Native American Masks
Spirit Animals and Nature By : Brooke Rhodes
History
Materials:
Native American masks were constructed out of the materials they had on hand. The masks they had were made out of wood. Paint would be used. Also, items such as feathers, hair, straw and other elements may be added for further decoration.
Mask Stylization
Spirit masks typically depicted animals.
The two major types of Native American masks are spirit masks and portrait masks. Spirit masks tend to portray animals, spirits and embodiments of nature. This is the more common form of Native American masks. Each animal represented a idea and had its own unique characteristic. Some Native American tribes believed that each clan descended from an animal and that animal was depicted in their spirit masks.
I notice that each of the mask either deals with a face, animal, or nature and it is always made out of wood. And use certain colors such as greens ,reds, whites, and blacks. They all consist of eyes (circular) and some sort of mouth and no particular shape.
I would describe the Native American style as bold in color, they have strong features i their faces normally has a nose, eyes and mouth. They have shape, some sort of cohesiveness, and a balance between colors.
My opinion on Native American Masks are that they symbolize some sort of animal, part of nature, and I really like how they use wood so it is pretty easy to apply paint to the mask. It's never really over decorated the masks are simple and not to complex.