How to Make Paper Sculpture Animal Masks

[Music] hi i’m julia from reynolda house museum of american art here with another video to inspire you to be creative and make art at home today we are going to have the first in a series of three videos that show some paper sculpture techniques for how to use paper to make forms to make them look like animal masks and the video today is going to make a bird mask like this and i was inspired by a goldfinch as you can see with the yellow and the black i used paper and i added these feathers but you don’t have to add the feathers you could just do this as a simple strictly paper sculpture reynolda house has a collection of porcelain sculptures by the british ceramic artist and sculptor dorothy doughty the collection has porcelain figures of some american birds and we can find inspiration from these for our bird face masks for example i will make a goldfinch today because i liked its bright yellow and black feathers you might want to look up pictures of birds to inspire you or invent your own bird using the materials that you have on hand i’ll show you what you need to do this project and how to make it for this project i recommend printing out the mask base template and the bird beak template from the printable instructions and templates listed below if you print them onto cardstock the templates will be easier to reuse and you can use the mask-based template as both a pattern and as a sturdy background on which to put your mask next you’ll need construction paper or other decorative paper if you didn’t print the mask base out on cardstock you’ll need some other sort of heavy paper from which to cut it out you might want pictures of birds to inspire you like this perula warbler scarlet tanninger indigo bunting yellow warbler or goldfinch just as examples you will need a pair of scissors a pencil and a glue stick you might want feathers and glue or a stapler to attach them to be able to wear your mask you’ll either need a hole punch and string a popsicle stick and tape or ribbon and a stapler this video and the others in the series will show how to use patterns to create three different animal masks you might want to change them or create an entirely different animal to help you i want to show you four techniques two of which you might use for this bird mask first when you see a solid line in the pattern that means it is a place where you will make a cut after cutting around the shape i cut along the solid line here in this circle now you can change the shape this is a circle but it might be an ear or other shape from a flat shape into a 3d form see how i overlap the two sides and can make a taller or a shorter cone think about what this shape could make second these patterns have two different kinds of dotted lines to show you where to fold an even dotted line means a valley fold a fold that’s like a valley between two mountains a dot dash line means a mountain fold a fold where the sides slope down like a mountain if we look at these on the side you can see how the valley fold is like a v and the mountain fold is like half of an m the next technique helps you make folds especially on curved lines when you score a fold on construction paper you can use a tool like a bone folder or scoring tool to trace over the pattern where the dotted line is if you don’t have a scoring tool you can use the closed edge of a pair of scissors and run it over the dotted line it makes an indent to help you fold later but you don’t want to cut the paper think about what kinds of shapes you can make by scoring along a curved line finally the last technique is curl wrap paper around a pencil to curl it you can keep the curl tight or loosen it out you can also pull it sideways to make a ringlet or coil how can you use this technique in review cut along solid lines and see how cutting a single line in a shape can help you make it 3d mountain and valley folds help make shapes stand up too scoring helps you fold and curling a strip of paper around a pencil can make coils or circular shapes to make a bird mask i started with a mask based template traced onto heavy paper then to make this goldfinch i decided it needs a short beak cut out the beak template you want then trace around it onto the paper that you will use to make the beat i lightly copied over the fold lines to my new paper but you can also put the template on top and score over it to make an impression on your construction paper for where to fold score your paper along the fold lines fold see how the mountain fold down the middle of the beak makes it stand up like a bird’s beak and the valley folds on the sides of the beak will give a place to glue it behind the mask base glue the goldfinch needs a yellow face so i’ll trace the mask base template onto yellow paper and cut it out to cut the eye holes lightly bend the paper without folding at the middle of the eye make a slight cut to create a slit then open it out use the slit to let you get your scissors in to cut around the oval you might want to cut out shapes for your bird feathers or you can tear the paper to make a jagged edge i want the face to have texture so i’ll rip yellow paper in addition to the black paper for feathers [Music] to glue place a piece of scrap paper underneath your papers when putting glue on them this lets you get glue all the way to the edge of your paper without getting glue on your work surface glue all papers in place do [Music] for this mask we’ll attach a stick so you can hold the mask in front of your face turn it over tape or glue the stick behind the mask at the edge [Music] if you want to add feathers you can glue or staple them in place [Music] share your creations on instagram facebook or twitter using the hashtag reynoldathome find more videos helpful downloads and other resources on the learn page at reynolda.org find more pop-up studio videos at youtube.com reynolda

[Music] hi i’m julia from reynolda house museum of american art here with another video to inspire you to be creative and make art at home and today this is the second in a series of videos looking at how to make paper sculpture animal masks and i’m being inspired by the frogs in a fountain in front of reynolda house today to make this frog mask ribbit this mask uses some simple tracing and cutting but also a slightly more complicated technique for making the nostrils which you could do or just cut out a shape for that but i will show you how to do this technique with any of these you can make a different animal

with the techniques that we’re showing you um but you could also just follow along with the templates precisely and make a frog mask so i’ll show you what you need to do this and how to do it for this project i recommend printing out the frog base template page from the printable instructions and templates linked below if you print the page onto cardstock the templates will be easier to use but you can also use regular printer paper you’ll need a sturdy piece of paper for your mask base next you’ll need construction paper or other decorative paper in white and green you will need a pencil a pair of scissors a glue stick and scrap paper a scoring tool if you have one a hole punch and some string to make a frog mask start by cutting out

