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Abstract Masks
Abstract Masks
Create a self-portrait out of clay. There is lots of room for creativity and your self image can be used just as a starting point or reference to build on. Feel free to express yourself and abstract the image. You can add elements and shapes to enhance the mask.
Abstract art is based on using geometric or organic shapes and forms rather than making it exactly how we see them. See example below.
An example of abstraction and masks are the "bynwantantay masks of the Bwa people (Burkina Faso) (image below) that represent the flying spirits of the forest; since these spirits are deemed to be invisible, the corresponding masks are shaped after abstract, purely geometrical forms." Examples of geometric forms are shapes like circles, squares, triangles, lines and patterns.
Mask from the Bwa people are representational of animal spirits and nature spirits but their imagery go beyond realistic portrayals. "For example, both the Bwa and the Buna people of Burkina Faso have hawk masks, with the shape of the beak identifying a mask as either Bwa or Buna. In both cases, the hawk's wings are decorated with geometric patterns that have moral meanings; saw-shaped lines represent the hard path followed by ancestors, while chequered patterns represent the interaction of opposites (male-female, night-day, and so on)"
Listen to the drums and watch the masks spirits dance. In this video each mask is identified:
References:
Information about masks through out the continent:
Photos of the Burkina Faso Mask Festival:
Realistic painting
Instructions:
Instructions:
Abstract Mask
Step 1:
Take half of your clay and shape it into a ball
Place it on the table and start to use the flatness of your hand to press down lightly onto the middle of the ball to flatted clay.
Do this repeatedly as you lightly press down and evenly spread out the clay ball into a circle – do this until the clay is ½ an inch thick.
Use your hands lightly to stretch any edges of the circle into your desired shape
Poke a hole a ½-1 inch down from the top edge of the flat shape. This will be used to hang the mask on the wall with a nail.
Last Steps
Last Steps
Let dry for a week
Paint
With the other half portion of clay, begin making coils. Coils are snake like forms of clay to make geometric or organic shapes and patterns
Begin with pulling small parts from your clay
roll it into a ball
use the table surface and your hands to roll the clay into a coil
Start to create your facial features or abstract shapes and patterns with the coils you made. Use the coil to make shapes like triangles, squares, zig-zigs, circles, etc.
Start to place your elements on to the flatten clay surface by slip and scoring the contact surfaces before joining the pieces together.
Slip means wet the surface you will be attaching your parts.
Score means scratch that same surface.
This will secure your parts together and stronger.
View the instructions in a PDF with text and supporting step by step images, here.
CLAY PROJECT; a Virus Sculpture
CLAY PROJECT; a Virus Sculpture
You will be creating a sculpture of your idea of a virus or germ.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
Your art kit from Baltimore Clayworks
2. Cereal bowl (or other small, round bowl)
3. Cup with water in it
4. Your ideas
What is in your Clay Kit:
What is in your Clay Kit:
1. 5 lbs of clay
2. Sketchbook
3. Written directions
4. Piece of brown paper to work on top of with your clay
5. Pencil, eraser, and sharpener
6. 5 or 6 color pencils
7. Tempera paint and brushes
8. Plastic fork and knife for clay cutting and scoring
Draw your ideas:
Draw your ideas:
1. From the Kit, take out your sketchbook, pencil, and color pencils.
2. Look at these 2 drawings by your teacher Ms. Mia;
3. Draw one or two of your own ideas in your sketchbook. You can use your color pencils.
Steps to Making your Virus Sculpture:
Steps to Making your Virus Sculpture:
1. From your Kit take out your brown paper and unfold and spread it out on a table or on the floor. NOTE: Clay looks like dirt but it is not dirty. It is made in a clean environment. It will also wash off of any surface.)
2. Take your bowl and turn it upside down
3. Lay a piece of plastic or paper towel over your bowl so the clay won’t stick to it.
4. Make a slab by pressing it flat, until it’s about a half inch thick, like one of your fingers, In the picture below you see Kelly pressing the clay with the heels of her hands. Make it big enough to cover the bowl with some extra.
5. Lay the slab over the plastic or paper covering the bowl. If there’s not enough clay to reach down to the table, add some. Press the clay all around the bowl. Lay the slab over the plastic covering the bowl. If there’s not enough clay to reach down to the table, add some. Press the clay all around the bowl;
6. Make sure to press the area where the clay meets the table. There will be excess clay. Leave some of it to poke a hole into it for a nail to hang the finished piece on the wall.
You can also pick it up and slap it down on the table – you will see how “centrifugal force” helps flatten it out the clay. It should look kind of like a pancake when you are done.
7. The Fun Part: What do you want your virus to look like?
• Poke a hole through one of the flaps of your virus with your pencil:
8. Score and slip the pieces you are adding to the bowl area. When you are finished, let the sculpture dry for several hours. After that, gently pick it up to take it off the bowl and remove the plastic. Stuff balled-up pieces of newspaper or plastic bags underneath it, and put it in a safe place to dry thoroughly. It could take a week to dry.
9. After a week your virus sculpture will be dry. You can paint it with the tempera paints that are in your kit.
10. Take a pic of your finished virus or germ and if you want us to post it to our Community Arts Website then email it to : CommunityArts@baltimoreclay.onmicrosoft.com
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