Doberman Mask
For this fun project, I was given the task of creating a mask out of Bristol paper that effortlessly captures the essence of an animal or creature of my choice. For this exercise in capturing forms and recognizing key features, the doberman, with its unmistakable ears, long snout and beady eyes, was my choice of animal to recreate into a mask over the next 5 weeks.
Initial Inspiration
Research & Form Identification
The first step of the process in putting together a mask that catches the essence of a doberman was honing in on and asking what the key details of the breed are. After sketching multiple headshots and thumbnails, the top consistent characteristics that needed to be emphasized in the mask were tall, triangular pointy ears, long, slim snout, and beady angled eyes.
Mask Concept Sketches
At this stage, the goal I aimed to accomplish was taking the key features I analyzed on the doberman and translating them into pieces that would make up the mask.
Process & Development
The next step was creating multiple iterations of masks. My main goal here was to identify what was working well in the initial masks and carry successful aspects over to new iterations that improved upon the issues of the old.
Some challenges I had to work through in this step were figuring out mask size, correct proportions, and especially correcting and perfecting the eyes.
Process & Development
The final mask’s parts were precisely cut via an illustrator file containing all pieces needed to cut the mask that was sent to the Kongsberg machine.
Eventually, after many taped mockup masks and early development tabbed masks, a balance was found that incorporated all the successful details of each iteration into one, completely tabbed mask.
