Twitter Beard

Illustrative Mask "Twitter Beard."

For the past three years I've been teaching "Digital Illustration" in a local college VC program. For this terms final project I assigned the students an "Illustrative Mask" for them to create over a four week period were we focused on each phase of the creative process: Thumbnails, Sketches, Comps, and Final Art all being art directed by myself and peer reviewed.

I thought this would be fun so I decided to participate myself. The idea I chose to develop was based on my love of Twitter.com which I've been using going on three years now. (You can follow me at: @vonster)


Striking a pose with "Twitter Beard" mask.

When ever someone asks me "What is Twitter?" or "Why do you use Twitter?" I usually respond by saying "Think of Twitter as a diary for your random thoughts that other people can read." Essentially the only thing I'm doing differently now than I was pre-Twitter is documenting my thoughts.

The random thoughts and ideas have always been their, but I never captured them. Twitter allows me to do that now and also gives me the opportunity to see what others are thinking and that makes for a good waste of time.


Some of my students mask illustrations.

I think my students did a great job. Very creative and fun mask illustrations. They'll all be getting A's BTW.


My daughter Savannah inherited my zany gene. Arrrgh!

The fun thing about a mask like this is that each user can create a different emotion really easily. Add some props like a hat or glasses and all manner of zany merriment and take place. It's low-tech fun at it's best.


More mask hi-jinx.

Here are several people who put together their own design gathering and had some fun with the mask.


Construct your own "Twitter Beard" mask.

If you download and construct a mask for yourself please share a link to a picture in the comments below.

Download "Twitter Beard" PDF
"Twitter Beard" Mask PDF (1.5MB)

For more information and larger preview of "Twitter Beard" visit my primary site here.

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