Band Masks

Whilst traipsing around for supplies to make a puppet that will now no longer feature in my music video, I stumbled upon a four pack of plain, children's party masks. This gave me the idea to incorporate performance as well as puppets - and would mean that the acting ability of my performers will not be focused on as much as the editing. They would not have to lip sync, and their movements will be more in key with the music. However, a clain white mask will not be visible on a plain white background. Therefore I would have to get ~creative~

To begin with, I mixed a solution of PVA glue and water into a bowl and found the largest brush that I could. I then went onto dabbing the mask in the water/glue solution in order to make a base for things to stick against it.


I then went onto tearing up toilet tissue (unused) into stips and went onto dabbing the strip in vertically over the mask; into all the contours, but making sure that the mouth, nose and eye holes are covered for the sake of aesthetics.

After that, more strips were applied horizontally across the mask. This method of papier mache would make the masks stronger and would also give me a rough yet workable base to paint over. 

The latter is exactly what I did: but first, in white. The white poster paint will act as a base coat and mask any marks or missed spots from the papier mache stage; also, would make painting colours onto the mask less tricky if white is already in the design.

Whilst the paint dried, I compiled a large set of designs from online in order to get some inspiration for the mask designs. I initially wanted the masks to channel some of the pop art energy that the Killjoys mustered with their vibrant designs.

However, I then looked onto more worldly designs such as the Hyottoko masks from japan and the Luchador wrestler masks from Mexico. Additional sources of inspiration came from The Clockwork Orange makeup designs and the Day of the Dead skull designs from Latin American cultures.