African Mask Lesson Step 2 - Designing the Eyes
This step illustrates how to simplify and stylize the eyes of your African mask design.
Draw a stylized eye about halfway down the light sheet of paper.
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Simplify this drawing into basic shapes that contain little detail.
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Stylized and simplified features are used to help express abstract qualities like nobility, integrity, courage, fear and humour.
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The shape that you choose for your eye and the angle at which you set it will affect the expressive qualities of the design.
Cut out the eye shape, flip it over and place it on the dark sheet to form a symmetrical arrangement.
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You will now begin to see the counterchange of pattern which will be used throughout this mask design.
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The aim is to create a perfect balance between dark and light, and positive and negative.
This illustration depicts some alternative designs for stylized eyes.
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Note how each pair of eyes has been simplified into basic shapes without much detail.
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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.