DESIGN DIARY: June's Mask

I’ve been looking forward to June’s mask for its simplistic color scheme and classical flower.  The Rose birth flower combines with the Pearl birthstone promises to be a lovely color scheme which is one of my favorite color schemes, white and red.

The biggest challenge with this mask was that there are a hundred ways to draw a rose.  I knew from the start I wanted the large, classical petals, but should they be hyper-stylized or realistic?

Mood Board

In the end, I went with something in-between stylized and realistic with an abstraction of the bloom centers to make carving easier on my hands.  I also settled with a layout that allows me to focus on a good mixture of petals versus leaf texture without being too busy.

Design Sketches

Process Gallery

Here are a few shots of the mask before and after it was tooled and baked.

June’s mask ended up being one of the more striking color palettes than I had first realized!  The contrast of the pearlescent underpainting with the red makes this mask stand out very much from the others.  I used a combination of iridescent taupe and white paint layered into the base color of the mask to replicate the look of a freshwater pearl.  Oh how very tempting it is to make endless variations of this mask with different colored roses!

The Finished Mask

This mask is available at my Etsy shop!

For more in-depth instruction with complete step-by-step narration, a materials list, etc., check out this Premium Video Tutorial featuring the creation of February's Mask.

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DESIGN DIARY: December’s Mask

Ah Lady of December! She was the painting that started it all. Back then, however, I hadn’t started making masks to match each Lady yet. Now that I’ve decided to challenge myself with this multimedia element, it’s time to revisit December’s themes as a mask!

The birthstone of December is Turquoise and the flower is the white narcissus. I’ve actually done prior research into the structure of this flower for the Advent Angel piece created for my Spirits of Winter series, who was actually the prototype birthstone image I did before I switched to the Ladies of the Months’ rectangular format instead.

Mood Board

The funny thing about white narcissus is that they share a lot in common structurally with daffodils, being a variant of a similar plant, so I had some warm up with this flower already thanks to March’s mask and the aforementioned Advent Angel. I love the way the corona of petals overlap to give this flower its unique shape! I decided to go with the more rounded star-shaped for this mask, since I like the simplicity of it, which is much easier to carve.

Design

I was actually pretty happy with my first try at this design. The flowers have elegant sweeping stem structures that fill up the space nicely with the bunches of blooms in the middle, crowning the mask in a balanced way.

Process Shots

Here are some shots of the mask during the tooling phase and after it was baked and hardened. I’ve tried something different with the tooling for this flower by adding many thin lines in the petals with a stylus to give it a delicate textured feel. This is actually the same technique I’ve used to add texture to butterfly wings in leather.

DESIGN DIARY: November's Mask

I've decided to accelerate my schedule with the Ladies to give people born later in the year a chance to get the masks and paintings now rather than having to wait another year.  That means I'm exploring the themes of November, whose birthstone is Topaz and whose birth flower is chrysanthemums!  November happens to be my own birth month as well, which means I'm personally attached to this time of chill winds and grey skies in the northern hemisphere.

Mood Board

Chrysanthemums come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, from the fluffy round to long and thin spindles of the spider chrysanthemums.  I've decided to go with a more traditionally round chrysanthemum, which will be a bit easier to carve than many long spindles.  As always, I like to reference botanical drawings, which make it easier to observe leaf shapes and overall silhouettes of the flowers and stems.  Pinterest makes this reference gathering much easier.

Designs

I like to start with a few variations on the designs to see what kind of layout I prefer.  I tried a big focal flower at first.  By the end, I found myself preferring the way that bunches of mums and buds would fill up the space.  I tried incorporating monarch butterflies on this mask in the bottom design since it's going to be in the final 2d painting for Lady of November, but I may save this for a special alternate design for myself, since it would break with the consistency of the series thus far.

Work-In-Progress Shots

Here are a few progress shots of November’s Mask in the making!  I did something different this time by doing a complete underpainting of white in both the flowers and the stems, which made the final colors even brighter. I also used a coat of interference gold beneath the orange to create a subtle shimmer in the underpainting.

You can also watch a video of this mask in the making here:

The Finished Mask

This mask is available at my Etsy shop!

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DESIGN DIARY: May's Mask

May's mask marks a shift from the previous masks, which have been a lot more colorful.  With the birthstone being Emerald and the stems being green, it was going to be an interesting challenge!

