Intro: This "How-to" will show you all the steps necessary to create your own, life-like latex masks. In this design, the actor's eyes are the character's eyes; I prefer this approach for its unobstructed vision and for its expressiveness. And when you can see perfectly where you're going, you can much more easily be graceful and precise with your movements. The techniques presented here are not so much challenging as they are exacting; it's simple work, but it takes a lot of time. As such, it's a good thing that costuming is your hobby. :) For the sake of this demonstration, we'll be working with a relatively simple equine face model, which has no concavities or complex features that would require a more complex mold than a single-piece full-face latex/plaster mold. 1. Supplies you'll need For the sake of convenience, though some of these items can be bought locally and sometimes cheaper, wherever possible I list the item number as listed with Special Effects Supply, http://www.fxsupply.com . item desc --------------------------------------------------------------------- plaster model of the actor's face plastic sheet to protect the table 1404 10 to 15 pounds of oil-based modeling clay clay sculpting tools, if necessary stiff-bristled 1cm paintbrush scissors MBL-16 mold-maker's latex (thick, found in hobby stores but best from Special Effects Supply) gauze bandage strips CAST-25 25 pounds of plaster of paris or ultracal sheets of foam-core, 1/4" thick hot-melt glue, gun large mixing bowl, rubber spatula Carnuba wax (sold where fibreglass supplies are sold) (or other mold separator that works with latex) MSKL-32 1 quart of slip-casting latex (thin) (1 gallon recommended) Liquitex high viscosity acrylic paints 2 feet of 1" wide elastic banding NAL-16 1 pint of NON-AMMONIA latex small, soft paintbrushes soft foam makeup sponge Ben Nye Cream Makeups Ben Nye Neutral Set Costume wig Painter's head-sock (sold in paint and hardware stores, < $2) Colored felt 2. Building your clay model 2.1 The actor's face model The first step is to create a replica of the subject's face. This is covered in numerous videos and write-ups elsewhere on the 'net. 2.2 Sculpting your mask I use oil-based clays because they last a long time and they don't dry out. They hold detail well. Oil-based clay is easiest to work with when it is warm. Working under a relatively bright/warm lamp is a good idea. What do you want to be? The approach works well for most anything, but I focus on anthropomorphic animals. For this example, we'll be doing a horse mask. We'll start by building up teh shape of your mask on the plaster face model. Start tearing off clumps of clay and pressing them together in the very ROUGH shape of the face you want. Make it a little bigger than you'd like, in fact; we'll be taking it down. The hardest part of sculpting is keeping everything left/right symmetrical. Just stick with it and keep trying. It always helps to work from photos or drawings. Before you start in on the finer details, first make sure that you have clay at least 0.5cm deep everywhere, including the forehead, BUT NOT over the eyes or eyelids! Leave the eyes exposed as a reference, and to make sure that the character's face is level with the eye line. Creatures with longer 'muzzles' should probably have an exaggerated nose bridge blending down from the forehead to the face so as to preserve the lines when in profile. If your design requires a VERY long muzzle or large flares out to the sides of the face, it may be necessary to drill a metal rod into the mouth of the plaster face model to support the weight of the extra, thin clay. As the general shape comes together, use your clay tools to smooth it out and work the surface down so there's no gaps between what used to be the clumps. Gradually remove clay until you have the face details you want. If you've removed too much in one area, just add small wads of clay and blend it back down. If your mask has complex skin textures or etched feature lines, add them now. 2.3 Stippling paintable textures The last step we take in forming the clay model is to texture it (unless you already have delicate textures applied to it). The purpose of doing this is twofold; 1) it makes the latex surface of the mask more matte (not as shiny) 2) it makes it easier to keep the make-up facepaint on when worn. Get a small, stiff paintbrush (about 1 cm wide) for this. Used scissors to cut the bristles shorter (so as to make them stiffer). dab the brush repeatedly at the clay surface, causing tiny little holes to be pushed in. Trying to make the texturing as even as possible, do this over the whole surface. You're now done with your model and ready to start casting your negative mold! 3. Negative mold: the latex layer NOTE: This step must be performed with adequate ventilation, as liquid latex is an ammonia-based