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.
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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