![]() Here is the newest mask I'm working on now. It's a Pantalone mask. This is a larger version of a small Pantalone mask I made which you can see here > Pantalone is a character in Commedia Dell'Arte and was one of the first masks I ever made, so it's really fun to return to him. He's basically an old miser. He's one of the principal characters in almost all Commedia sketches. I like to think Mr. Burns from the Simpsons is a sort of Pantalone. He has a lot of money and his servants are always playing tricks on him. Meanwhile, he is usually trying to woo a younger female character. He's definitely one of my favourite characters. | ![]() One of my first tiny pantalone masks |
In these pictures you can get a sense of my process. I usually start with a sketch, and then move on to sculpting, and then make a plaster casting over that. Then I'll paste layers of paper maché inside that casting which later becomes the mask. |
Just for fun I'm going to end this blog post with a couple old pictures I found. This is a picture of me selling my masks on the streets of Galway, Ireland. These are some of my first masks! I sold them to tourists and passers by. I remember that was the summer that Iron Man the movie was released and I made a bunch of little Iron Man masks for kids. It was a great time. I still use the stool that I'm sitting on in this picture in my workshop to this day. If you look close enough you can Dottore, Pantalone and Arlecchino in the top row.