W. T. Benda

Władysław T. Benda, better known as W. T. Benda, was a Polish American artist active in the 1920s. He is best known as an illustrator for magazines such as Collier's. But he also developed a (editor's note: this sentence was cut off unfinished on the live WordPress site — needs a real ending from Kevin).

A full color scan of Benda's 1944 book Masks (A Step by Step Guide), including all his pictures and illustrations, is available for download — all scanned into one big PDF (70MB). Download the PDF (this link takes you off mask.farm, to Mega).

The Direct Method

Benda's preferred method according to Masks is surprising and quite different from the method I prefer. The "direct method" is to build the mask out of paper mache from the edge of the mask to the tip of the nose directly — that is, without a mold of any kind. This process required holding the complete idea of the mask in mind before he began. An incredible feat of artistic achievement.