I've been toying around with the idea of a dragon mask for a long time.  Almost the better part of 4 years to be exact.  So, recently I finally finished a prototype of one.  I started this prototype so long ago that I've since learned techniques that I wish I knew when I first had this idea.  But I soldiered on out of the desire to just finish it.  Having done so, I'm glad I did.  Now I'd love to make a whole family of these masks.  In the future I would change a few things about it based on what I learned in the process, but it's my largest mask to date and was a joy to build.  Here are some pictures chronicling the final steps in the process.   

Below are two pictures from the dragon's early life.  The one on the left is me wearing the mask after it's initial construction.  You can see it lacks the head piece which I added on later.  I experimented with bed sheets, air dry modelling clay, and made the frame out of clothes hangers.  Oh, and the head strap is part of an old bike helmet.  It's adjustable!  

Above on the right is the base layer of paint, which I would later paper mache over for a smoother, more even skin texture.  On the left are the first pictures of the beginning stages of the head piece.  

A great mask making teacher of mine taught me to always make a mock up of what you're working on because for the most part, you can work out a lot of kinks in that first initial process.  The first picture here is the mock up, which gives me an idea of it's general shape.

Next is the wire frame, which, for lack of a better method, I attached with tape! Effective and cheap.  Once attached, it was a just a matter of putting layer after layer of paper mache over top of the frame.  Below you can see the whole process.  I applied it in a great sheet and then once dry, I cut out the shape of the head piece.  As I worked with the mock up I realized I wanted this piece to look sort of like a flame.  It's the finishing touch to this mask, so I wanted it to stand out.  

A few layers of paint later, and I had my very first dragon mask. Keep a look out for more dragon masks to come.  After this experience I think I might be making many more.  

Want to see my masks in person?  Well, you're in luck!  My theatre company, Theatre Caravel, hosts a quarterly new works evening called Sea Change and this month I decided to dust off some of my masks that have been sitting around and show them as a special way to celebrate the 10th Edition of the evening.  


Besides that I've been meaning to bring my masks to Sea Change for quite a while and it's about that time.  
Click on the image for all the details about how you can come and see them.  


Until then here are a few things I'll be showing, plus some things I'll be finishing up for the night!  Check it out.  There may even be some masks to take home.  Below are some masks from my collection that will be showing up, including some of the first masks I ever made.

And here are a couple of photos of a prototype of a dragon mask I've had lying around for quite some time.  I'm working on getting him all finished up for Sea Change.  He's half painted at the moment, and he needs a few more details.  I'm interested in making a whole family of these masks.  Come see his debut!

Here they are!  These are pictures of the masks I made for the Shakespeare Bash'd Midsummer Night's Dream project. I am very excited to share these finished products with you all.  You can see them here on the face casts of the actors who played the characters.  I had the great pleasure of seeing them bring the masks to life a few months ago and couldn't have been happier with the result. 

This was a great experience because it is the first family of masks I've made.  I had long talks with the director about what we wanted the world we wanted these characters to inhabit and how they would look.  Bottom was a specifically important character to focus on because his mask would be the most complex to make. 

We decided that we didn't want Bottom or the Fairies' masks to be too complicated.  The masks would simply enhance, and heighten the world that the characters inhabited.  Because all the actors in this show would be playing more than one role it was important to clearly define the different characters and the world they lived in. 

We wanted the magical world of the play to be slightly grotesque. Bottom wouldn't be the soft, lovable ass that we sometimes see in productions of this play.  I wanted to really highlight Bottom's transformation and the half-human, half-ass qualities of his character, which is why I retained visibility to large portions of the actors face.  I didn't want him to look like an ass but rather a true cross between a human and an ass.   

The same went for the fairies.  They were designed to look other-worldly and not quite human, but still recognizable.  We wanted to avoid the glitter and glamour that gets associated with the fairy world and highlight the real intentions of some of these characters.  So the masks took on a bit of a more mysterious, brooding, impish quality.  These fairies represent a wild part of the human psyche that acts on impulse, making them slightly scary and unpredictable. 

All in all it was a great learning experience and an incredible time making these masks from design, to production and finally seeing them in performance.  You can see more pictures in the Gallery, including some pictures of them in construction. 

One of my greatest teachers, Teodoro Dragonieri, invented these incredible masks 
which he has called the Jugheads.  
They are very simply masks and are made from old plastic jugs, like juice containers, laundry detergent jugs and watering cans.  The masks are surprisingly expressive and are incredible teaching tools.  Because the masks features are so striking, performers are given a lot to work with right away.  These masks are non-verbal but, like all masks, are incredibly physical beings.  The demand a lot of a performer and teach performers just what it takes to do justice to a mask in performance.  

< This picture is from a workshop my theatre company organized with Teodoro early in the summer and this is one example of how much fun it was.  

