The following is cross-posted there.
Olivia
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This marks the beginning of a big mask kick I'm on right now. A few days ago, I decided that I really, really like masks and I want to make a bunch of them. So here we are.
Nearly done; gotta varnish it, then add the ribbon. When it's completely finished, I'll take nicer photos. (I occasionally took WIP photos with my cell phone throughout the process to show other people, and they all thought it was pink. Damn those terrible-quality cameras.)
Why did I decide to make a phoenix mask? Easy answer: Phoenixes are awesome. Fire..birds. And since they're (presumably) not real, appearance is up for interpretation. I'm a pretty muted-colors kind of person when it comes to things like clothes, so art is my big way to express myself and go all-out; painting bright red-and-gold birds is fantastic.
I have a list of mask ideas I hope to implement. Phoenix was at the top. I knew right away that I wanted the bird to be the mask, rather than decorating a more conventional mask like a phoenix, or making a beaked mask with feathers, or something. Took me quite a while to figure out the actual design, though; twelve horrible, failed concept sketches, in fact, before I landed on the winner. Usually I'm more of an impulse sculptor (with the exception of everything I did in my fall semester sculpture class, because planning was part of the assignments), so this was an interesting process. I followed the sketch almost exactly, which I think is kind of cool, because, again, I usually don't draw out my ideas more than a quick blobby doodle.
Initially, I'd planned to do a bunch of carved details on it, feathers and stuff, but I realized as I started making it that that might prove annoying, and make the mask look too busy. I created a totally-cheating way to easily sculpt the feathers, so that cut down the exasperation and frustration I'd been expecting from them.
Unfortunately, I'm kind of stupid when it comes to considering mechanical structure. As in, I didn't think about it much until late in the creation process. I inserted a paper clip where the right wing meets the body, and another where the neck rests against the left wing, but nothing else. Halfway through painting..it broke. About half a centimeter after the paper clip in the right wing ends. I..almost cried. Especially after my never-has-failed-me-before craft glue only half-held it on (it was still wobbly). Then I tried Gorilla Glue, and that didn't even work entirely. So I filled it up with more craft glue, patched it with raw clay, laid on a coat of varnish over the area, and painted it over. It has worked rather nicely, and it should be even better after I put down the finish, but as should be obvious, this is an item meant only for display. (Though it's a mask, I didn't build it with wearability in mind. I made it as a decoration; perhaps I will also make a version that's more practical for actually wearing.) Thankfully, disasters are also learning experiences, and though I was ready to break down along with the wing, I've figured things out that will prove useful in the future. (One good thing about drawing the design beforehand: ease of structural planning.)
The painting, however, was do-as-I-go. It was quite fun, really. I put down a couple of layers of red over everything first, and went from there. It's easy to pick the colors for a phoenix; it's just fire. I also added some purple because I thought there ought to be some dark in it. For the rachis of the feathers (that middle part, thank you Wikipedia), I debated with myself between a whole spectrum of colors, from black to white to red to yellow to purple, until I finally settled on gold. I'd been thinking about it the whole time I was painting; that was the last element that I painted, so I had a lot of time to choose.
As for finish, I have three varieties: matte, gloss, and pearl. I'm almost definitely settled on matte; pearl is a definite no-go, because it would mute the colors way too much, and for some reason I can't explain to myself, I think gloss would be inappropriate for this. It just..wouldn't look right.
I'm trying to decided what color of ribbon I will use for it. I have black and white; I was considering getting some red, but decided against it. Maybe I should track down some gold ribbon?
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Materials: Super Sculpey polymer clay, Delta Ceramcoat acrylic paint, (eventually) Delta Ceramcoat matte varnish, ribbon.
Number of preparation sketches: 13.
Raw clay to ready-to-bake: 4 hours.
Painting and post-work: 10 hours.
Days spent: 2.
Blood-sweat-and-tears rating: 3 out of 5.
Satisfation rating: 8 out of 10.
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