Category: Paper Mache

Down the Rabbit Hole, Part 1

3/28/2012

Bunny masks on the workbench. The one on the right is the only non-white rabbit mask I've made so far.

Between the fall of 2009 and the fall of 2012, I made just about nothing except bunny masks. And with only one exception, *white* bunny masks. And with only one exception, all of these were commissioned pieces, by customers who found me through Facebook and Google searches. I'm afraid to actually list these masks for sale because I'm *sooooo* ready to start making other things! What was it about The White Rabbit and Alice in Wonderland anyway?

Somehow, I think the first thing that comes to most people's minds is drug induced hallucinations a la "Jefferson Airplane".

According to good ol' Wikipedia, Lewis Carroll meant for The White Rabbit to be a foil to Alice. In his article "Alice on the Stage," Carroll wrote "And the White Rabbit, what of him? Was he framed on the "Alice" lines, or meant as a contrast? As a contrast, distinctly. For her 'youth,' 'audacity,' 'vigour,' and 'swift directness of purpose,' read 'elderly,' 'timid,' 'feeble,' and 'nervously shilly-shallying,' and you will get something of what I meant him to be. I think the White Rabbit should wear spectacles. I'm sure his voice should quaver, and his knees quiver, and his whole air suggest a total inability to say 'Boo' to a goose!"

Good ol' Wikipedia lists other interpretations of The White Rabbit's character. In the 1951 Disney movie version, the White Rabbit plays the straight man to all the other crazy Wonderland residents. In the 2010 Tim Burton film he is a leader of an underground resistance while he works for the Queen. The most interesting one in my book is in the 1999 movie "The Matrix" where the White Rabbit and Wonderland serve for metaphors for "waking up" (Neo is told to follow the White Rabbit, he finds a woman with a tattoo of a white rabbit on her shoulder, and Morpheus offers him a red pill to "find out just how deep this rabbit hole goes.")

My poor kid had the same size head as the customer. Here I'm trying the mask on her for size after she got home for school, before she has a chance to take her coat off.

The way I myself saw the White Rabbit was something of an inspiration, a muse to follow on unplanned and unexpected adventures, especially of a creative, artistic, and just a little bit goofy kind. The customer who commissioned the original sculpture, however, wanted something intimidating, vaguely threatening, not in the least bit goofy or (God forbid!) cute and cuddly. I can't help but think that it is this vaguely threatening expression that has contributed so much to the success of this mask. Maybe it's unsettling or even frightening to follow our inspirations, and God knows where we might wind up. Hopefully in the end the Red Queen will at least let us keep our heads!

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Down the Rabbit Hole, Part 2

3/27/2012

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Bunny on the set!

On an evening in the middle of February and completely out of the blue, I got a phone call from a costume designer at CBS studios who said they'd found my work while doing Google image searches for rabbit masks for an upcoming episode of CSI. Only my mask would do. Only trick was, could I make one and have it in the mail in a week? My first thought was, who would prank me like this? my second thought was, dangit no anime for me tonight, it's back in the studio I go! After a week of high drama (my in laws were coming to visit the day the mask was supposed to be in the mail, the bunnies of the dust variety threatened a revolt and every last pair of scissors in the house vanished except my daughter's left handed ones) the mask arrived safely and on time in Hollywood.

The episode "Malice in Wonderland" aired on March 23, 2012, the 18th episode of Season 12. While I enjoyed my five seconds of fame part of me wondered where did I go wrong as a parent? One of my artistic offspring had gone on to be a porn star (Uniporn) and now another had gone on to be a murderer! In any case, the episode can be rented here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007NEZD8A/ref=dv_dp_ep18 Enjoy!

Screenshot of the Bad Bunny, taken by my high school classmate Brian Vakiener. Thanks Brian!

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Eyebrows

10/14/2011

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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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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......"

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:

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!

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.

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!

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Almost There

9/14/2011

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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.

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.

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.

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.

Good thing I get so much moral support from studio assistant Ezzy.

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Uniporn

9/14/2011

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Yup, that's my mask. I sold it to a nice gentleman from Lightborne Studios ( http://www.light-borne.com/) in Cincinnati back in May. I have to say, this video came as a bit of a surprise. I've been puzzling over the path my artistic offspring has chosen, and wondering if my parenting skills were too strict, or too lax, or *something*. I mean, we've gone from this:

To this:

Where did I go wrong???

In any case, it gave me a smile!

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Deer Antlers Part 2

3/19/2011

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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.

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.

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.

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.

I got rid of the lump on the underside of the left hand antler and...

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...

... and brought up the edge of the left ear.

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!!!!

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OMG! It's the KILLER FROG!!!

11/17/2010

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Killer Frog is a local legend. He was a Christmas gift to Isabelle from her great aunt Margie, a beautiful enameled rhinestone-studded frog-shaped jewelry box that developed an insatiable appetite for Playmobil people. He was also the inspiration for my husband Brian's Halloween costume this year.

It was interesting to turn a noob loose in my studio and see what they would do with my methods. As can be seen below, Brian first sculpted a frog mask sketch on the miniature armature, and then the actual mask sculpture on the life-sized armature.

Being the devoted spouse that I am, I positive-cast and assembled the mask for Brian, and he painted and finished it. Here he is modelling it wearing his very appropriate "Get Green" painting shirt. You can tell from the fangs that he's Killer Frog and not, say, Toad from The Wind in the Willows or LeFrog from Flushed Away.

And in other news, we've had some personnel changes here at Sans Souci Studios. Here is our new kitten and administrative assistant, Ezzy, whom we adopted for Isabelle's birthday at the local animal shelter. As you can see he's already getting into the swing of things.

And on a more solemn note, our own black Halloween kitty, Skimble, shown sitting with Isabelle below, passed away suddenly but peacefully in a favorite sunny spot a week ago. She had been a stray with many old injuries, and I guess her body was just too worn and tired out to go on anymore. She is badly missed.

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Down the Rabbit Hole, Part 1

Down the Rabbit Hole, Part 2

Eyebrows

Almost There

Uniporn

Deer Antlers Part 2

OMG! It's the KILLER FROG!!!

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