Below you’ll find an easy step-by-step tutorial for how to draw Lois Mailou Jones Mask Art. It features a fun DIY scratch art process.

Lois Mailou Jones Mask

This Lois Mailou Jones mask project was inspired by her and features a lesson in mask drawing. It includes one of my favorite ways to “age” any drawing by covering it with black oil pastel and then scraping it off. It’s a process also known as sgraffito and can be messy, but the final etched look is well worth the trouble.

Lois Mailou Jones (1905 – 1998) had an impressive career, but do you know how she got started? She had been working as a textile designer and often sold her bold fabric creations to department stores. One day a decorator told her that a colored girl wasn’t capable of producing such beautiful designs. This prompted Jones to shift her artistic focus to the fine arts so she could sign her name to her work, and no one could doubt her ever again.

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Materials for Lois Mailou Jones Mask Project

Card stock paper, 8.5″ x 11″, printed with grid from PDF (optional)
Black Sharpie markers, chisel tip
Black Sharpie markers, fine tip
Oil pastels, I use the Portfolio brand
Stick to scrape (dental flosser works fine)

Directions for a Lois Mailou Jones Mask

Time needed: 1 hour

Step by Step directions for a Lois Mailou Jones Mask

Draw a skull and trace with thick black marker.
Fill with bright oil pastel colors.
Cover everything with a thick layer of black pastel.
Scrap away the top layer of the mask with a scraper.
Continue scraping until the mask is all uncovered.

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