mask in progress – Mephistopheles

mephistopheles

This is a mask that I’m working on currently. I usually don’t post works in progress, but I thought I would record this one for posterity, as I think there are some interesting and new things going on in it’s developement, and the way I work, they may be lost forever in the final product. So this stage has been recorded for posterity.

I was otiginally trying to do something quite different, another bearded gentlemen – Zeus – but as I worked the mouth and beard, a smile appeared (in the mask, that is). My Zeus was supposed to be grimacing menacingly, but this fellow was smiling, and I could do nothing to wipe that self-satisfied smirk from his face; so I went with it.

The rest of the mask took shape of it’s own volition and the mighty Zeus faded away as the impish Pan took his place. Or if you prefer – Mephistopheles.

Swirly tessellation

swirl tess

This “swirly” tessellation was created a while back as an adaptation of Tomoko Fuse’s swirly square tessellation (seen here folded by Melisande) applied to a hexagon and triangle tessellation pattern

swirl tutorial 1

Begin with a regular hexagonal twist, but use pleats three creases wide - resist the urge to make a three crease wide hexagon, keep the little hexagon sitting on top – twist that little hexagon back in the direction opposite to the way the big pleats want to go, and then begin to collapse the whole thing into a sort of star shape. Notice in the second picture where the twisting begins to reverse direction at the base of the forming star.

swirl tutorial 2

When the star has collapsed, begin to twist the hexagon on top back again to form the swirls. This is a pretty messy move, but I don’t know any better way to do it. Start with one pleat, fold it back, move to the next exposed pleat, fold it back, and work your way around the hexagon until you have enough slack to twist it and lay it flat (the pleats themselves will not lay flat).

swirl tutorial 3

The tessellation contiues by “splitting”or bifurcating the pleats that leave the hex swirl to make triangular twists all around it. Remember, the pleats are three creases wide, so they should be split into two pleats that are also three creases wide. Notice where the splits occur. The triangle twists are done similarly to the swirled hexagonal twists; the twists are not collapsed as simple triangles, but as triangular stars with a smaller triangle on top. The little triangle on top is then twisted back, just as the hexagons were, to make the swirls.

Each pleat around the central hexagon is split with a triangle swirl, and then new hexagon swirls can be formed where the new pleats intersect to make a complete tessellation pattern.

The original images for this tutorial can be seen here. Pictures on flickr can be viewed larger than they are presented here.

Tutorial of “flagstone” tessellation basics

flagstone basics -1   It begins with an open-backed hex-twist (if you don’t know how to make an open-backed hex twist… well…. learn how) – bifurcate of the pleats on the back to produce a triangle twist as close to the hex twist as you can
flagstone basics -2 begin to split the next pleat (it starts to get tricky, and the paper will not lay flat, it will even try to resist your efforts at this point) to begin to form another open-backed hex twist on the other side
flagstone basics -3continue the process going from on side of the paper to the other, splitting pleats to make triangle twists and adding pleats to make hex twists
flagstone basics -4and there ya go