The idea for Masketeers came about while watching my wife attempt to draw a horsey mask for my lad who was about 3yrs old at the time. Now we all know kids have a good imagination, but this drawing was stretching the bounds of even the wildest of kids' imagination! If he'd wanted a mask that looked like a potato sack with four holes in it, he'd have been well happy! On this occasion though, he was after a horse, and the puzzled look on his face was enough to get me thinking.
It dawned on me that there must be loads more artistically challenged parents and teachers out there whose kids are getting a raw deal on the mask front. With this in mind, I started creating some printable animal masks to help you all out.
I'm a graphic designer by trade, so I just started doodling away with a pencil and then recreated the masks on the computer. Once I'd finished about twenty masks, I purchased the domain name and started building a website to upload them all to.
From those very humble beginnings, it just grew and grew and is now the biggest collection of printable masks on the internet - which is pretty cool - but alas, I'm no millionaire sitting on a beach sipping Piña coladas while my phone goes ping with yet another sale. Nope, I still have to wake up every morning and go to work to pay the rent. Why didn't I buy bitcoin back in 2010 instead of doodling animal masks??? Oh for hindsight, lol!
Anyways, technology is amazing nowadays, and more so is how quickly kids pick up the latest apps, computer games, and whatnot. But with a lot of these gadgets and gizmos, all they're really doing is following a set of rules - click here, click there, do this, do that.
We all want our children to grow up to be creative, imaginative, and innovative, but in terms of developing a free-thinking mind, kids need as FEW instructions, commands, or rules to follow when playing as possible.
With mask making they get to be both creative and imaginative. There are no rules to follow and they can play at being whatever they want, which helps them develop their own unique perspective of things. Getting kids back to basics is great fun and it's also great fun to watch.
So I hope you enjoy the masks and have loads of fun with them!
All the best.
Ian Nicholls