Vejigante Masks at PS 48M

17 Feb 2011, 10:03 AM by kaya

Students work on painting their masks in a base coat

At PS 48M the visual arts class is building vejigante masks. Students researched the history of the Puerto Rican masks and play to display them in time for carnival. Vejigantes wear brightly colored, ornate masks of all colors and a costume with bat-like wings. The term vejigante derives from the word vejiga (bladder) and gigante (giant), because they used to be made of blown up and painted cow bladders. We used balloons instead!

Here is a sketch of a mask next to the real thing- on its way!

First we have to do a base coat, then layer the paint to strenghten the masks