substance. The next step is to create a high-detail negative mold directly on the clay model. This is using the thick mold-making latex. Brush it on very carefully, being CERTAIN the first coat gets well into the textures and features of the face, but also being sure not to press so hard as to ruin the same features. Let the first coat dry. Brush on a couple more layers, making sure that each one dries fully before the next is applied. The next step is to cut short lengths of stretchy gauze bandage rolls -- say about 6 to 10 inches long each. slather these strips in the moldmaking latex and patch them over the existing latex so as to get the best two-layer coverage you can can. This makes sure the legative mold will be strong enough to put up with some abuse (like being turned inside out). Once that dries (it will take longer than just a layer of latex), paint the mold with a few more layers until the surface is smooth and the thickness is at least 0.5 cm in all places. Let this dry thoroughly. 4. Negative mold: the plaster layer Now that you've captured the detail of your mask, let's give the latex negative some rigidity to stand up on its own without deforming. Cut a few pieces of foam-core material so as to form a (possibly slanted) 'box' around the model. Make sure the distance of the box from the model is at least an inch at all points, and is preferrably no more than 2 or 3 inches away at most points. Also, be sure the walls are at least an inch TALLER than the nose of your model. Hot-melt glue (or duct tape) the foamcore panels in place, making sure to reinforce the seams. Also make sure the 'top' of the box is open, and this opening is both level and wide enough to let plaster pour in easily. Another reason the top needs to be relatively wide is so that there's enough surface area for the plaster/latex mold to balance when the mold is set upright. (it is currently being formed upside down!) Mix your plaster (or Ultracal) and start pouring it into the box. This may take more than one batch. Make sure to work the bubbles out as you pour it and that it gets into all the nooks and crannies as necessary, though this isnt as important as it would be if you didn't have the latex negative to capture the model's detail. Pour the plaster in and level the top off. When the plaster is hard enough, etch the name and number of this model into the bottom-- years from now when you have a room full of these, you'll want to know which is which! Let the plaster cure until it is solid (and stops giving off heat). 4.1 Taking it all apart Pry the foamcore sides off (go ahead and wreck them-- you're finished with them), and turn the mold over on its solid plaster bottom. You should see the back of the actor's plaster face model, ringed by a layer of clay, ringed in turn by a layer of latex, and around that, the layer of plaster. Carefully pry the actor's plaster face model out of the mold. This may be difficult because of the vaccuum it forms-- just pull away the clay around it until it finally pops free. At this point, it MAY be possible to pull the clay/latex layers right out of the plaster mold... if it is, then do so. If it is not, you'll have to pull wads of clay out of the mold, piece by piece until it is empty. The idea is to get the latex out of the plaster and turn it inside out, thereby dumping the clay model out. I'm sorry, but your clay masterpiece will almost certainly be destroyed in the act. Wash the clay from the latex negative and place it back in its plaster companion. Your mold is finished-- you're ready to create your first mask! 5. Casting the final product 5.1 Carnuba wax mold separator Anybody familiar with latex knows that latex loves to stick to latex. To prevent this, we have to coat the negative with a mold separator. We use Carnuba wax for this. using your (rubber gloved) finger, dab the creamy wax onto the surface of your mold little by little, making sure you get wax into EVERY DETAIL. If you miss a spot, it may ruin the mask and/or the negative. You can smear it thin, just make sure it gets everywhere. NOTE: Carnuba wax has volatile chemicals in it. It is flammable. use rubber gloves when smearing it into the mold, and always work where you have good ventilation. Allow the wax to sit and dry out for an hour or so. NOTE: Other mold separators may work, as long as they do not interfere with latex curing and as long as they keep latex from sticking to itself, AND as long as they don't obliterate too much detail in the mold. Your milage may vary. 5.2 Choosing a latex base color NOTE: This step is optional. Before we pour in the latex, you can color it to the base color of your character's 'skin'. This will make the painting process blend easier. When still liquid, latex is typically a milky white color. When it dries, it usually turns a cream-like color (which sometimes fades pink