Masks and other Art

[Rusty Edge]

You've been pretty productive.

[Buster's Uncle]

Yep; I'm almost down to trying my hand at painting devil masks myself, working on a Tut mask, and making a full-face base of myself.  I'm in danger of running out of projects.  Oh - and doing something JKStudio webpagey out of the historical overview text and powerpoint images Mylochka used in that conference presentation - then see if I can't work in a link to DR Mylochka's aforementioned work on Wikipedia.  That's SEO gold, having a legitimate academic's work to publish and get referenced there...

[Rusty Edge]

How many hours are you sleeping/night?

[Buster's Uncle]

Since Thursday, eight or more.  It was an abrupt change from maybe six, for no reason I can figure.

[Buster's Uncle]

Phooey - that last post jinxed it; six hours last night.

Still-

IT LOOKS AMAZING!

[Geo]

Since Thursday, eight or more.  It was an abrupt change from maybe six, for no reason I can figure.

Winter is coming...

[Buster's Uncle]

You know nothing, GeoSnow!

[Buster's Uncle]

Definitely time to stop before I pull up the rice.

For perspective, this is how it came out of the mold:

Considerable improvement, I'd say.

(It was a good cast; the rumpling was in the original, a result of the sculptamold shrinking, as a thick mass of it will, and the latex-separating problem.)

I'm going to try skipping the (&^%$#@!) latex - with a face so smoothed out as this design, and surface sanded so smooth, the only challenge should be getting the tool slipped under an edge and worked around, and it ought to pop off easily...

-Need to make another batch of paste, first...

[Buster's Uncle]

-Needed to tear some paper strips first, too.

I've been getting straighter strips torn lately, holding it just so that my left forefinger and right thumb sorta act as guides when I tear only a couple inches at a time - and doing an accordion fold ahead of where I'm tearing doesn't make much of a crease more than six pages at a time, but that helps, and so does the folds being held flat, keeping the pages from wandering as much while I tear.


-When I greased the base, I took a shot, wondering if shiny would make all that white even tougher to photograph:

I'd say the shiny highlights are actually an improvement.


Partway through the second layer:

Four layers later, done and drying:

(I'm nursing some extra shots out of used-up batteries.  Duracells have lasted me three weeks.)

[Buster's Uncle]

It was indeed an easy de-molding.  Uncoated plaster can be a challenge, not least because there's zero give in the base, so I worried a little.

[Buster's Uncle]

   

[Buster's Uncle]

So, after supper I went out to sit and enjoy the good weather - and I realized my hindbrain was seriously working on a King Tut mask.

I guess I better google him and study the famous gold one, make a few decisions...

[Buster's Uncle]

Work has begun on the Pharaoh.

Only four layers, but it's past my bedtime and I'll reinforce it when I'm gluing it to the rest.  I would have liked to get at least that much done on the space helmet, but late start and bedtime, etc.

I'm going to work up my own version of the headdress -Tut's got this weird thing w/ two snakes at the top that I can't make out and don't want to fool with, and the bulk of that headdress is flat- and so pharaoh Johnnetep, and...  I'm still thinking it over, but probably need to think with my hands on the shell I'm pretty sure I want...

[Buster's Uncle]

So I decided to build this over the original Mars Face base, because I'm only using the space helmet, it's a little bigger, and most of that's going to get covered with alterations, so the ripples won't show.

Boss Duke cut the power three times while I was mache-ing this, and I did most of one layer in the dark.


I got the Johnny face pried off, and a little trial and error with the scissors gave me a flat edge to sit on the ledge.  This is unattached.

The space helmet is still wet here, and I went ahead and mache-d them together, as well as adding a layer over the actual face.

   

This'll all be a while drying - gives my hindbrain time to work on design...  Rock on, Johnhotep!

[Buster's Uncle]

Demolding went smoothly, though the inside was still a tad damp - that's actually better for removing separation strips.

There was nearly an inch of ledge sticking out into nothing in places - here, I've cut it about every inch, and rubbed paste on the underside.

Here, I've folded the tabs of plateau down into the face, and began covering that with newsprint strips.

Now the entire face got a new layer inside, letting strips spill over to further the binding of the two parts.

Here the whole shebang has two layers added inside.  It's a shell and it's big, and it needs to be thick and strong so I don't have to depend on a Mars Face free for it to sit on while I work - the original Mars Face itself had more give than I'd rather in the center of the face.

I've got that stuffed back in for early drying - by the time I was done lining the whole thing so thoroughly and it not being real dry inside to begin with, the outside top had soaked through some.  I can probably go pry that out, over an hour later, so the inside will get bone dry before the end of time...