your printed templates [Music] to cut the eye holes gently bend the paper without folding and make a small cut to make a slit in the center of the eye place your lower scissor blade through the hole so you can cut around the inside of the line trace one copy of the mask base onto heavy paper or cardstock trace another copy of the mask base onto paper for the skin of the frog i used green on the same paper trace the outlines of the nostrils trace the frog chin slash throat onto white paper notice how i’m lining up the straight edge with the edge of the white paper to save some cutting and leave more paper that i can use again later trace the outline of the eye pieces onto white paper cut out all paper shapes [Music] place the nostril patterns over the nostril shapes you cut out from construction paper use a scoring tool or the closed edge of a pair of scissors to trace over the dotted lines pressing firmly but not so hard that you rip or cut the paper this should leave an impression to help you fold. fold the nostril for more guidance on paper folding techniques and the difference between mountain and valley folds see the first video in this series on making bird masks i had to cut the tab here so that it went all the way to the fold line this helps to make the shape [Music] put scrap paper under each paper when you glue to allow you to get glue all the way to the edge of your paper but not onto your work surface glue the skin to the heavy paper base then glue the chin slash throat behind the mask [Music] glue the white eye shapes over the eyes [Music] glue the nostrils into place for an easier version of the nostrils just cut flat shapes of paper out for nostrils and then stick them onto the frog face to make the mask wearable punch a hole on either side of the frog’s face then thread a string through and tie a knot we had leftover name tag strings that have a metal thing at the end to hold them in place if you can find those great if not just make knots to make the string the length you need it to be share your creations on instagram facebook or twitter using the hashtag reynoldathome find more videos helpful downloads and other resources on the learn page at reynolda.org find more pop-up studio videos at youtube.com reynolda

Music] hi i’m julia from reynolda house museum of american art and this is the third video in a series that looks at how to use paper sculpture techniques to make animal face masks so you might want to use these for a halloween costume for example today we’re going to do the most advanced and complicated techniques using templates to guide us but we will make a lion face mask so let’s see can i put it on wow so this is our lion face mask using a variety of techniques to make ears that stick out a nose that stands out crimped paper for the main and other techniques that you’ll see in just a little bit for this mask i was inspired by many different lions that we have at reynolda there are lions on the furniture we have purple couches that have lions on the feet there are chairs that have lions on the hand rests there are lions in reynolda gardens as well so we have

lions everywhere at reynolda to inspire us and so i wanted this last video in the series to be a lion and maybe it will inspire you to create your own following the templates that we have i will show you how to use the templates provided for this lesson to create your own lion paper sculpture mask let’s get started to make a lion mask following the templates you’ll need to start by printing out the templates for the lion mask base and for the lion face these are included in the instructions with printable templates linked below you’ll need heavy paper for your mask base any color use black if you have it you’ll need a tan construction paper for your lion and some other brown papers too you’ll need some black construction paper if you didn’t have any heavy black paper for the mask base you will need a pencil scissors a glue stick and scrap paper a hole punch and some string if you have a bone folder or scoring tool that would be helpful too but if not you can use the closed edge of your scissors to score see paper sculpture animal masks part 1 for instructions on four basic paper sculpture techniques begin by cutting out your printed templates to cut the eye holes gently bend the paper without folding and make a small cut to make a slit in the center of the eye place your lower scissor blade through the hole so that you can cut around the inside of the line trace the mask base onto heavy paper or card stock trace the face parts onto tan paper notice how i’m starting near the edges to try to maximize my usage of paper if you had light paper for your mask base trace the lower half of the eyes down to the cheeks of the mask base template onto black or dark gray paper cut out all paper shapes place the face patterns over the face shapes that you cut out from construction paper use a scoring tool or the closed edge of a pair of scissors to

trace over the dotted lines pressing firmly but not so hard that you rip or cut the paper this should leave an impression to help you fold fold the paper as indicated in the pattern mountain folds stand up valley folds retreat [Music] when you start to glue place a scrap paper under your work area so you can put glue all the way to the edges of your shapes without getting glue on the table glue the black paper to the mask base glue tab a of the face side to the central face piece repeat with tab b of

the right side face after scoring and folding glue the nose pieces e and f to the matching tabs then glue the long tabs at the inside of the face sides to the underside of the nose matching them up at the corners of the nose glue the nose pieces together with the tab and tuck the long piece labeled g on the pattern behind the nose pieces labeled e and f to make the ears glue one tab slightly over top the other making the ear slightly cupped you can staple or glue it into place glue the forehead to the mask base and secure cut whiskers and attach them to the nose [Music] glue or staple the ears in place before attaching the main pieces punch a hole on either side of the face where the string will hold the mask in place to make the mane tear and crimp paper in different shades of brown attach it to the mask base around the sides and the top of the lion’s face tear to adjust the length as needed i should have punched these holes before attaching the mane but it’s okay

i’m using a pencil to poke my string through the hole and tying several knots to hold it in place pull the other end of the string through the other side measure the correct length by trying it on and then tie a knot where you need it to be at the right length and trim off any extra share your creations on instagram facebook or twitter using the hashtag reynoldathome find more videos helpful downloads and other resources on the learn page at reynolda.org find more pop-up studio videos at youtube.com reynolda