kittens simply hasn't happened at all since this neurotic alien teenager who allegedly used to be Buster moved in next door last year- and I'm very happy about that - and she asked me to make her something (else) for the second day in a row, which has never ever happened at all.

She's looking to work up some unicorn thing, and asked for animal ears and a horn.  The ears, I was working on something else this evening and didn't get started on, but she thinks that cat ears will be fine, and I can begin right away when I feel up to it tomorrow, and have them dried and ready in six hours or so - even allowing for lengthening the ears a tad for horsiness, which she didn't ask for.  The horn will take a little longer, but not much; I'm going to work up a smooth cone like the oni horns only longer, because that should slide out okay when it's dry, given I smear on enough Vaseline.  -Then I add the spiral on the outside during the mache-ing process.  She's going to figure out how to mount the stuff, something involving a wig, later, and wants them as three loose pieces with little flat bases surrounding to glue or something.

Dixie's gonna be a job to do up and work out nice -but there's no schedule/deadline- this, I can do in a day or two, and have three weeks...

-Definitely pretty happy about all that.

[Rusty Edge]

Happy is good!

[Buster's Uncle]

I've made the ears for Buster last night, and they're ready to come off the form when I'm ready.

I made much extra work for myself sandwiching triangles cut from empty cigarette cartons over the cat ears to extend them, and making the edges actually match.

I keep thinking of Bottom in A Mid-Summer Night's Dream when I look at them, so I daresay I've hit the ballpark.

If I can get the crap around the bottom started prying off in one piece -she asked for base/rims for gluing purposes on her end, and I'll cover the openings underneath later to give her more gluing surface- the cardboard will ensure the actual ears won't cling...

[Buster's Uncle]

Mylochka is painting right now.  -Me, I've drifted into a mood where I feel like talking, but not doing.  Here's hoping I'm inspired to get the doing mood back.

[Rusty Edge]

Well, the cat mask is rather cat-like. Is it modeled after anyone I know?

[Buster's Uncle]

Really, I was just aiming for more-or-less authentically cat.  Moses was still just a baby when I started it, Goblin too fluffy to be feasible for much of a likeness - but there was indeed a litter of all-attractive kittens egging me on.  That's where the wrestling mask idea came from, too, you'll recall.  It was nothing to do with God wanting Uno to wrestle in Mexico.

[Buster's Uncle]

BTW - I told Mylochka that if she put in a mere half hour painting most days, I wouldn't complain.  If she got inspired any of those days and spent more when she felt like, I also wouldn't complain.

-She mostly put another coat of base on many, but also started some weird makeup-looking thing on two masks that makes me think she's intending to go clown, one of them smiling Uno, Uno.

[Buster's Uncle]

A funny idea I had last week -nature putting The Captain in blackface made me think Othello, and that had me thinking about casting the usual suspects of commedia del arte with characters from Shakespeare's Italian tragedies.  So off the top of my head, Othello as il capitano, Iago as his bumbling servant, Shylock as the miser, Romeo and Juliet as the young lovers --- and it makes me wish I knew my Shakespeare as well as my Gilligan's Island, 'cause I got nothin' for Desdemona, Portia and Mercutio, and that runs through everyone I remember readily.

-Anyway, it's really only funny to people into that area of literature, because Shakespeare done as commedia is basically a Moliere play with masks.  Mylochka, who is into that kind of thing, agrees that the idea wants to write itself, once had.  -If she was still a professor putting on plays every spring semester, I'd totally be after her to do it. It couldn't NOT find an appreciative audience in academia.

The play opens with seven people shipwrecked on an island... [shrugs]  Wasn't Prospero Italian?  There's your il doctore...

[Buster's Uncle]

I have gotten the horsey ears off the cat form this afternoon, laid a couple layers down on the underside to close the cavity and make more glue-able surface, as planned, and set them in front of the dehumidifier to dry.  The base/core for the unicorn horn has been made, baked, and is cooling in the oven now.

I wish I could say that feeling like making had anything to do with this - but Buster might turn up this afternoon, and is definitely going to the doll show tomorrow with my wimminz, so it's really all to do with commitment and embarrassment.  I should be able to turn over the ears immediately -and the horn within a day or two, preferably/hopefully tomorrow afternoon when they get back.

Building a spiral ridge on top of a smooth cone isn't going to be crazy simple/easy, but probably will fight me less at every stage than the ears did - I was sure to add a little rim to the base of the horn, to have something to pry against to get it out when the horn mache's dry.

[Buster's Uncle]

...I've done some janitorial stuff/organizing on the JK Studio site today - all the Home links are now http://alphacentauri2.info/JKStudio/ instead of local "index.html" links, 'cause I figure it won't hurt with the search engines, and might help.

More obviously, I created the subdirectory page I've talked about eventually having to make, to all these how-to/demonstration pages and the gallery of stuff being made pics.  I'm not entirely satisfied, mostly on the grounds that all those individual links were pretty clear about what they were, and "In The Workshop" for a subdirectory/link name isn't -I just don't see a better way with the room I have given myself to work with.

Still, nothing's set in stone until we're a lot further along to selling stuff online than I am now...