over time). You can change the color of your latex skin by 'doping' it with acrylic paints. Liquitex high-viscosity acrylic paints come in small tubes, and can be bought at most hobby stores. Pre-mix these paints to form the color of the skin you want to have. Mix the paint in with your slipcasting latex. depending on the volume, you may want to stir it vigorously in, shake it up, or possibly even use a mixer. If you introduce a lot of bubbles into the mix, wait for the suds to go down before pouring the slip. NOTE: The color of the mix will be much milkier than the final, dry color. In order to judge when you've added enough paint, pour a drop of the mix and wait for it to dry. Repeat as necessary until you have the color you want. 5.3 Slush-casting your mask You'll need to lay down a sheet of plastic (bag or sheeting) to protect the floor/desk/etc for this phase. You're ready to begin slush-casting your mask. There are two approaches to this, and it depends how much volume the mask takes versus how much money you're willing to spend on latex. The first approach is to buy a lot of latex and simply fill the mold up with it, let it sit for a while, then dump out (for possible re-use) the rest. The second involves pouring in enough to coat the sides and slosh around, repeated as necessary. For this demo, we'll use the second approach. Pour enough liquid slipcasting latex into your mold to coat everything, and slosh it around, tipping the mold back and forth to make sure everything gets coated. This is the most important layer, so make VERY certain that it gets everywhere in the mold, dabbing or painting it into the tighter crevices. Slosh it around a few more times, then turn it upside down and let the remainder drip out. Let the layer dry for a while (probably an hour or more), and make VERY CERTAIN that it is dry before moving on to the next. A fan and a warm lamp will help speed up the drying a lot. NOTE: Many latex artists use a negative mold made of plaster or Ultracal. They do this because the material sucks the ammonia out of the liquid latex and helps build thicker walls. I have done this, but I'm not always happy with the level of detail that plaster picks up from the clay model, it's very hard to eliminate air bubbles without vaccuum equipment, and the finer details in your model are quickly lost as the mold is handled. Using a latex inner mold picks up very high detail and lasts a very long time, but is pickier with respect to the mold separator. Tradeoffs, tradeoffs. Repeat this several times; pour some latex in, slosh it around, drip it out and let it dry. The more layers you do this for, the thicker your mask will be and the better it will be able to stand up on its own. I usually go 5-10 layers, depending. If I am going to articulate any of the features, I'll usually cast a fairly thin mask and rely on strengthening to be added later with hotmelt glue in the areas not designed to flex. NOTE: Liquid latex is terribly difficult to get out of clothing it is spilled on. Wear old clothing. Cover local upholstry and carpets, and learn one key piece of advice: don't spill it onto skin that has much hair on it. It's reasonably safe to touch the stuff, and rubbing your hands together will instantly dry the latex and make it fall off in rubbery clumps, but try not to get TOO much on you. Let your mold sit for a day or two and make sure the latex is totally dry before proceeding. 5.4 De-molding your prize Assuming you got the Carnuba wax into all the nooks and crannies, de-molding should be a snap; lift the latex mold liner out of the plaster part, and gently start prying the latex negative from the latex positive. The two should be sticking together, but separatable with slow, even tension. Turning it inside out partly may help. Once the two are separated, return the latex negative to its plaster mate and store it someplace safe. You should be able to get at least a half dozen copies of the mask out of this mold if you're careful. Thoroughly wash your new mask; there will be tiny pockets of the dried wax. These are pretty easily removed with a toothbrush and warm, mildly soapy water. Let the mask dry. 6. Fitting your mask It's not always necessary to build each actor's mask from the ground up using that actor's face mold only; I cast my roommate's face (because I don't trust him to cast mine! ;) and work from that, and I'm able to make the masks generated from it work for both of us just fine. 6.1 Holding it on Get a length of 1" wide elastic material. Have the actor hold the mask to his face (there will be pressure points at the eyes, for which holes have not yet been cut, so don't press too hard). Stretch the elastic tight around the back of his head to gauge how much elastic is needed to hold the mask tight. Hot-melt glue the ends of the elastic band into the inside of the mask at about eye level. 