PA - Mask Making Techniques

Tin Foil and and Tape.

• Take 3 sheets of foil and overlap them in a stack.
• Push the sheets at the same time onto your face. Push down as hard as you can but as long as you remain comfortable. Be careful not to puncture the foil.
• Make sure you have the general outline of your face (nose, lips, eyes and cheek bones). Take a toothpick and gentle (without tearing) go around the outline of your eyes for where you want the holes in your mask to be. (Also trace around anything else you would like to cut out.)
• Carefully remove the foil from your face. Cut with sharp scissors around where you want the edges of the mask to be. (Try not to reverse the ord er on those two steps.) Remember: once you cut it, you can't really go back easily, so leave extra.
• Carefully cut out the eye holes either by puncturing the foil with a tooth pick and tearing the foil out, or snipping in the center of the area with the tip of scissors and folding the foil back.
• Cut holes/slots in the side of your mask for the ribbons/cord/shoelaces to attach it to your face.
• Cut small sections of tape, and, while pressing the mask to your face to keep the features strong, gently place the tape onto your mask. When you feel the mask's features are firm enough, place all the sections of tape, overlapping, across all visible places of foil, including the back (foil is itchy).
• Tie whatever you feel will work to the holes in the side of your mask, making sure to have enough length to not only wrap around your head, but tie in a nice knot/bow.
• Use acrylic paints and paint whatever you want, making sure to leave it to dry in a spot where prying hands/curious pets/flying particles of anything won't disturb it. You can even sprinkle glitter on the paint while it's wet if you like.

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Monster Mask Tutorial.

• The first step in creating a latex rubber Halloween mask is to sculpt a pattern in Oil-based clay. The clay is applied to a lifecast armature and roughed-out to establish the general shape. Gradually, as the clay is worked by hand, the sculpture begins to resemble your design idea. As the clay sculpture nears completion, fine sculpting tools are used to sculpt realistic details. The entire sculpting process can take several hours, or days, to complete. Once the Oil Based Clay sculpture is finished, it is ready to be moulded.
• In order to transfer the clay form into latex rubber, it is first necessary to make a two piece mould out of an industrial gypsum called Ultra Cal 30. The mould is a perfect three dimensional copy of the sculpture, except in reverse. Gypsum is used because of its porous nature which allows water from the liquid latex rubber to soak into it. To make the mould, a dividing wall is put in place to divide the front and back halves of the sculpture. Gypsum is applied evenly to both halves until a sufficient thickness is achieved. Once the mould is complete, the two halves are separated and the clay is cleaned from the mould. The mould is then placed back together, bound, and made ready for the next stage...
• All that remains of our original sculpture is captured in the mould imprint. Our goal now is to recreate the sculpture in rubber. For this we use a special liquid latex casting compound called slush latex or mask latex. Mask latex does not require heat to turn into a solid because it is a Room Temperature Vulcanized Rubber (RTV Elastomer), which means it sets and cures at normal room temperature. Pour the liquid mask latex into your mould, allow it to dwell in the mould for a while, then pour the excess material back into the latex drum. The latex which remains in the gypsum mould forms a skin that evenly coats the interior of the mould. When this mask latex skin is dry, peel it gently from the mould.
• To complete the mask, a rubber-based latex mask paint is applied with an airbrush. Once a color scheme is chosen, an overall color called the base coat is applied first. Next, a shading color is sprayed into all of the lowpoints of the mask to simulate shadows. Highlight paint is used in a similar manner except that it is sprayed onto the highpoints of the mask to simulate light hitting the surface. To finish the mask, eyes and teeth are painted along with any other fine details. Lastly, a protective, clear flexible varnish called Perma-Wet is applied to give a natural (or unnatural, depending on your monster!) shine. This also acts to preserve your mask for years to come.

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Paper Mache Cast of your own Face.

• Get yourself set up in frount of a mirror with all the stuff described above.
  Tear or cut the tissue into strips of about 1 to 2cm (half an inch or so) wide.
  Squeese some of the glue onto the plate and dilute it with an equal amount of water.
  If you have long hair, tie it or slick it back. And if you have sensative skin, you might want to use a moisturiser.

• Wet your face with water and take a long strip of tissue. It should just stick to your damp skin so lay it across your forehead as shown. Damp your sponge and use it to smooth the paper to your skin. This will iron out any wrinkles in it and coat the surface with glue, ready for the next strip.

• Take another strip of paper and dangle it across the centre of your face as shown. Now take the glue damped sponge and dab the paper onto your skin, working from the top down. The sponge will push the paper into the dips and peaks of your face, covering it accurately. If the paper tears a little as you push it into the curve of your face dont worry, you can paper over the tear with the next layer, but try not to do this two much or youll wind up with a lumpy face. Use just enough of the dilute glue to soak into the paper and make the surface tacky for the next piece, dont go overboard. The more moisture you put in the longer it'll take to dry.

• Next, repeat the process with a couple of strips down the side of your face.
  One across your chin.
  And one across your top lip.

• Next, tear the strips into smaller pieces and start on covering your cheeks chin and forehead.
  Try to avoid moving your face too much as this will wrinkle up the papier mache.
  

• Move on to cover the rest of your face (making sure you dont cover your nostrils or mouth of course, you still want to breath). Take little pieces of paper for detailed areas like the nose and lips, using the sponge to push them into place.

• Once you have covered your entire face, start on the second layer. The first layer should still be slightly sticky from the glue you used to slick it down with. So just lay the tissue on dry and slick down with the sponge as before.

• As you build up more layers you can use bigger pieces of tissue to save time. In my experience it takes a good 5 or six layers to get it thick enough. You should be able to feel how thick it is to the touch. If you come across any thin areas, just layer on more paper.

• Once your satisfied with the thickness, just sit back and try not to laugh.
  By this point you should be looking like a cross between the mummy and a mexican wrestler (depending on the color of tissue you've used).
  As ive said, drying takes a while, but after 20 minutes you should feel a tightening on your face as it dries. Try to keep patient and wait till its fully dried - you can tell beacause it will be hard and gives a hollow tapping noise when you drum your nails on it.

• Start moving your face under the mask and you should feel it coming away, try to get as much as you can off like this, before lifting the edges and pulling it carefully away from your face.
  

• And there you have it, a papier mache mask molded to your face, you may need to add some extra pieces of tissue here and there around the edges to neaten them up, but you should need to put it on again to do so. You can use it as a basis for a mask, or even get a face cast from it.

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Mardi Gras on a Stick.

• Select a material to use for the foundation of your mask. Choose from paper, cardboard or lightweight craft foam. Select a plastic eye mask found at most party stores and costume outlets if you're looking to speed things up.
• Map out the design for your mask on a stick before you start your project. Be sure to make a list of supplies you'll need from the local craft store. Look for costume and mask ideas by checking out "Mardi Gras Treasures: Costume Designs of the Golden Age" by Henri Schindler at Amazon.com (see Resources below).
• Draw the shape of your mask on tracing paper, and then transfer the original onto cardboard or lightweight craft foam.
• Cut out your mask using a utility knife or a pair of scissors. Place the mask up to your face to make sure the eye-holes are large enough for adequate visibility.
• Heat up your glue gun for 10 minutes.
• Place a 1/8-inch drop of glue on the back of your mask, preferably near the top of the mask. At this, time you'll need to determine whether you want a left- or a right-handed mask on a stick.
  
• Press a 1/4- to 1/2-inch dowel stick, cut to roughly 6 to 8 inches in length, into glue and hold it for up to 5 minutes.

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