Masks and other Art

[Buster's Uncle]

Orange Oni.

[vonbach]

What paints do you use?

[Buster's Uncle]

Mylochka's the painter, but I believe it's all acrylics.

Obviously, she goes in for lots of scrollwork and busy decorative design - she does the same thing designing magazine and webpages.  She LOVES pre-revolution Russian stuff, with all the lacy Faberge gilding detail, also the sort of thing medieval monks did in their calligraphy, giving a name to that sort of decorative bordering detail.  I've been challenging her to do some work in Islamic argle-bargle; they do some pretty stuff.

[vonbach]

Has she ever tried highlighting,or an airbrush? Then the detail painting?

[Buster's Uncle]

Not on one of my masks, no.  She dabbled in airbrushing in the late 80s, but I bet she lost track of the equipment before you were born.

-Great idea, though, if she still has the gear somewhere in working order.  I'll pass that along and try to get her in here to talk painting with you.

[Dio]

What mask will Mylochka and BUncle wear today (figuratively speaking)?

[Buster's Uncle]

Well let's see what's next in the mask pictures folder, shall we?

Ah.  Speaking of Dr. Mylochka's affinity for, and virtuosity with, busy decorative detailing, here's a monkey mask -a poor impression of this base, by the way; I should have gone thicker, especially on this design that's unforgiving about holding edges shape- done on an Indian motif.

[Mylochka]

I use acrylic paints and paint markers.  I don't have an airbrush... but wish I did!

[vonbach]

An airbrush is overrated honestly. But you can get a decent one for a couple hundred bucks. that includes the compressor. Normal paints work just fine. You might want to try highlighting the base color then detail painting.
Though I'm used to painting things much smaller than that.

[Dio]

I have utilized heated wood engraving tools in the past. A okay tool with very basic temperature controls starts around $100 and goes up from that point.

[Buster's Uncle]

Here's one with an airbrushed sort of look to the paint job...  Pity it's not a better photo.

[Dio]

Here's one with an airbrushed sort of look to the paint job...  Pity it's not a better photo.

The mask vaguely reminds me of Frankenstein's Monster.

[Buster's Uncle]

Really; the next time I go on a mask-making tear, I GOTTA make the things thicker.  The shape of the outside edges are distorted on that one; it's just a face.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm pretty proud of the nose on this one.  Mylochka painted it in a red commedia del arte' style.

[Buster's Uncle]

I think this is the next-to-last pic in my Masks folder before I have to dig through the boxes and take more...

Blue kitteh.  Buster was asking for animals a lot right before she moved to California and after.  Make a little muzzle, and easy enough to do.  I can't be sure, looking at the shot, if it's not a dog - there is a difference in the muzzle, though.