My newest project is making a family of these masks myself!  I've been collecting a lot of jugs - not to mention drinking a lot of orange juice.  Now I have quite a few and am ready to create my own set.  I'm planning to use these to teach kids and adults alike the basics of mask performance.  I've got quite a lot else on my plate right now, 
directing and developing a show for the winter, so this
 will scratch that mask making itch in the meantime.  

What's that they say about clear space, clear mind?  I'm sure whatever that saying is, it applies to the state of my workshop, in relation to the state my brain was in.  But thankfully a couple of days ago I did a massive clean up of my workshop which, although small, can get piled with junk quickly. 

I went from project to project to project so quickly that scraps of materials, designs and odds and ends piled up so fast.  Below is what my workshop looked like before the epic clean, and after.  As you can see, I'm ready to move onto new things now! 

Here's the view of the set up for the Children's Peace Theatre Workshop.  This is my most basic workshop I teach, using paper templates to create masks.  I like this one because it let's the kids imaginations run wild.  Here's the sample I made on the left.  I like the call it the MOOSTER.  Which is a cross between a moose and a rooster.

What a crazy couple of months!  I had to take a brief hiatus from mask making to focus on a Fringe
show I was acting in.  This also means I did not get to make masks for the Cyclops, much to my disappointment.  It's very hard to choose between projects, but it just wasn't the right time unfortunately.  But now that the festival is all done for the year, it's time to get back at it!  Now I can focus on a few projects that I've had in my mind for a while - mostly cleaning my workshop...it can get so messy so quickly when not in use.  

First up after that is teaching a workshop this week for the Children's Peace Theatre.  What a cool company - dedicated to inspiring world change from the ground up, using theatre as a teaching tool for kids and allowing them to shape the future how they want to see it.  Truly inspiring!  I'm going to be teaching some of their camp kids how to make masks! It's going to be a quick little introduction to mask making.  So there will be use of templates, household items, and a lot of creativity.  Sometimes the best stuff comes when you have to work quickly. 

Here's a bit of inspiration.  What a great face!  It's true that art imitates life I think - because I can see this guy showing up in a mask in the future. I love to grab images like this for reference, and inspiration. 

Now that I've got a bit more time on my hands, I'm spending some time to pour over images like this and come up with some new mask ideas.  I'm also focusing on the future - with thoughts about training.  It's a dream of mine to learn from Donato Sartori, or the wood carving mask makers of Bali.  But those two things might be a little while off.  Until then, I'll be learning from great faces like this guy to keep my skills up. 

Well the Shakespeare Bash'd reading has come and gone, and it was a blast.  The masks looked great and I was lucky to see them performed by such talented actors.  With any luck this will not be the last time they get used.


Here are some pictures of the masks in process.  This is one of the Bottom mask getting all furred up.  The masks are made of Japanese mulberry paper and the final two coats of the bottom mask were made with a grey died mulberry paper with a really great fibre count.  Strong, and durable, but lightweight!

This was the first mask I've done with any sort of textured surface, like hair, and it was so cool to see it come to life as I applied the fur.  I did about two coats of fur and had to glue it on almost hair by hair.  Quite a long process but totally worth it.  

Titania's mask ended up having an extra appendage of sorts in the form of a peacock feather I found in Chinatown.  The idea here was to make her other-worldly, which really worked.  It attached her to the animal/natural world in a really nice way.  

More pictures will be added soon of the finished masks.

Until then - now it's on to my next project: a series of three masks for a Fringe production of the Cyclops, a new adaptation of the hilarious greek Satyr play. It will involve making the Cyclops mask (of course) and some others as well as making some Satyr masks!  What a great project.  Below are some of the pictures I'm working from as inspiration.  More to come on this project as it unfolds.

What a month!  I was able to crawl out of my workshop just long enough to update this blog.  I've been feverishly working on a few projects over the past month, the bulk of which has been taken up by these amazing masks I'm working on for a workshop of A Midsummer Night's Dream for the Shakespeare Bash'd Initiative. 

This here is a sneak peak at the mask for the actress playing Titania.  The concept behind these masks is to make them in a venetian carnival style.  Regal, powerful, mysterious, but unobtrusive.  I want these masks to highlight the actors natural features and give them the freedom to play around.  They will be eventually made of mulberry paper - a fibrous Japanese paper that is very durable.

And just because I like anyone who comes to my blog to see what I'm up to - here's a very very sneak peak at the mask for Bottom when he is "translated" into an Ass.  It's hiding under a plastic sheet, and has mock ears at the moment, but you can get the idea.  This is definitely one of the most exciting masks I'm working on to date for one of my favourite plays. 

Other than that I'm hard at work getting ready to teach a mask performance workshop at the Conference of Independent School's Drama Festival where I'll teach young performers the basics of mask! http://www.cds.on.ca/cisdf  Very exciting news!  I hope to have pictures posted after it happens.  Stay tuned!