Sun and moon masquerade masks made for a masquerade dinner. Also worn to the Arts Foundation Gala. Inspired by the Italian Carnival masquerade masters.
Plastic, acrylic paint, hot glue, craft foam, gold foil.
I bought all materials used for these masks.
Plastic, acrylic paint, hot glue, craft foam, gold foil.
I bought all materials used for these masks.
Mask design ideas for the masquerade
1. To create these masks, I bought a plain white plastic mask from PartyCity as the base. Because I wanted both the sun and the moon masks to be similar, I marked the same cut that I would make for both of the faces. To ensure that the acrylic paint stuck properly, I lightly sanded the plastic masks and put a base coat of light orange paint for the sun mask and a base coat of dark blue for the moon mask. I sectioned off areas for different colours with rising glue, as seen in the right corner of the face on the sun mask and the star on the right side of the moon mask. After layering both masks with the base coats of acrylic paint about four times, I added the metallic colours to the top. This created the glow that I wanted for the masks while letting the base colours underneath shine. To add the details of the dripping tears from the eyes I used rising glue and painted over them with the metallic paint, adding white highlights to the most elevated points of the drips for the classical venetian look.
2. To create more drama in the masks, I cut craft foam pieces to add to the side of the face for both masks, and form the flared eyebrow for the sun mask. I hot glued these foam pieces to the masks and painted them over with the metallic paint. Finally, for the details!
3. Using white and silver paint, I dotted tiny stars and swirls into the blue of the mask. Across the eyebrow I painted phases of the moon. On the crescent moon on the side of the face I painted craters with blue highlights and added plastic pearls to blend the foam into the mask, also imitating the moon phases on the eyebrow.
4. In the blue areas on the sun mask I dotted white and silver stars, also adding a dry paint to the shadows of the mask's face to give it a rustic texture.
5. To connect the two masks further, I used gold foil in the left corners of the faces. With tweezers and modge podge, I carefully placed cut strips of gold foil to create the delicate shape of the sun on the moon mask.
