art idea

I can't take credit for the fantastic masks that you see above. They are the creations of some of my gr. 9 art students and I am just thrilled with how they turned out.

For some reason, a mask unit always seems to be a no fail assignment with students. 

We start off by looking at masks from around the world and discuss what their uses are (I usually show a powerpoint of different images). Then students are asked to design their own masks by making sketches in their sketchbooks. I ask students to make two sketches, one a frontal view and the other a side view so that they can really grasp the concept that a mask should be 3 dimensional and not flat. Then we create the masks! I've done this unit using clay and paper mache. While the clay unit was much easier and less messy than the paper mache unit, I must say that I am very happy with the results of the paper mache. I used an awesome tutorial from this great site and plan on using some of their other tutorials in the future. Paper mache may take time and may be messy but it is an inexpensive way to create sculpture. From this unit I have learned that paper mache is a really versatile medium and it is not only for little children's crafts.