Happy Snow Day

Project 1 (character mask plus 11" x 14" full color illustration of your character in its environment) will be due next week. Please email any questions about your project in the meantime, see you all on February 9th

Wire & Masking Tape Mask Process

Some photos of the process for my Creature From the Black Lagoon mask:

Wire framework of the head, made from 14-gauge galvanized wire from Home Depot, with 24-gauge wire wrapped tightly in figure-eights around each and every joint to tighten. I start by making rings with the 14-gauge wire, and gradually connect them all together, bending the structure as I go to form the head. I have to keep in mind where the eyeholes will be in the design, and how the mask will rest on my shoulders and head.


Double-wide masking tape wrapping the wire, with some balled-up tape to help mold the features----less-messy and less-smelly to work with than papier-mache



Layers of acrylic paint over a base coat of Mars Black

Monster Masks

Since transporting these large masks to MassArt will be tricky right now because of my broken hand, I figured I'd post lots of photos of monster masks I've been building for the last 20 years.

"Clyde Gunky" was a zombie character I created in high school, and part of the Orientation process for 1991 incoming MassArt freshman was a mask self-portrait. Wire framework, papier mache, tempera paint, and yarn:


early 1990s drawings of Clyde:




Clyde had a zombie brother named Floyd, and I built a Floyd Gunky mask in 1992


that was based on these drawings of him:


Another early Massart assignment was a self-portrait in any medium, so I built a mask:


1996 Devil mask made of wire, papier mache, and white cotton gloves painted with the same color acrylics:


Creepy Clown mask, late 90s:

wire, wire & masking tape, acrylic paint


Black & White Skeleton mask & costume:


Frankenstein Monster mask, 2003:

wire, masking tape, acrylic paint, bike lights in eye-sockets



Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera mask, 2004:

wire, masking tape, plastic bubbles in the eyesockets those vending machine dispense toys in


Devil mask:
wire, masking tape, acrylic & fluorescent paints, bike lights in the eyesockets

Creature From The Black Lagoon mask:

wire, masking tape, acrylic paint, with same colors painted onto black turtlneck & black jeans:



Pazuzu mask, wings, & costume based on the statue in "the Exorcist":

wire, masking tape, acrylic paint, painted thermal underwear and gloves, and sneakers customized with wire, tape, & paint to be demon claws

Green Skeleton mask & costume




Zombie mask & costume:


Edgar Allen Poe mask:

MassArt Student Masks from 2009

Below are amazing wire and masking tape Halloween masks created by the students in the Spooky Illustration PCE course I taught in 2009. Most of the students had never built masks before, or hadn't used wire and masking tape to build masks: