Chapter 6: Changing faces (Part 1)

I will post the work for Chapter 6 in two parts, one post would be too large for the server. The images are numbered to make reference easier. The numbers will be continued in the second post.
 
Activity 5.6.1 Looking for masks and faces

P 1 Maori carving from the internet	P 2 Tattoo pattern for a male Ta Moko, also from the internet.
P 3: I found this wonderful book in the libary: Geschmückte Haut (Adorned Skin). A treasure chest. The following images are from this book. It contains all sorts of body and face painting, tattooing and scarring, from ancient rock paintings to the fanciful make-up of today’s football fans.
	P 4 Three shaman masks of the Tlingit people on the Northwest coast of North America.
P 5: from East Peru I love the subtle geometric patterns.	P 6: from Papua New Guinea
P 7: A traditional Peking opera mask, king of apes.	P 8: Celestial king of dragons
P 9: A young Nuba man.	P 10: A Hindu woman has tattoed sacred words on her face.

Activity 5.6.2 Drawings
I made drawings from three masks, but continued working with only two of them. Even this provided so many ideas that I feel I barely scratched the surface.

	P 11: Tracing from the Ta Moko carving, A4, pen. It was a first step to get to know the patterns. I would very much like to have a side view and see the patterns on the temples. the jaw and the nose from another angle.
	P 12: Drawing with pencil and pen in my sketchbook (A5), with notes. The patterns are much clearer here.
	P 13: Drawing with pen, Conté crayon and sanguine. I love the way the lines follow the form of the face. There seem to  be two beings in one.- I left out the stick in the photo and completed the face painting by guessing. Originally I had intended to use only masks as a source, as I feel a little shy of using a real human face – it does not seem to be respectful. But I do like this so much.
	P 14: The Tlingit mask from P 4, left, was drawn with a pencil and afterwards coloured with pastels. It is the mask of a shaman, and I wondered for a long time which animal it is supposed to represent. This is such a wild face, it really took my fancy.
	P 15: The right eye of the Tlingit mask, drawn with pastels in my A5 sketchbook. I especially wanted to look closer at the lines from the outer corner of the eye to the cheek.
	P 16: Another study in watercolour, A6.

Aside: Eyes
The variety in the depiction of the eyes in the book was astounding. I made a few notes in my sketchbook.

P 17	P 18
P 19	P 20
P 21	P 22: Sketchbook note from an exhibition: eyes in a painting by Ben Nicholosn

Developing the drawings further
1. Nuba face painting, P 13

	P 23: Initial tracings from the drawing A positive and a negative version. On Paint I tried various versions, reducing details as much as possible.
P 24: Stencil no 1: Initially I was drawn to the negative version, which is reduced in the left part and still quite detailed in the right half of the face.	P 25: Stencil no 2: The positive version. After taking away a lot of the details I put them back again to have a contrast to no 1. Both stencils are size A5
	P 26 a and b: Looking through stencil no 2 out of my  my window and at striped gift paper.

Work with the stencils
I worked mostly on pre-decorated papers from former modules. The theme of traditional face painting seems to cry out for using old material. 

	P 27: Bronze paint was sprayed through stencil 1 on a piece of wallpaper. (It is my desk cover and shows prints, sprinkles, smears and washes, layered over time.)
P 28 Stencil 1: Two layers in siena and blue with watery gouache on pre-decorated paper. (I cannot remember why I punched these holes.) A 5	P 29 P 28 overprinted with stencil 2 with dry gouache sponged on, then white gouache painted in.
P 30 Stencil 1 with watery blue gouache on pre-decorated paper A 5	P 31 P 30 overprinted with stencil 2 for more definition
	P 32  A4 Stencil 1: Acrylics stencilled vice versa on 190 g paper Looks like profiles and en face view at the same time.
P 33 The right one of the above prints, background washed with gouache, combined with cut paper from a pre-decorated piece.	P 34 The negative piece was glued on a light blue background.
	P 35 How about a really strong colour? The left half of the print in P 32, washed with Brusho. The black lines are acrylic ink drawn with a dropper, the white spaces drawn with bleach.
P 36 Stencil 2: Repeat pattern with the stripey half of the face sponged with black gouache on a pre-decorated piece of paper A5	P 37 Stencil 1 used for tracing the outlines on pre-decorated paper A5). Then I painted black gouache on the background, which stll shines through in many places, hinting at the outlines of the face.
	P 38 Two layers of watery gouache in siena and black on woven paper with a colour wash from a former Module. I like the broken lines and the edges of the torn paper. It looks very archaic. A 5

Printing
I love printing with vinyl blocks, and I also wanted to try a smaller version of the face.

	P 39: I  cut a small block (4,5 x 6,5 cm) with a simplified version of stencil no 2. The vinyl can be cut very finely, and I got a lot of detail for such a small size, especially the fine lines of the right half of the face.
	P 40 Print with black acrylics on a gelli printed A4 page, washed with blue gouache. The printed faces look like a lace curtain over the initial print.
	P 41 Changing direction: Black acrylics on A 4 catalogue page
	P 42 A crowd of faces, printed with black acrylics on A 4 cartridge paper
	P 43 Black acrylics again on an A4 Gelli printed page with lace texture. Printed this way the heads look like petals .