Final Mask Photoshoot: Reeds.

This location was not one that I planned to shoot in, as we first came across it when walking to The Vines park for the planned photos. I thought that the colours and textures provided by this environment were very unique compared to the other places I had a planned, (a park and the cathedral.) It was a lot of fun shooting here, and it broadened the opportunities of locations for future projects too.
As much as I like this image, because of the sewn up and hand made look of the mask, I'm aware that it could be coming across too 'scarecrow' so for that reason I believe that the other locations were better choices in terms of characterisation.

Final Mask Photoshoot: Cathedral

The cathedral location provided the kind of washed out, pastel colours that I'd concentrated on using within my concept art pieces throughout this project. For this reason, I feel that it suited the character quite well and that it felt like the two concepts of character and setting could have easily been a part of the same world.
In all of the edits uploaded I've subtly Photoshopped the fingers to be slightly longer in order to create more spindly, bird-like characteristics.

Final Mask Photoshoot: Trees.

My two favourite edits taken from the park location of the photo shoot we did with the mask. I really like the angles these photos where taken at and how this teamed with the framing accentuate the twisted pose.
I felt that a warmer cast suited these photos and the location of the park better than how cold they previously looked pre-edit.

Final Mask Showcase Video

Final Mask Showcase Video from Lily Greenhalgh on Vimeo.


This is a short music video I made in order to show the mask from all angles, in use and in character. The editing, filming and mask making was done by me. The clothes belong to the model, but we discussed beforehand the kind of look I wanted to achieve.
I chose this song (Boy Meets Evil instrumental by BTS) as it's an instrumental and acts as subtle background music; It sounds hopeful and uplifting but also quite sinister in places therefore suiting my interpretation of the play quite well.
In terms of editing I simply experimented with cutting and the speed of the clips. I feel that these effects not only add diversity to the video, but also show a creepy side to the character too.

Final Mask Photoshoot: Close ups.

Photos taken during the final mask photoshoot: I wanted to get a few pictures that focused on the distressing and detailing of the mask, e.g. the 'dirt and drool' around the beak, the distressed belt at the back and the feather detailing.

Mask Progression: Final mask, dying and distressing.

1) The final mask pieces cut out. The piece to the left has been untouched, but the piece on the right has been sanded and textured using P120 wet and dry sandpaper. 

2) The stained and textured jaw panel pinned to the to side pieces of the mask. I figured out with earlier prototypes that this is the best order in which to assemble the mask. 

3) Jaw and side panels hand stitched together. Center seam pinned into place. 

4) Samples for the leather belt strap that will go round the back of the head. 

5) Gluing the leather head strap into place after measuring and texturing. 

6) A selection of tea and coffee I plan on using to texture the end of the beak; I want it to look like theres food, rot and dirt where the mask has been used so much and become a part of the character.

7) Feather distressing samples: made using black acrylic paint and water.

Pigment Casting.

I experimented with a few different coloured pigments during the casting process of making these faces. The first column shows the three different characters with no pigment. The second shows Yool and Ty with pink pigments, (although Yools turned out too pale so I re-cast this one afterwards.) The owl is cast with a bronze powder rubbed into the mould before resin is poured in; bronze powder was within the resin as well to ensure the colour transferred all the way through the cast. The final column shows some random colour experimentation that I thought would suit the characters; Yool as a gentle pastel blue, Ty with stronger golds and khakis and the owl as a pale yellow. To achieve the pastel colours I had to be really precise with how much pigment I put in, as it was really easy to add too much and for the colours to come out too strong!

Box Making.

I asked Billy to help me out in making a box with some shelves within it in order to display my maquette face casts. I wanted to put effort into displaying these professionally, as learning how to do this was one of the points of focus I had in the last run of this project. After drawing up a simple blueprint for measurements, cutting the pieces and beginning to assemble them, I realised that we forgot to take into consideration the extra 5mm that the sides of the box added. Because of this, I stuck together what I could and will have to re-cut some new side pieces asap. I plan on simply painting the box a matt colour once it's assembled, as I want it to look smart but not detract from the casts themselves.  

Fast Cast casting with Silicone moulds.

This shows the surviving sculpt after been removed from the silicone mould. Resin has been poured into the mould which was cleaned out beforehand.  

Shows the desk area while casting the faces; Essential items where a set of scales, two part resin, pots and stirrers, silicone mould, newspaper to protect the table surface. 

Sculpture Casting.

Once the faces where sculpted out completely and smoothed down, I built small walls around them in MDF to form the walls for the mould. 

I used a simple 1:10 platsil silicone, poured over the sculpts after mixing up and dispersing the air bubbles. The silicone was poured into one empty corner of the mould, held from a height in order to help make sure there where no air bubbles too. I also glued the walls down so they were easily removable afterwards; I wanted to make sure that the silicone mould could be pulled off the top of the sculpt once it had set, in case the mould didn't turn out correct the first time. This way I would have a second chance at getting the mould correct in case it did go wrong, (preparing for the worst case scenario, as my time management would have been strained if I had to resculpt any of these character faces.) 

Character face sculpting progress.

 As I'm looking into stop motion puppets and maquettes, I've decided that one part of my making aspect of this project will be focused on character designs, concept art and realising these figures in 3D. Although I know that hand sculpting and casting faces is no longer a widely used method in industry; as 3D printing is now much more efficient in terms of cost, time and accuracy of detailing. I'd still like to practise this method as it's good to understand the past methods used and how we've progressed. For a prototyping project I feel that this method is also appropriate.

