I left you yesterday after stage one - paper mache-ing the bases of both masks. The next day, I grabbed my trusty bag of CelluClay and mixed up a batch to start sculpting with (I've had this giant bag forever, it's amazing how many projects I've managed to do with it). You have to build CelluClay up slowly so it dries properly - smacking too much of it on at once often doesn't work out so well. So here's a pic of the peacock mask after it's first layer of cellu-clay:
I know, I know, nothing like a peacock yet but have a little faith - it'll get there. But first it has to dry (in case you haven't guessed yet, this will become a familiar refrain). So, I turned my attention to the butterfly mask.
First thing I did after taking the paper off the plaster was wipe off the extra release agent - you don't want to leave a bunch of vaseline on the paper. Next I checked out a bunch of butterfly pics on google for inspiration. Here's the one I landed on:
Now, how to get my face to look more like this butterfly. I started by drawing some outlines on the face and then cut out a few sections to create some of the butterfly contour:
Next step was adding wings. I decided to use metal mesh as I happened to have a roll lying around. It's easy to cut and bend but will also make a strong armature. I draped the mesh over the form and drew out patterns for the wings, cut them out, and tacked them on with hot glue. As this piece will be part of a larger composition I spent some time playing around with positioning on the wood panel I'm planning on using as a support. Once I was sure I had the the shapes I wanted I started covering the new mesh wings with CelluClay. Here are a few pics:
Guess what? That's right! More waiting for things to dry!
I decided to google peacock face images to while away some of the time. I found some great ones and later that evening decided my peacock mask was dry enough to put on another layer of CelluClay. It became apparent that the beak needed some infrastructure to facilitate building it up faster and to keep it from getting too heavy. So, I used one of the metal mesh scraps to form an armature for the upper portion of the beak. Once that was attached it was time for more CelluClay. After the top was formed I used another small piece of mesh to form the bottom of the beak as well. Here's what I ended up with before I called it a night.
The shape isn't quite right yet but this layer needed to dry before any more additions could safely be made. Hurry up and wait until the next installment.