Airbrushing Death – Stage Adaptation of Mort (2015)

In 2015, I was asked by my friend Stevie if I could airbrush a mask used for the character of Death in the stage adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s Mort.

The mask was originally silver or gold in colour. It had been fitted with a hood and mesh over the eyes so the actor could see, and it had been painted white. However, the white paint would wear off each time it was placed down on a bench, leaving silver patches on the teeth that had to be repainted after every use.

Another issue was that the stark white paint didn’t look great under bright stage lighting. It appeared flat and washed out, so I was asked to add some detail to help it stand out better under those conditions.

To get an idea of how it would look on stage, I set up two 500-watt work lights overhead to simulate the intense brightness. If I had painted it under normal lighting, it would have been too light and still looked washed out once under stage lights.

I began by touching up the exposed silver patches on the teeth. Then I airbrushed a light mustard-yellow tone across the bulk of the face. Once that was dry, I added darker browns into the shadows, finishing with deeper detailing in an almost black tone.

In normal lighting, as mentioned, the mask looks far too dark, and I was slightly concerned I had overdone it. However, when we saw it live on stage, it worked beautifully — the added depth gave the mask presence and clarity under the harsh lights, as you can see in the show’s promotional photo (below)