Japanese Theatre Masks:

I started to explore the Japanese culture and during the process of my research I became very interested in their Japanese Theatre masks. What I love so much about these masks is how they all have little stories and characteristics behind them. For example the two masks that I decided to focus on are known as Hannya and Okame. Hannya is said to be a woman who turned into a Demon who was full of hate and Jealousy whereas Okame was a woman full of happiness known to bring happiness and good fortune to the man she married and was also seen as a lucky charm.

Both masks are rather colourful so when it came to my work I decided to illustrate them in an opposite light. I made two separate A5 drawings of them both but I always want them to remain in a pair side by side. I drew them both in a style that I enjoy the most which is Pointillism, pointillism is a drawing technique that is entirely made up of dots. For me, I believe that Gel pens are the best medium to use whilst dotting as they’re more water based which helps to build up more of a strong and bold pigment. I decided to go around my pieces with a black outline so that the design would stand out much more.

I was enjoying the Japanese Theatre topic that much that I had chosen to go on a bit further with it and produce a Lino Print and a painting.

My lino print presented Hannya. I didn’t want to add too much detail into my lino so I mainly focused upon outline. I printed my prints by hand using nothing but a VersaFine Clair Ink pad and my hands. I did have in mind to print my design in the Print room at University but sadly due to the Virus this was no longer an option. I would have liked to print on the printing machine as I would have obtained a more stronger and solid result. This print is A5 but I did have planned to print multiple of these prints all on one sheet of A3 paper but in different colours.

My painting was also of Hannya but unfortunately I choose not to finish this painting, I suppose I kind of lost interest in finishing it. Although my painting was not completed I still think it gives off some kind of feeling towards it, as if it was meant to be left like that. The technique that I used is what I like to call Dabbing, dabbing is where you dab your paint onto your canvas the whole way through rather than using brush strokes. I used Acrylic paint upon a small A5 canvas.