My First Monster Mask

This is a photo montage/tutorial of the creation of my first latex monster mask. It doesn’t really tell you how to make one. Just follows me through the steps of the creation process, only briefly touching on the techniques and steps I took.

The clay base sculpture on the armature.

I started with an armature I purchased and Monster Clay, both of which I ordered from Monster Makers. The clay is oil based, so it will not dry out and can be warmed up for easier manipulation. I highly recommend this clay, it is the best I have ever worked with.

Anyways, I ended up going with a simple design for my first attempt to allow for easier extraction from the mold.

But it really didn’t turn out that simple in the end.

Added clay detail before molding.

After the initial layout of the face, I went back and added blood drips and other visible distress marks in an attempt to give this plain face a bit more life.. er, death.

The blood drips quickly got out of hand, but I managed to keep the bolts down to just two on the forehead.

One eventually evolved into a gaping head wound instead.

The Rough Latex Mask

After I was satisfied with the overall look of the head, I made a mold out of Ultra Cal 30. This is an entire tutorial in itself, and I didn’t do it well. So I will leave that part up to the veterans of Halloween mask making elsewhere. (You can Google several excellent tutorials on that process.)

Anyways, Once I managed to create the mold and pour in the liquid latex I had to do one of the toughest things for any artist excited about their work can do.

The Rough Mask Base Paint

Wait… and wait.. and wait.

A full day. Well, it was a bit short of a full day, but I left it in there just to make sure I didn’t tear it when I pulled it.

When I had the rough mask finally pulled, I removed the monster clay build up from the armature and replaced it with my mask.

I started with base colors for the metal and the blood as well as the grey hues for the skin.

In hindsight, I should have made a darker base to the skin but live and learn.

After the base coat dried for about twenty minutes, I began adding rust to the metals, more gore to the wounds and a more rotted look to the skin.

Sufficient Distress

I only waited twenty minutes because I wanted the paint a bit tacky and blendable… (is that even a word?? I don’t think so.)

If you want your color layers to be separated more, you could wait longer until the paint is totally dry. (#Note# I forgot to mention earlier in the post, but the paint I used are all acrylic paints I picked up at Hobby Lobby)

Eventually I got to a point where I was satisfied with the gore and decay of the mask and thought the rust and grunge were realistic enough that I was able to trim off the edges and clean the mask up a bit.

In the end I managed to create a pretty disgusting and tormented piece that I am very happy with.

Finished Mask

My First Monster Mask

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