Cheetah Mask

While i really enjoy working in three dimensions, any sculpture or the like i'm interested in doing usually gets put aside for my 2-D work. In this case i was motivated by my six-year-old niece Claudia. I had promised her that i would make her a Halloween mask and she and her brother came to stay with my wife and myself recently so i really had no choice in the matter this time. She wanted to be a cheetah, so that's what i made her.

The mask was constructed using plaster-wrap and her actual face as my armature. I built up a thin base over her eyes, nose, cheeks, and forehead, then once that was dry (and she got her face free again), i cut out the eyeholes and entire mouth area, then used the plaster-wrap to build up a hollow muzzle and pointy ears by hand. I primed the plaster with gesso, put down a yellow ochre acrylic base, and the rest was painted slowly and painfully with a very small and thin brush to try and give the illusion of fur.