6.2 Nostrils and/or mouth It's likely the mask will fit rather tightly. Therefore, it's VERY important that the nostrils and/or mouth be open enough to allow air in and out so the actor can breathe. In our equine mask, the nostrils enter the face, and inside each one is about a 1.0 cm hole. This proved more than adequate for allowing air for breathing and straws for drinking. Use a sharp pair of scissors to make these cuts. 6.3 Eye holes Have the actor put on the mask. Using a thin-point magic marker or drawing pen, sketch small holes where his eyes are, roughly eye-shaped. DO NOT CUT OUT TOO MUCH ALL AT ONCE! Latex is easier to take away than to add back. Once the eyes have been sketched, have him take the mask off (NEVER cut while the mask is still on the actor!) and carefully cut out where the marker lines are. Put the mask back on and see where the eyelid motion is impinged by latex... carefully dot lines on the latex where it needs to be cut out to free up the eyes. Remove, cut again, and put it back on. It will take a number of iterations of this to get it right, so be patient. The eyelids should be totally free to move, and there should be a small swath of space between the eyelids and the edge of the mask. 6.4 Blending the eye holes The holes you've put in the mask for the actor's eyes, you'll notice, are rather square and unnatural looking. Now you need to sit down with the actor for a few hours in a single, long stretch to blend the eyeholes. Using NON-AMMONIA latex in a small, soft paintbrush, VERY carefully paint the actor's skin along the edge of the mask so as to build up a tapering edge that smoothly transitions between the mask and the actor's skin. This will easily take 5-10 iterations, so be very patient and DO NOT let the actor's face move relative to the mask while it is drying. SAFETY WARNING: You *MUST* use non-ammonia-based latex for this! It is more expensive, but it is safe to paint on human skin. NEVER paint ammonia-based latex on somebody ESPECIALLY around the eyes, as eye exposure to ammonia can result in blindness! Even so be VERY very careful not to drip latex anywhere near the eyes, nose, or mouth; dab any excess latex off the paintbrush and onto the lip of the jar before moving over the actor's face. I can't stress enough how important this is!!! Once you have built up the edges to smoothly transition from latex to skin, use a small, tight-celled foam makeup sponge to VERY carefully dab small amounts of latex onto the smooth new edge so as to give it something of the same texture as the rest of the mask (having a smooth band around the eyes makes it difficult to apply makeup and looks funny). Once it is FULLY dry, very carefully remove the mask from the actor's face. Carefully extricate any eyebrow hairs that may have gotten latex on them. 7. Finishing your mask You're in the home stretch now! We're almost there! 7.1 Strengthening your mask Assuming you didn't cast your mask so thick that it stands up totally on its own, you probably want to add some rigidity to it so that it doesnt flex and wiggle as the actor moves his head. The easiest way to do this is to simply pump hotmelt glue into the mask, forming a moderate layer of it as backing to all parts of the mask you don't want to flex (excluding areas that will already be tightly against the actor's own skin). 7.2 Makeup technique Get Ben Nye cream makeup in the colors you're interested in using. For pink horsey-nose skin colors, I had to blend white with some red. Using your forefinger, stroke the makeup onto the mask in short taps, pushing hard enough to make sure it spreads out smoothly and very importantly, THINLY! A thin layer of the makeup will become a permanent part of the mask and will not flake off. You PROBABLY won't want to color the entire mask using exactly the same color. Use a slightly darker shade of makeup to add shadowed lowlights in feature crevices, between the lips, under jowls, etc so as to break up the uniformity and add highlights that will really stand out at a glance and show up nicely on film. NOTE: Pure white characters and dark black characters are both VERY hard to photograph well, so remember this when chosing your color schemes. Despite the fact that Triggur is really jet-black all over, I took some artistic license with his colorations and made his base colora a dark gray with darker gray lowlights. This worked extremely well. Dust on a thin layer of Ben Nye Neutral-Set powder to make sure the makeup won't smear. Your masks coloration will be set permanently this way, and it will take a fair bit to rub it off (but be aware of that if there IS anything to be rubbing against the mask-- bring a small kit of makeup with you to effect repairs as needed). 