Tribal Clay Mask

I made a basic tribal mask using paper clay and basic clay molding techniques and tools.

1. Paper Clay
2. Newspapers
3. Water in a cup
4. Clay working tools
5. Tape
6. Gauze cloth
7. Primer paint
8. Water colours
9. Paint brushes
10. Foamboard
11. Paper cutter

First we need to confirm the design that we are going to implement and make a rough sketch of it so that we can refer to it whenever we get any sort of doubts during the clay modelling part.

Take a few sheets of newspaper and crumple it to get a mold for the face. Make it as even as possible to reduce any irregularities in the face mask as that only holds the actual mask. After making it, secure it to the table surface by taping it tightly. After that, place a gauze cloth over the paper base that we just made to prevent the clay from getting stuck to the paper base and also to help it hold its structural integrity.

Get the paper clay and press it to get a thin enough sheet and keep it on top of the paper base and mold it to get the shape of the paper base. Make sure that the clay is evenly thick and doesn't have any irregularities like bumps or cracks in it.

After the previous step is completed, put a rough mark on the clay for eye position. After that draw the eye shape for both the eyes. Cut the eye that you just made and carve out the excess clay to get the holes for the eyes. After that take a little bit of clay and form a clean border around the eye for extra detailing. Make sure that the clay you added afterwards stick properly to the clay base.

Take a little bit of clay and shape it into a nose as shown in the picture and stick it in the centre of the mask symmetrically below the two eye holes and make sure that it is properly stuck.

After making the nose, take some clay and shape it in the form of a mouth as shown in the picture and stick it to the face symmetrically just below the nose. Also shape the head properly to show the crown like shape properly.

As it is a tribal mask, we need a few markings to make it look like one. Put two markings on either side of the face on the cheeks as shown in the figure using the clay tools. After that shape the ears to look natural and symmetric. After completing this step, let the mask dry for at least a week.

After letting the mask dry, remove it from the paper base. Apply white primer coating on the mask so that it is completely covered.

After letting the primer dry, apply water colours to the mask to get the desired colours and form factor. After this step let it dry and the mask is completed.

After that make a mask stand using foamboard to hold and display the mask and paint it aesthetically to get a decent look.