I have a small amount of experience with sculpting and casting, so wanted to use this project to practice these skills. I would definitely like to look in 3D printing, but that would require using software I've never even learnt the basics to and in terms of my time management I'm not sure this would fit in with the schedule at this point in the project.

To begin sculpting I had to decide on what materials and style it is I wanted to use and create. I decided on chavant to use to sculpt the faces in, as its quite easy to use and smooth out if you know the right techniques! Chavant is oil based so doesn't air dry,  meaning I can work on the sculpts, leave and come back later without them drying out or cracking. Another advantage to this oil based clay is that once you've cast it, you can reuse it (as it wont have dried) so its quite cost effective and lasts a while.  A lot of detail can also be picked up with chavant, making it suitable for any size sculpts! 

I decided on working with a flat surface, as I want the face to be interchangeable possibly with the use of magnets on the back of them. As someone who doesn't have an awful lot of sculpting experience, working on a flat surface was also easier for me at this point. 

I now realise that working in 3D could gave been a lot more beneficial but I have learnt from this! Seeing the heads as 3D, being able to see every angle of them while I was sculpting would have helped a lot with proportions. 

The style I decided on was quite flat and usually based on one base shape per character, e.g. circles for Yool, Triangles for Ty. The sticky out ears, wide eyes and shape based forms were all design choices. 

Colour Charts

Character colour palettes: The largest circles show the colours most prominent in the character designs, and vice versa. 

Colour Chart: Shows the variation of colours from light to dark/ All colours used within the character designs. 

Rhino Video Examples.

Rhino Star from Lily Greenhalgh on Vimeo.


Rhino Twist from Lily Greenhalgh on Vimeo.


video-1481319157 from Lily Greenhalgh on Vimeo


video-1481319150 from Lily Greenhalgh on Vimeo.

Mask Prototyping (6)

I've begin experimenting with the eyes and their shape. I'd possibly like to make then appear slightly more droopy and sullen; This could be done with the model/ actor wearing dark makeup underneath, but also perhaps changing the shape of the circles that surround the eye holes?
On the right of the mask, I've pinned (and now sewn) a simple circle around the eye hole. I trimmed this down from the size of the rings in the foam mask prototype, as previously they were far too wide.
My next steps will be to experiment with the eye shape a little more, then focus on weathering and wearing samples of the fabrics I'll be using. After that I can move onto the final mask! I would like to get all experiments and prototypes done by Wednesday, in time for the presentations on Friday.

As a side note, I'm not happy with the stitching down the center nose seam here; I want the sewing to look messy and un-uniform but this isn't the look I'm going for. It could be the white thread that's putting me off, but it's definitely something I'm going to change. 

Mask Prototyping (5)

After cutting out the pieces, I began hand sewing them together. However, I soon realised that this fabric requires more consideration than the craft foam did. Instead of sewing the panels together in whatever order I picked them up, I figured out that I should first sew the underneath chin layer to the inside of the cheek pieces, then the middle nose seam, then lastly the forehead section to finish off. This makes handling the material and creating a good shape a lot easier. Above shows how the panels didn't match up and became lop-sided if I didn't consider the order of the steps needed. The second image shows this mistake rectified. 

Pictured here is the current 'Second mask prototype'. I used very rough looking hand stitching, as I want it too look as if Epops himself used his rugged stumps to assemble this mask, therefore the stitching would be messy and uneven. I also used a variety of colour in the thread I used, as I wanted to see which I preferred most next the base tanned tone of the mask. Currently I prefer the black thread as it stands out a little more, and I plan on weathering all fabrics used in making this mask, including the thread. 

Mask Prototyping (4)

Previously the foam prototype allowed me to see the construction, pattern and how the mask would hold itself together. Now I've seen this in 3D and have made some adjustments I can move onto the next prototype.

For this I'm using the kind of fabric that I'll make the final mask out of so I can see how well this material supports itself. I bought an old fake leather suitcase to strip down for this fabric; this gives me unique material that already slightly battered and was also a way of staying within my project budget! The fact that it's fake leather also means that it's much, much easier to work with than real leather would be; it's also softer so more comfortable for the wearer, cheaper and more readily available.

After stripping the suitcase of its panels, I began cutting out the mask pattern. The adjustments seen here are curved jaw/ cheek corner shapes instead of sharper ones, as I prefer this shape.

Mask Prototyping (3)

Final craft foam prototype; from trying it on I was able to see the size of the masks beak and eyeholes and check the proportioning's. The beak was actually a lot larger than I thought it would be and the mask fit quite well over all. However, it was a little tight in places due to the new bottom jaw panel so I fixed this by resizing this piece but slitting it open a few centimeters. This lets me know that in my next prototype I will have to add in these extra centimeters to the pattern piece.
I also wrote notes onto this prototype itself, such as lines around the eyes and notes around the chin indicating the fact that the sizes must be changed.

Mask Prototyping (2)

From left to right:

1) The finished base mask without a chin/ jaw piece. The circles around the eyes have now been affixed, and the entire pattern was used to create this.

2) Trying on the mask to check the fit. At this point, there was no fastenings so I had to hold it on.

3) Upon trying on the mask and realising that there was no bottom to it to completely encase the face, I decided to create a pattern piece to fit this. I did this using the curves from the mask to create the right shape, then experimented with the length and breadth of it.

4) This was then stuck together using PVA glue and clamps, then left overnight.