30th October,, The DUE DATE!!!

Today, my mask was finally due! From lunch, I desperately tried to finish painting my mask, and I succeeded! J I was slightly disappointed that the quality of colour blending and painting- especially around the eyes- wasn’t as good as I wished towards the end of the lesson, but I was glad I at least finished sticking to my colour scheme.
I completed blending various parts of my mask to the other parts, such as from the dorsal fin to the face and from face to the tail.
Although I had wanted to paint the eyes black to white, there wasn’t any black paint, so I had to mix dark brown with grey to create dark grey to blend to white-grey instead. My beak turned out much darker than what I wanted, but I also didn’t have time to fix this either so they had to be left dark, dark brown.
At the nick of time, I also sprayed gloss on my tail and beak as well as throughout my whole mask. I sprayed especially a lot on my tail, to give the slick, shiny texture of a dolphin’s.
I don’t consider my mask ‘perfect’ or ‘awesome’, but I think it doesn’t look too bad. One thing has definitely improved for me though; I really, really improved on colour blending from all this painting!!!

29th Oct... The Day Before the Mask is DUE!!!

Tomorrow is the date that the mask is due! I have even brought the mask home to paint. So far, the face of the mask has been, as planned, painted from brown at the tip of the tail to yellow at the end of the head back to red again to blend the colours of the beak in. The ears have been painted from red somehow blending into chocolate brown to mahogany, dark brown, and eyes have been blended from indigo blue to icy sky blue.
Now I still have another ear to complete as well as the beak and the edges of the eyes. Cassidy suggested that the edges of the eyes could blend from black to white, giving contrast to the other colours of the mask but also harmoniously arranged with different tones of blue to give the focal point.
I sincerely hope that I can finish painting the mask tomorrow!!!

What's Happening With Painting Mask??? 22.10.08

Today I kept on painting my mask. At the start of the lesson, Mrs Vincent made a shocking (well, to me anyway) comment; she told us that we shouldn't all paint our masks in rainbow colours. I had planned that I would blend from brownish-red to purple throughout the mask, which was exactly the rainbow colours! However Mrs Vincent suggested to me that maybe I should blend from red to yellow then blend back to red again at the beaks, and paint the eyes in cool colours to give them contrast to the mask.
So, at lunch, I worked on it a bit more and it seems to be getting some quite good colour blending. I'm becoming faster at it too!
I really, really can't wait till my mask is finished!!! =]

In The Hols... What Happened To My Mask?

I painted my mask's tail in the holidays. I decided taht Iwould paint it from yellow slowly blending to red, then finishing as dark brown at the tips. This emant that the colours went yellow-light yellow-light orange-orange-crimson-dark, dark read (mauve?)-dark brown.

I also painted the dorsal fin, blending from red back to yellow, finishing as light green.

Then, in class, I continued completing the texture for golden retriever and painted gesson on the face of the mask. I am planning to paint it from light purple to pink to orange, blending to the yellow at the tail. The beak will probably start as darker violet or indigo, though. The ears will be from purple to sky-blue. This is different to what I had originally planned, but I think this new colour scheme will look better for my mask and show my personality better in ways.

I can't wait till I start painting! (Well, the face anyway.) But I still have to finish the last few parts of texture and finish putting on gesso... I'm worried I might not be able to finish the mask in time!!! ={

Erm... Yeah. What's Happening To My... MASK? 10.9.08

I have started my texture of golden retriever! With modelling paste and paddlepop stick, I scraped and 'scratched' modelling paste to the mask, spreading outwards from the nose, or rather, its beak. Mrs Vincent had told us in previous lessons that the texture was to be exaggerated. However mine had still looked textureless after my first go, since I was afraid I would ruin my mask if my texture was too thick. I tried to show the thin(?) texture of the golden retriever's fur, but the texture ended up looking much more different. I'm not sure, but my friends tell me that it looks like a golden retriever's fur, so hopefully the texture will work out. =]

The ears seem the most challenging, though, since the fur is very long, but soft, (golden retriever agai!) and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to show that. Hopefully, I'll finish all the texture except the ears this week! =]

Again... Wha'ts With My Mask Now??? 2.9.08

Today I started painting texture onnto my mask. I knew that I was going to create actual texture, not simulated, so I worked out what the texture would be like for each part of the mask. for the beak and the tail, since they were penguins and dolphi's, they were decided to be smooth and glossy, using gesso. The main head was going to be short, slightly wavy fur, spreading out from the nose, while the ears were going to be long, soft, wavy fur. I started on the tail with a thick paintbrush, paingint the gesso on one way, outwards.

Next lesson, I am planning to do the beak. I'm not sure whether I should add another layer to my ears- I think they are a bit too thin, but I'll see; since I don't want to have them too heavy with my thick coat of gesso for texture.

What's Happening With My Mask?!? 27.8.08

This was a very productive lesson. I finally finished sticking on my ears! Mrs Vincent helped me put on the ear with masking tape. It was orginally inteneded that the ear would be raised and flop outwards, but then the decision was altered so the ears stayed down. Mrs Vincent also cut out the eyeholes for me. I was very surprised when this brought the mask so much more animal characteristics. They were shaped as round-triangles, so when I paint the edges thick with black paint, they will actually look like a golden retreiever's eyes!

I also went back at lunch, and I almost finished my final layer. From next lesson, hopefully and with luck, I will start my texture. I think I will do physical texture rather than simulated, since I'm not really confident with drawing on the texture with pain using tone and colour.

What's Happening So Far??? 21.8.08

I found that my bottom of the mask, which I had added about five more layers last time, had hardened enough to be cut out. Therefore Mrs Vincent cut out a round hole with a knife, and I took out all the bundled-up newpaper balls. then I continued paper-macheing the mask, and soon I'll finish the final layer and start on texture! I was planning to show my texture physically, but Mrs Vincent suggested I could also show simulated texture by painting the texture onto the mask. I'm considering what to do... =]