“Ocean Beauty”

20” x 5 ½”

I used wire, paint, plaster, a human face mold, clip on earrings, and hot glue.

The thing that inspired me to do an ocean mask was the beauty of it and how pretty the ocean is. The ocean is just a beautiful place and its purpose is so valuable, it gives us water to live.

The first step of my process to creating my mask was sketching my design. I tried to make it as detailed as possible. Then I started my plaster. I went ahead and chose a human face shape for my mold. The eyes were definitely the hardest part of the plastering. It was really hard to get the shape of the eyes with the plaster moving around. Then I made the other plaster accessories, which were a sun and a stick to hold up the mask. It was a little harder doing those since I had to use wire as my mold. I tried making the stick look like seaweed to go with the theme. The only thing that made it look kinda like that was the paint. Which lead to my next step of painting and adding my accessories on with hot glue. I made the ocean part look like the ocean with different shades of blue. I also added little coral to the bottom of it. The sun was a big problem painting because it turned out kinda green in the end from the brush not being completely clean. But I made it work by doing lots of coats of yellow. I think I took a risk with the yellow paint because it was super bright and I was using very pastel colors. I think I also took a risk with the clip on earrings because my mask didn’t have ears and I didn’t know where to put them. I think my favorite thing about my mask is the detail I used. I really focused on making the ocean look like the ocean. And I even made little dolphins swimming which was a great detail if I say so myself. And the coral really made it pop more. If I could start over. I’d fix the greenish sun. And I think I would make my mask a little bit of a different shape. I feel like it's very round around the edges. But otherwise, I really like my mask.

Madison McKnight

“Irrawaddy Dolphin”

9”x12”

Oil pastels, black water color paint, construction paper, hot glue.

My source of inspiration for this project was the Irrawaddy Dolphin. The weight of a Irrawaddy Dolphin is 198-440 pounds. The Irrawaddy is endangered. It doesn’t say how many are left but there isn’t a lot. They say there is an estimated 92 individuals left in their natural habitat, Mekong River. You can find the Irrawaddy in lakes, rivers, estuaries, and coasts. The dolphins are known for their bulging foreheads. For this project, I first started with sketching my Irrawaddy Dolphin on a piece of notebook paper. Then, I traced over the drawing onto my construction paper. After that, I hot glued the outlines of my drawing and then began my oil pastels. The oil pastel took a little bit because I had to really get the edges of the hot glue. I then did my black water color coat after I bent edges of my paper to make cracks. I think I really took a risk with the dark turquoise for the water. That was kinda a stress to make lighter. I really like the way the Irrawaddy turned out. I think I really did well on resembling the bulging head. I think if I could change something, I would change the color of the water. I just think its way to dark. The water was supposed to be a light green type tone and the dark turquoise just didn’t seem to mix well with the white.