Masks/Armor Class Projects: Maquettes

This semester, as i've mentioned, i'm teaching the graduate crafts seminar in masks and armor production. Our first project is to make a maquette, a small-scale version of what will eventually be a finished mask. Because in theatre, mask artisans often work with a costume designer from a rendering of a mask design (which may not include side/front/oblique views), a maquette is an invaluable tool in the transition from "page to stage." Refinements and alterations of scale and proportion can happen at 1/2 or 1/3 or 1/4 scale much faster than on full-size finished sculptures.

I have the students start with a research image or mask design rendering of their choosing and create a small maquette of polymer clay, to get into the mindset of sculpting and thinking about the 2D/3D translation. They paint the maquette in a less-detailed fashion than one might a full-size sculpture, with a mind to conveying color and motif information for a consultation with a (hypothetical) costume designer.

Here's their first round of projects!

( three pix, six maquettes )