My friend Adam at Jawbone Puppet theater has a philosophy for mask and puppet making he's focused on later in his career, to focus on what can be done as simply and quickly as possible to get the point across and focus more on the performance than detailed puppets. A similar, even more strict philosophy shared by Tim Giugni, who goes a step further is using entirely found objects and puppets made so quickly he can make them new every performance. I'm using a bit of that energy here, just getting the simplest shapes figured out with cardboard strips and a stapler before slapping on one-and-a-half layers of paper mache. I'm also a little tired of looking through black fabric, so to prove my own philosophy on the suspension of disbelief, all the eye-holes on these pieces will be open.
The cat here is based more on Basilio from the Russian Buratino, since I find his design more distinct than the Pinocchio version of the cat. I wanted him to have large, droppy cheeks and a wide face. The hat in the photos was a scrapped project, not lined yet, so I didn't mind cutting holes for the ears, and it gives him a lot of character to base the design off of. It also serves as the elastic to keep the mask on.
The fox is also based on the Buratino version, Alice. She is very dainty and made-up in fancy clothes. I don't have a hat for her yet, but I plan on giving her a bonnet with lots of lace.
I hung out at Wildland Roots for a day to get all this paper mache done!
A primer coat of white, now time for paint. My partner suggested that he should be a Siamese pattern, specifically a lavender point (which is a real coat pattern, though a lot less vivid purple than this guy). The fox got a classic fox palette, I know foxes don't have green eyes but needed the contrast, maybe she wears contacts in addition to her makeup.
I don't plan on covering any of the masks with fur, but I want to use some yarn wefts along the edges to smooth the transtion between face and mask. And I do so love sympathetic movement.
