Sans Souci Studios
Follow us on Facebook!
  • Home
  • Gallery
    • Fursuit Heads and Partials
    • Paper Mache Masks 2000- 2014
  • Blog
  • About
    • About
    • Embarking on the Road to Furry Fandom
  • Contact
  • Thanks to Our Supporters!

Eyebrows

10/14/2011

0 Comments

 
Last month, evil little voices began whispering in my ear and telling me that the deer mask needed big, bushy eyebrows. I stood firm and didn't give in, as next they'd be asking for hairy ears, but I did begin to wonder, maybe the eyebrows did need *something*. Here's the mask with the eyebrows in question:
Picture

The first thing I did was to print out the above photo and sketch over the then-current eyebrows with a blue highlighter, to see more clearly what I already had (below.) First thing I noticed was that the eyebrows were asymmetrical. Not that that's a big issue, I think most eyebrows are asymmetrical, but it gave me a place to begin my explorations.
Picture
Below, two sketches with symmetrical eyebrows, one with the "left hand" style of eyebrow, and the other with the "right hand" style. I didn't like either of these.
Picture
Picture

Maybe it was the smooth, unwrinkled skin on the forehead between the eyebrows that was bothering me? I tried sketching wrinkles in between the eyebrows, but I didn't like them either.
Picture
Not sure where to go from here, I decided to hit the books. Below is one of my all time favorite reference books in my mask library. It's informative, easy to use, and beautifully illustrated.
Picture
Below are illustrations for the muscles responsible for thunderous eyebrows, the corrugator (the two little arms over the eyebrows) and the procerus (the muscle over the nose.)
Picture
Below, the actions of the corrugator and the procerus illustrated. To quote from the above book, "...the eyebrow lowers, especially the inner third...The eyebrows move closer together. A cashew shaped lump appears at the inner end of the eyebrow, with a curved, vertical crease along its inside edge (a), the "frown line". A small, crescent shaped dimple appears (b), above the middle of the eyebrow. This is where the muscle attaches to the skin and so becomes a low spot when the muscle contracts......"
Picture

I decided I needed to work on my (a) frownline and my (b) dimple. (I toyed with playing with the (c) vertical fold over the eyelid and the (d) hollow at the inner corner of the eye, but that would have meant changing the shape of the eyes more than I wanted to.) So I resculpted the eyebrows and went from this:
Picture

To this. I've emphasized the dimples and clarified and moved the frown lines more into the center. I've also tried to show how the muscle pulls the skin and bunches it up over the nose, spending many hours making faces at myself in the mirror and examining the wrinkles to do so! 
Picture
Below, a picture of the entire mask with its new eyebrows. I really like how the pattern of wrinkles in the center of the forehead echoes the shapes of the tines over them.
Picture

Now, I am really and truly in the home stretch with this mask. With any luck, my next post will show pictures of it finished!
0 Comments

Almost There

9/14/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
The deer mask is almost there! Here it is in its current state. As you can see, the mask has more detail and a smoother surface texture than it did in the previous post. I made lips, eyelids, wrinkles, etc with a layer of Paperclay, and filled smaller irregularities with a layer of Polyfilla. Both of these materials sand beautifully, and the Paperclay can be carved, albiet gently, with Dremel alumium oxide grinding stones, on a low speed.

Below, the mask with initial applications of Paperclay and Polyfilla.
Picture
Below, with eyebrows and other details sculpted in, and antlers removed. Due to the complexity of their shape, the antlers need to be removable and replaceable for both moldmaking and casting.
Picture
At this point, I decided I didn't like the ears, and started resculpting them. I wanted the base of the ear to be longer and thicker, the tips to be thinner and more refined, and the openings to be further away from the head.

Below, the antlers in their newly removable state, attached with screws. You can see the scorch marks from the Dremel from when I cut them off initially. The ears are also more refined.
Picture
Next step, to get the antlers on straight and even again! Somehow the antler on the right side has sagged noticeably in this process, sigh.
Picture
Good thing I get so much moral support from studio assistant Ezzy.
Picture
0 Comments

Deer Antlers Part 2

3/19/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
Here's the deer mask back in June. I felt pleased and thought all I needed to do was smooth and refine the antlers a little.

Ha, ha.
Picture
While I worked on bunny masks and looked at the deer mask just sitting on my workbench for the next several months, I realized the distance from the center of the mask to the tip of one antler was almost twice as far as to the other. Some asymmetry in deer antlers is to be expected, but not this much. Not cool.
Picture
So I cut the antler between the innermost and the three outermost tines and rotated the whole thing out a little. Not surprisingly, while the tip of the antler is more properly positioned, the tines are now tilted too far back. I stapled wads of tinfoil to the antler to use as an armature for new improved tines.
Picture
Picture
Then I took a photo of the mask, which I printed out and folded in half to check the relative positions of the two antlers to each other. The bottom edge of the left hand antler obviously need work, but otherwise, so far, so good.

Then I covered the new tines with Celluclay, cut off the old ones, and refined the rest of the antler a little bit.
Picture
I got rid of the lump on the underside of the left hand antler and...
Picture
Picture
OMG! How could I not have noticed before that the tip of the right ear is at least a half an inch higher than the left ear?? So I carved the bottom edge of the antler up a little...
Picture
... and brought up the edge of the left ear.
Picture
And here's where we are for the moment.

But wait, look, the second outermost tine on the right hand antler is about an inch longer than its conterpart on the left.... AAAGGGGHHHH!!!!
0 Comments

The Elkha Fall/Winter 2010 Catalog

8/25/2010

0 Comments

 
Here's a use for my masks I hadn't imagined before! The following are pictures from the 2010 fall/winter catalog of a boutique men's and women's clothing label called Elkha, based in Melbourne, Australia. The deer mask is an earlier, unpainted version of the one I've been working on this summer.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

I love the way masks seem to take on a life of their own and do things I never would have guessed they would once they leave my hands! That's one way that to me, masks are a particularly alive form of art. 

To learn more about Elkha, click here: http://www.elkha.com.au/
0 Comments

Antlers

6/22/2010

0 Comments

 
I have been working on the antlers for my deer mask for the past several months, in particular on attaching them in something less than a ridiculous manner. In my mind, a deer mask is largely an excuse for a human to wear antlers, so the antlers must look good. If the antlers look "off" the whole mask will look wrong.
Picture

(Gratuitous cute pic alert!!) I started making my antlers by tracking down this set of real whitetail antlers in the wilds of eBay. Whitetail antlers in particular are more on a human scale, as opposed to say, mule deer or fallow deer antlers, which can be huge. I made a paper mache version of these antlers by taking a positive cast of them in Celluclay.
Picture

I also needed plenty of reference photos, for which this book (found on the clearance table at a local bookstore) was my main source. The picture on the cover is particularly helpful. (Gratuitous factoid alert- I also learned from this book that antlers are the fastest known growing tissue in the animal kingdom, growing at a rate of half an inch a day.)
Picture
And here we have the first attempt to attach the cast Celluclay antlers to the mask. If you compare this photo with the photo on the book above, you can see that the two short tines in the center of the rack are too short, spaced too widely and make too much of a "V" shape. You can also see that the two main beams are too horizontal. In the reference pic above, the beams are more vertical and have a gentle, shallow "C" shape.
Picture
Picture
Attempt number two. Here the beams are more upright and starting to take on some of that "C" shape, but the tips are too close together, nearly meeting over the center of the mask while on the real deer, the tips line up roughly with the middle of the ears. The ink sketch superimposed over the photocopy demonstrates this.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Attempt number three. The two middle tines have been lengthened and straightened, and the right hand antler has the "C" shape I've been trying for. However, two of the tines of the left hand antler are too short and straight, and something very funky is going on with middle of the beam. The photocopy/ink sketch of the top view shows that the curve of the beam needs to be tightened, and the end needs to move forward.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Attempt number four. I've lengthened and curved those two short straight tines on the left hand antler. I've also started to tighten the curve of the beam of the left hand antler, particularly towards the back of the mask, but in doing so I have once again moved the tip of the antler too close to the center of the mask. As the top view photocopy/ink sketch shows, it needs to be moved out again, and perhaps shortened.
Picture
And, here is the mask in its current state. At this point I'm happy with the overall look of the antlers, though the left hand antler has some weird lumpiness going on that needs to be addressed. Next I need to define and refine the mask's overall texture. Then, off to the moldmaker!

(Gratuitous factoid alert- on a trip to Wikipedia to check that my antler terminology above was correct, I learned it is now believed antlers act as parabolic reflectors, vastly improving the hearing of their wearers. I'm not kidding. We'll see if paper mache antlers can do the same!)
0 Comments

    Author

    I make masks. Because art is more fun when you put it on your head.

    Categories

    All
    A Day In The Life
    Airbrushing
    Artemis
    Casting
    Cat Masks
    Color Design
    Deer Mask
    Ears
    Eyes
    Fur
    Garm
    Handpaws
    Head Base
    Horse/unicorn Masks
    Jawsets
    Lips
    Maxine
    Methods And Materials
    Moldmaking
    Moving Jaw
    Noses
    Painting
    Paper Mache
    Patterning
    Photography
    Rabbit Masks
    Resin
    Rip
    Sculpting
    Sewing
    Shaving And Trimming
    Silas
    Silicone
    Strapping
    Studio Announcements
    Tails
    Tongues
    Videos
    Wolf Masks

    Archives

    October 2021
    September 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    July 2020
    November 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    July 2016
    August 2014
    June 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    March 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    March 2011
    November 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    June 2010
    October 2009
    September 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    February 2008
    June 2007
    April 2007

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly