When I was thinking of different aspects of masks, I kept coming back to camouflage and wanted to explore that aspect.  Obviously, cephalopods came to mind first.  They are all the masters of changing their appearance.  I haven’t really rendered many animals before, so I was really contemplating how I could incorporate them into a piece. So, one night, I came up with the idea of creating a giant octopus wrapping around a head and camouflaging into it.  This was one of those pieces that I just wanted to see if I could pull it off.

    I initially thought that I would construct the entire octopus in layers of sheer fabric to keep some of Janine's face exposed through the tentacles.  I had to change my plan of attack.  I started with different layers of sheers, then covered those with similar coloured fabrics, and then cut into them utilizing reverse applique in this layer as well.  I also had to add extensions off of the head to make it appear as if the tentacles were reaching around the head.  Lastly, I added shadows to try to give more depth to the body of the octopus.  This is one of those pieces that I could probably spend another year trying to refine, but I decided just to move on.  The hardest part is trying to keep a balance between rendering the form of the octopus and wanting it to disappear via camouflage.