Making a Mask: Final Mask

My final images consist of me wearing the mask looking at myself in the mirror whilst applying makeup. Although the mask looks quite silly and playful, which were fully my intentions, I also wanted to portray a small message in which make up is something a lot of women use everyday purely to change their appearance, and I guess the message is that people should be comfortable in their own skin and learn to love their insecurities. 

In terms of composition I really like the way you can see the mask looking at itself in the mirror. It was quite difficult to capture this image due to having to take it myself, however if I was to re take it with an extra pair of hands I would like the background to be more simplistic in terms of colour, so perhaps the picture could be taken in the bathroom where the colour palette is white. Also it would be nice for the mask to be more involved in the picture even though I do think the mask showing only half of its face is really effective in terms of the mask not wanting to show the viewer its face however it doesn't realise the mirror is reflecting it. I also like the composition of the mirror and how it sits almost central of the image.

Due to the first image not providing the full face of the mask, I decided to go back and re take another shot with the mask more involved. The only aspect of this image that I would like to change is the reflection in the mirror, with the reflection of the first image and the mask in the second image would make the piece more visually appealing.

Making a Mask: Production Process

I sourced my materials from the Library, where I found some books related to portraits. I scanned the images in which then allowed me to digitally manipulate them in Photoshop.

I decided to choose these images due to the fact the models look flawless and I wanted to use these flawless features in my collages to create a silly and playful piece of work.

 I focused mainly on the lips and eyes as they were easy to mix and match with the portraits. After playing around with different combinations of facial features I decided that I wanted my mask to be completely irregular with out of proportioned features such as big odd and un even eyes. Once I had finished collaging it was strange to see how these beautiful models had transformed into completely irregular and unique compositions.

The main aspect that I find most visually appealing in this piece of work is the limited colour palette and the way the red and brown colours really compliment the greys. I think that if I carried on with my original idea of creating a portrait with a range of images containing a number of colours, then I don't think it would have worked as well and would be too busy to look at.

Making a Mask: Initial Idea

Our first brief was to create a mask, a mask in which perhaps reflected us as a character. This task wasn't intended to test our model making skills but in fact its intentions were purely to make us consider how we could create a powerful illusion, with simple visual devices such as shape, line, colour and material.

Before getting straight into the production process of creating the mask I began to jot some ideas down, along with some basic sketches to provide an insight into my thinking process. I began to consider things such as 'what made me, me' along with a couple of lists with what I was interested in.

An idea that kept popping up was collage, so I began thinking carefully on how I could incorporate collage into my work. I initially thought of creating a mask with a selection of different faces on, all sliced up together creating one whole, irregular face. However, the outcome of this idea may appear slightly messy and have quite a busy feel to it which was not what I was aiming to create, I wanted my mask to be simple but effective.