Reference Gathering:
 I gather my references on Pinterest where I find multiple views of the flower from the side and front. I also wanted to find reference of the bright colored seeds, which I knew would add a burst of color to this monochromatic mask.  Flower Note: All parts of the Lily of the Valley are extremely poisonous!  On the other hand, the red berries of the Hawthorne flower, the other flower for May, can be used for medicinal purposes.  Life and death berries!  I love that.

Design:

I tried out a couple of layout variations and decided I liked the more symmetrical one so I could show different angles of the blooms for more visual interest throughout the mask.

Work-in-Progress:

Here are a few peeks at the mask in progress!  By the end, I decided on a dark green to help set off the bright green stems and white blossoms, which resulted in a much darker mask than usual.  I brought a little subtle shine back to the mask by adding a few tiny rhinestones in key places.  In the end, I think this mask is one of the most elegant masks yet!

You can also watch a time lapse of the mask in the making here:

The Finished Mask

This mask is available at my Etsy shop!

Remember, you can pre-order one of these unique limited edition masks at the Ladies' Patreon.  Only TEN of each mask in this birthstone series will ever be made!

For more in-depth instruction with complete step-by-step narration, a materials list, etc., check out this Premium Video Tutorial featuring the creation of February's Mask.

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Like this series and want to help it be the best it can be?

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ARTISAN FEATURE: Fairytas

Featuring Fairytas, whose amazing prop, makeup, & sense of color transform a person completely into something with otherworldly beauty.

For more of Fairytas’ work - http://www.fairytas.com/

ARTISAN FEATURE: Fairytas

DESIGN DIARY: April's Mask

March's Mask was an interesting color palette challenge.  April's Mask proved to be yet another challenge with its inspirations, the diamond gemstone and daisy birthflower!  First off, how does one represent diamond?  In the past, I've been making the main part of the mask match the color of the gemstone, but if I simply made this mask white, it could easily be confused with pearl.  The solution - interference paints!  More about them in the WiP shots coming up.

Reference Gathering:
The usual mood board in Pinterest.  Botanical drawings make for great reference of structure. I also made sure to get various photos of the flowers at different angles so I can get an idea of structure, which will inform my decorative abstraction of them for the mask.

Design:
I sketched the rough layout based on the placement of flowers already set forth by January's Mask to keep the series looking uniform.  The most challenging part of this step was trying to keep the mask simple enough that it would be possible to carve without too much trouble. I ended up having to remove some of the flowers I had originally put in the bunch, by the end.

Work-in-Progress:

Here are a few photos of the mask in the making!  I'll be putting together a time lapse video of the creation of this mask later so you can see this in motion.

After tooling and shaping.

The finished mask plus steps of the paint layering of the flowers.

To get the 'diamond' base for the mask, I painted a layer of white, then covered the white with blue interference paint, which created a 'frosted' crystalline kind of look.  It's hard to capture in these photos, so definitely check out the video of the shine in action!

A video of the final mask:

A time lapse of the mask in the making:

This is a more subdued mask than usual, but I'm hopeful even subdued masks might have their fans.

Buy the finished mask here!

Remember, you can pre-order one of these unique limited edition masks at the Ladies' Patreon.  Only TEN of each mask in this birthstone series will ever be made!

For more in-depth instruction with complete step-by-step narration, a materials list, etc., check out this Premium Video Tutorial featuring the creation of February's Mask.

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Like this series and want to help it be the best it can be?
Check out the Ladies of the Months on Patreon!

In return for your support, you'll receive early access sneak peeks, digital goodies, and more!

DESIGN DIARY: March's Mask

With February's mask fresh in my mind, March's mask presented a unique challenge with a completely different flower and color scheme.

Reference Gathering:

I always begin by gathering references of different angles of the flowers, usually photos and botanical drawings to inform the shape of the flower.

Design:
Using January's mask as a base, I arranged my main blossom elements on a template in Photoshop.  This time, I had two different alternate arrangements and decided to go with the more symmetrical layout.  I liked that blossoms on the side provide more interesting variations of shapes and also take up more space, especially when the stems are added into the design later.

After the stems are added, the design looks something like the rough design below.  Then it was a matter of cleaning up the lines, figuring out where I want my lines to overlap each other, and printing them out for transfer.

Work-in-Progress Shots

The final product:

A video turnaround of the finished mask:

A time lapse video of the mask's creation:

For more in-depth instruction with complete step-by-step narration, a materials list, etc., check out this Premium Video Tutorial featuring the creation of February's Mask.

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March's mask is available at my Etsy shop. 

Because this is such an intense mask, only 10 of them will ever be made!