Day of the Dead - Life & Death

Welcome to the next installment of my mask series. In this instance, I layered a second mask designed to look like an aged skull and affixed it with strong magnets to eliminate additional straps or attachments. I wanted to have a juxtaposition of beauty & horror with a life & death mask. I painted the skull piece to completion before beginning the beauty design in blue. By doing this, I was able to align the nose and teeth more accurately between the two layers. Having two complete and separate masks, I can easily use them together or separately and still maintain a complete look. The beauty mask stands on its own and doesn't need to make use of the skull appliance. My technique for applying the magnets to the skull piece also allows it to be used independently if my model chose to adhere magnets to her skin using a makeup glue. This has not yet been a chosen method but perhaps in the future, I will find a model willing to experiment with that look.

Sheer Beauty featuring Mileah

I love how my prop kit can spark new ideas for the direction of a session. Although Mileah brought some of her own wardrobe, she was having a lot of fun digging through mine and jumping in with new ideas.

I have created so many DIY modifiers for my studio, I have even turned a prop into a useable light source. It was an old window from what may have been a loft. I built a lined box around the glass on one side keeping an opening just large enough for one speedlight and one is all it takes. Here Mileah's pose leads toward the ight source of this window and with the addition of a gridded speedlight above and to camera right it gives a very light separation between mileah's hair and the backdrop. But enough about how it was done, lets share some of the images of this setup.

Day of the Dead on Ice

I was intrigued by the idea of using ice as the theme rather than the classic Day of the Dead skull and flowers. I learned so much from assembling my first mask and applied that knowledge to this new design. I created a post on the making of my original mask as well as a session where it was worn by a beautiful model.

To begin the construction of this mask, I took a blank mask and supplied paint and flowers and lace to bring the idea into being. I treated the overall build as if I were applying makeup to a face. To accomplish this, I first applied a flesh tone with additional red pigments over the lips and cheeks. Once the flesh-tone was dry, I applied white and iridescent paint and allowed some of the base layer to show through mimicking the way makeup would be translucent once applied.

The concept of ice was my only plan before assembling this mask. I started painting the large snowflake which covers the forehead of the mask. I painted diamonds, teardrops, eye-shadow, and lipstick. The mouth was modeled after the teeth design on traditional Day of the Dead masks. I added gems to offer a 3-dimensional effect to the design. The white veil was attached first with hot-glue, and then stitched with needle and thread. The blue roses were attached in the same fashion. To further enhance the anonymity of the model, I attached lace within the eyes of the mask.

What better way to showcase this new creation than to have it modeled by a beautiful young woman. In addition to the mask, her wardrobe included white lace tied around her waist. A garter and white lace fan added a playful flourish during the photo shoot.

Given the minimal wardrobe,
These images contain nudity
And are Not Safe For Work