Our page banner is a detail of a human faced mask for the Nyau masquerade from Malawi.
Photo: (Creative Commons) © Andreas Praefcke
Designing an African Mask - Step 2
Designing the eyes - 1
- Draw a stylized eye about halfway down the light sheet of paper. Simplify this drawing into basic shapes that contain little detail.
- Stylized and simplified features are used to help express abstract qualities like nobility, integrity, courage, fear and humour.
- The shape that you choose for your eye and the angle at which you set it will affect the expressive qualities of the design.
Designing the Eyes - 2
- Cut out the eye shape, flip it over and place it on the dark sheet to form a symmetrical arrangement.
- You will now begin to see the counterchange of pattern which will be used throughout this mask design.
- The aim is to create a perfect balance between dark and light, and positive and negative.
Designing the Eyes - 3
- The illustration above depicts some alternative designs for stylized eyes.
- Note how each pair of eyes has been simplified into basic shapes without much detail.
- Simplified features on a mask communicate quicker and are more visible from a distance. They also have a greater expressive impact than more detailed images.
