Mask Making

Mask making has always interested me, the process of creating my own monsters and creatures really itches my brain in a certain way. I love each step of the process, from the beginning stages of sculpting to the later stages of the smell of pouring liquid latex into a mold. This hands on process of mask making feels very second nature to me. It took me around 90 hours to complete this entire process due from sculpting to finished and painted mask. 

MY PROCESS

I started this by sculpting a face with clay. For this design I used a lot of inspiration from different witches but also used the idea I had in my head and combined them all together. 

After my sculpt was finished I used pottery plaster and covered the entirety of the sculpture I just created. This step is very crucial because it is very important to have a strong mold that picked up all the details in my sculpt. Using a chip brush and getting into all of the areas helped me achieve this. Once the plaster mold is dry, I pour liquid latex into the mold.

Once the liquid latex is dried I pulled them out of the mold and had a mask! I did this step a few times so I can use other masks as tests for different paint jobs.

I applied coats of a liquid latex and acrylic paint mixture, many different colors of dry brushing was added to get a skin tone I was happy with. Once finished I touched areas with resin to certain areas I wanted it. The resin gave the mask a wet/ glossy look when dry!

Left mask was a test paint job and the Right mask was my final paint job. I did two to practice techniques and to ensure I created exactly what I had in mind. You can see the major difference of the eyeball, painting into the resin as it was drying allowed me to acheive this look. Painting is the final step of the process, I purchased some fabric and draped it over the mask. In the end creating the shots from the top of this page!