Masks n' stuff

Reznik · September 2015

So I make costumes. Just for myself. I go to conventions and cosplay, but I'm very particular about what costumes (namely, it has to involve a mask).

I started off doing the pepakura/resin/bondo method to make solid, heavy, uncomfortably, toxic-smelling half-masks that I strapped on to my head. I don't have a good picture of my first one but you can be confident that it sucked. My second one, a scary clown, was somewhat more successful in that people were scared of me. But still unsatisfactory. And horrendously uncomfortable. And awful-smelling.

My last resin and cardstock mask was an even more horribly uncomfortable Hellboy mask that was so awful to wear that it drove me to find something better.

Enter: latex.

I decided to get in on that whole sculpting thing. I'd only done a little bit of it in high school art class, and that was with water clay. This involved oil clay, which is a son of a bitch to smooth out as I soon discovered.

My first mask was a wendigo from Supernatural. I was pretty happy with the shape of the sculpt and the eventual fit of the mask, but I lacked the tools (or technique) to properly texture the skin, and no airbrush to pain with so I had to make due with brushes and very little painting knowledge. @tapeslinger helped me out a ton with this.

My next mask was a redo of my Hellboy mask. I was trying to go for a style similar to the Mezco comic-style action figure but it didn't turn out quite the way I wanted. I was also using a generic head to sculpt on instead of a lifecast so it didn't really fit right either, but it still turned out way better than version 1.0

Last mask was a redo of my clown. The sculpt was... okay, but the paint was awful. Latex paint is terrible and I hate it. The fit was awful too because the latex I was using was old and cured too thick so it was literally painful to wear this thing as it constantly compressed my head. (these pictures are also post-con, so it's a little banged up)

So! That's the old stuff out of the way. My new project is prosthetics. I took a SFX makeup class and learned a lot about texturing clay to simulate skin (more or less), and I'm applying that to my latest project which is a Reaper from season 1 of Supernatural.

I got a lifecast made of my face so these things will actually fit properly for once. The sculpt is pretty close to done. I'm still refining the skin texture which you can't really see too well in these pictures, I'll hopefully have some better ones soon.

I'm not gonna be painting this one (I have a friend who's gonna be painting and applying it), but I reeeeally need to learn how to airbrush if I want to do any more masks in the future. For now, though, sculpting is my focus. I would appreciate any tips there as barring the SFX makeup course and like a week in high school I'm pretty much just figuring shit out as I go.

tapeslinger · September 2015

We really ought to have a practical fx thread somewhere around here, but it might just be me camping out there, heh.

Nice work so far! Monster Clay is really great for 1:1 lifecast scale stuff.

I think you should really pull some more age reference for your wrinkle patterns, especially near the chin, as it's pretty distinctive in all the photos I found for GISing "reaper season 1 supernatural." Seems like you've got a good grasp of placement on that really creepy unnatural cheek flesh texture-- you may want to bulk that out just a TINY bit with a little more clay as it will move a little more dramatically in a prosthetic.

http://searchingforsuperwomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/S1Faith2.jpg
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/images/thumb/9/9c/Reaper.jpeg/350px-Reaper.jpeg

The only thing you might have difficulty demolding is the nose as it's pointed below the septum area. Not a huge deal if you're doing a silicone or gel encapsulation but worth mentioning since the sculpt for the original isn't pointed there, it's actually slightly bulbous (and correlates with an "old age" effect)

Silicone paintwork is a whole other kettle of fish. I'd say tint this sucker in a base pale flesh tone and then alcohol makeup like PPI Skin Illustrator in washes.

Iruka · September 2015

A general thread for this kind of stuff would be fine with me, if someone wants to make one (or if @Reznik wants this to be it, up to him)

m3nace · September 2015

I actually prefer the old Hellboy mask, what with the clunky geometrical shapes that really feel like the comic. The new one looks cool too, but maybe it's a tad glossy? I'm not that familiar with maskmaking, but I'd imagine there's some kind of matte coating you could put on it or something.
Cool stuff though!

Reznik · October 2015

Yeah the latex Hellboy mask didn't quite get to where I wanted it. The initial sculpt looked a lot better, but I botched the paint job. The glossiness is because all I had to clear coat the latex paint at the time was flex gloss, which is... well... glossy. I want to do another Hellboy, but perhaps as a multi-part prosthetic instead.

As for the reaper, I tweaked the sculpt a leetle bit but unfortunately I don't have pictures of it. I do have a picture of the finished deal. I didn't paint it or apply it, my friend who actually knows how these things work did it for me (pardon the rude gesture)

A better wig woulda been nice, but the right style and colour was reeeeeally hard to find even online, so I had to settle for slicking back a cheap Bill Clinton wig.

Also, I ran out of hydrocal while mixing it for the mould AND the mould cracked while I was removing it and I still somehow managed to salvage this whole thing with a little desperation and carpenter's glue.

tapeslinger · October 2015

Looks good to me, and I definitely see improvements from the previous sculpt there, nice work!

And yeah, wood glue can cure a lot of ills with plaster.

The wig looks fine-- with these kinds of things where you're doing an existing designed character, you're aiming to hit the right look even if you're not pantone accurate to the exact color/style of what's on screen.

Penny Arcade

Quick Links

Masks n' stuff

Posts