Numbered Masks, 2022 to 2024
The masks of 2023 and 2024. After the named series ended, nnxyz kept drawing heads, and these twenty-three are the numbered ones: packed faces with teeth, crowns and crossed eyes, drawn between July 2023 and May 2024. They are denser than the earlier masks, and the line is heavier.
Most of them have a beam. A bar of yellow or red crosses the face at eye height, or shoots from one eye to the edge. Under it the face is built the old way, from boxes and rings and a grille of teeth, but the scribble over it is now thick enough to be a surface of its own.
The ground changes under the masks. In the first it is white or grey. By December 2023 it is green, purple and gold, and the last masks of spring 2024 stand on red, blue and orange.
Summer 2023
July and August 2023. Four heads to begin: a dark head in glasses on white, two crowned masks, a round scribbled head, and a skull on stripes.
nnxyz #1
A dark head in round glasses on white, its skull a weave of colored scribble, a grin of white teeth across the whole jaw, and a yellow beam crossing behind the glasses. The glasses are two yellow lenses in dark rings. The teeth are drawn large, each one outlined, in a row that runs past the edges of the face. The first numbered mask, from July 18, 2023, with 423 recorded strokes.
nnxyz #2
Two masks side by side in red, black and yellow scribble, the left one crowned, with a red X over one eye and a grin of white teeth, the right one smaller with a box of teeth.
nnxyz #3
A round head in dense yellow, green and blue scribble on grey, with a ringed eye at the left, a box eye at the right, and a mouth of white teeth in a red box, a yellow bar across the top.
nnxyz #4
A skull mask on red and pink stripes, drawn in blue, orange and white line, with a target eye, a grille of white teeth and a red heart at the lower right.
November Masks
November 2023. A patterned boxy mask with hearts, a brown one with red crosses, a white-outlined head with its tongue out, and a dark mask lit by a beam.
nnxyz #5
A boxy mask on grey, packed with pattern: a red X eye, a box eye, a grille of teeth, two red hearts at the lower center, a cup at the left, and a second small face at the upper left with its own grin. Blue, red and yellow line runs over the whole in loops and ladders. It is the busiest mask in the room, drawn November 2, 2023, with 225 strokes.
nnxyz #6
A brown boxy mask with two red crosses in its eyes and a mouth of white and black bars, drawn in black and blue line on brown, with a pink flower at the top.
nnxyz #7
A head outlined in thick white on black, its face a mass of colored scribble, with two red star eyes, a red mouth open on white teeth and a long red tongue hanging out. The outline is one heavy white loop around the whole head and shoulders. The tongue is the brightest thing in the picture. It is the one mask in the room with its mouth open wide.
nnxyz #9
A dark mask on yellow and olive, with a yellow crossed eye at the right, a beam of orange shooting from it, a grid of lines over everything and a red mouth of white bars.
Two Days in December
December 28 to 30, 2023. Eight masks in three days: rays, a crown, a flower eye, a pink hand, a yellow cap, small skulls, red hands, and a head in beams.
nnxyz #10
A mask in a field of yellow and orange rays, with two ringed eyes, a grin of white teeth in a red mouth, and purple strokes like lashes.
nnxyz #11
A mask on purple outlined in thick white with a scalloped edge, a crown of white spikes, a box eye, a bar across the brow, and a grille of white teeth in red.
nnxyz #13
A dark mask on green with a crest of black spikes, a blue flower for one eye and a box with a ring for the other, a red beam from the left, and a grin of white teeth. Rows of red hearts run down the right edge. The flower eye is drawn with pointed blue petals around a yellow center. It is the first of eight masks drawn in three days at the end of December 2023.
nnxyz #15
A dark mask on purple with a pink hand pressed to the top of its head, two ringed eyes, and a grin of white teeth in a red mouth, yellow line around.
nnxyz #20
A head in a yellow cap on grey, its face a cage of white and red line with two ringed eyes and a grin of white teeth, in seventy-two strokes.
nnxyz #25
A grey skull mask with a pink hand and a crossed eye at the left, a box of teeth in red, and five small white skulls floating at the right, each with its own face. A red beam crosses from the left. The small skulls are drawn in black line on white, like a crowd of ghosts watching. It is the one mask with company.
nnxyz #27
A mask with a red crossed eye and a spiral eye, a grin of white teeth, and two red hands raised at the bottom corners, on dark blue.
nnxyz #30
A dark head lit by beams of gold from the upper right, its face painted in yellow and brown with a grin of teeth, two hands raised, and a row of gold bars at the lower left like coins. Pink and green dashes float in the dark. The light is the subject: it falls across the head and the hands and leaves everything else black. With 517 recorded strokes it is the most worked mask in the room.
Spring 2024
February to May 2024. Seven last masks: a framed crown, a skull on red, glasses on green, goggles on blue, curly hair, a man with a beam, and a hatted scream.
nnxyz #31
A crowned yellow mask in a black frame with green spikes, two spiral eyes, a grin of white zigzag teeth, and two small black figures at the lower corners.
nnxyz #32
A skull mask on red drawn in thick white line, with a ringed eye, a crown of purple spikes, a mouth of white loops, and a yellow bar across the top.
nnxyz #36
A mask in square glasses on green, a yellow beam crossing behind the lenses, a grin of white teeth, two hands raised, drawn in black and orange scribble.
nnxyz #37
A blue skull mask in goggles with a crossed eye between the lenses, a yellow beam, a grille of white teeth, and a crown of black spikes, on blue.
nnxyz #41
An orange mask with curly yellow hair, a flower for one eye and a black spiral for the other, a grille of white teeth, drawn in white and black line.
nnxyz #43
A man in glasses with spiky yellow hair on red, drawn in dark scribble with pink and blue inside, a yellow beam shooting from his glasses to the upper right, one hand raised. The face is more a person than a mask: a nose, a mouth, glasses that sit on the nose. Ten months after the first numbered head in glasses, the glasses are back, and the beam that crossed behind them now leaves from them.
Compare with #1, in this room
nnxyz #48
A head in a brown hat screams on teal, its mouth wide open on white teeth, its eyes shut, its hands at its ears, painted in olive and gold with scribble over it. The hat is drawn in dark brown with a wide brim. The mouth is the largest in the room. It is the last numbered mask, drawn May 30, 2024.
Closing
The first head wears glasses and grins on white. The last screams in a hat on teal. Both are heads with their mouths open. One is a mask with the scribble on top. The other is a face, painted, with its eyes shut.