7.3 The headsock It will be necessary to hide the actor's hair from view. This is best accomplished using the thin-weave stretchy head-socks that painters use. You can get them at any paint/hardware stor for less than $2.00. Have the actor put the headsock on, THEN put on the mask. Use a marker to sketch the boundary, and hotmelt glue the edge of the mask to the edge of the headsock. Inside the mask, cut away any remaining front to the headsock that needn't be there. 7.4 Hair You'll probably want to give your character some hair. While there are better (more time-consuming and expensive) ways to make hair, one that works VERY well is to buy one of the higher-quality costume wigs from a better costuming shop. These still only run about $40. Put the mask on the actor and stretch the wig into place. Dot a line on the headsock and the mask where the wig comes to. Make very small marks on the mask's forehead at about 5-7 places, and put a safety pin at the edge of the wig in the corresponding location. Take the wig and the mask off. Thread a needle with good, strong thread, and sew the wig right onto the mask in the places you marked before, removing the safety pins as you go. Pushing the needle through the rubber may be difficult; use a pair of pliers if necessary. Once the wig is in place, it should be enough to hold the mask tightly on all by itself, so you can now remove the elastic band from the inside. 7.5 Neck and cheeks. The last detail is blending your mask into the neck and cheek areas. The cheeks cheeks, back of the head, and back of the neck should be almost completely covered by wig hair, but it's still good to match the color. The easiest way of doing this is to chose a color of felt that matches your face color and cut it so that a single 8x10 piece stretches across the throat and up each ear to the temples. Hotmelt glue this in place along the edges of the mask. Use your colored latex to blend the edges just like you blended the edges around the eyes, and rub makeup over it to conceal the edges. You may want to have the felt clasp the back of the actor's neck with a velcro closure. 7.6 The rest Congratulationes! You are done! But wait! There's still more. What about the rest of your costume? Well, that's up to you. Chose something dapper, something in-theme, something nice, because a well-dressed costume will present so much better than a poorly or sparsly dressed one! 7.7 The performance Before your performance, you'll need to apply the same color makeup used on the mask to the skin around your eyes and your eyelids. Work it in very carefully to get all the human-colored skin covered with your character's color. When you do this, remember that the makeup will probably appear darker on your skin than it does on the latex, so adjust the colors accordingly if it doesn't look right. Get out there on stage and be PROUD of your new costume! While it will be quite a lot cooler to wear than a full fursuit, you probably WILL sweat in the mask a bit (though wearing it outside one night in 55F weather, we kept totally cool and comfortable for hours). If your mask starts to pick up a funk, spray it after use with lysol or End-Bac to keep it fresh. Even if the rest of your mask's face is completely static and unmoving, your eyes are the window to your soul; When posing for photographs, SMILE! Your mood really does reflect in your eyes, and people notice! Act through your eyes-- your speech will be muffled in the mask anyway. Your blinking, your glances, surprise, anger and elation all communicate to people, and reach people-- eyes transmit your thoughts in a visceral way. I've received many comments that the masks are "so expressive" and to mundanes they even appear "creepy" simply because they are not privy to the whole anthropomorphic thing but the eyes look so human and real. Colored contact lenses are the next step, if you choose. When your performance is over, remove the eye makeup with cold cream. 8. Advanced 8.1 articulation Once you've grown accustomed to the techniques presented above, you may want to go the next step and articulate your creation. The jaw is the most likely candidate for this. The trick is to hide the seam that runs back to the actor's own mouth under the jowls, in fur, in natural textured seams or wrinkles, etc. You'll probably want to cast the face separately from the jaw, then put them together and fix the jaw to your own using an elastic band up to a headcap. There's plenty of room for experimentation here. 9. Conclusion Making latex costume masks allows you to create levels of realism hard to capture using fur and foam. Painted latex can be a perfectly natural looking substitute for fur, if done well-- your FurSuit doesn't NECESSARILY have to actually have any fur at all. Making latex costumes is certainly messier than sewing a fur suit, but it can be equally rewarding, too. Go nuts, experiment, and above all, HAVE FUN! Thanks, Triggur Copyright (c) 1996 kkelm@triggur.org