Bowser Pumpkin

Halloween time means Pumpkin carving time!

This is my first ever attempt at carving a pumkin so I'm afraid I have been utterly uncreative.  I just found a nice template of bowser online somewhere and set about with my carving knives.

Looks good though don't it?

Bioshock splicer mask

Halloween is close approaching and my friends and I have decided to all go as splicers from the fantastic game Bioshock.  We are all making different masks and I chose to be the bunny/ rabbit splicer.  I had a quick look on the google tubes for any rabbit masks I could purchase and modify but couldn't find anything that would be suitable. So here is what I did....

Firstly I casted the upper half of my face with plaster bandages, which are quite cheap from craft shops.

 I made a small ridge at the top over the hair so I could attach some ears later.  A great advantage of making a mask this way is that it will fit your face perfectly and snuggly when you wear it later on.

 

 I cut some cardboard in the shape of rabbit ears and attached them with more plaster at the back of the mask.






Next, I built up the mask with plaster bandages to make it smoother and more rigid. I trimmed under the nose to make it look more bunny shaped and added three elastic straps to the sides.  Three was needed because the plaster can get heavy after a few layers.

 

 Finally I added the detail using some gold paint I had lying around.  All I have to do now is add lots of blood splatter and maybe draw on a few fake cracks...I'm still undecided.

 I am pleased with the result considering the small amount of time I used on this project.  I will post pictures of me and my splicer buddies after halloween.
Sooooo excited now

Kryten Mold

After securing the two halves of the plaster cast with duct tape, you can begin to fill it with latex.

 Four or five coats later the mask was carefully removed.

 I am very pleased with the result. Although, after a few days the colour of the mask darkened to a sickly orange. I would have prefered it to have kept this light flesh colour as this is close to the actual colour of the character.

 The excess Latex is trimmed with scissors and eye and nostril holes are created before wearing.

 

 

 Although this has turned out better than expected, there are still many imperfections and discolourations to the mask.  This gives me the idea to create some sort of zombie Kryten costume.  Possibly even a zombie version of the entire cast of Red Dwarf, if I could get some friends involved.

Kryten Cast

Time to cast the sculp properly this time.

Spray the entire piece with 'Krystal Clear' which is a sort of varnish.  This is to ease the removal of the plaster later on.

 Next, make a dividing wall.  I put three keys in as well (the nobbly bits of clay on the wall) to help when the two halves of the cast need to be put back together.

 Then slop on the plaster, making sure to cover the whole surface AND the dividing wall.

 I think I put three thick layers of plaster on, with the second and third layers I added 'Jute Scrim' to strengthen the cast.

 When this dried I removed the wall, covered the exposed plaster with copius amounts of vaseline and casted the second half.

After drying, gently prise apart the two halfs using a srewdriver or similar.

Remove the mannequin head and the clay et voila a cast for a Kryten mask.

Kryten Sculp

 So here's the attempt at a simple mask....

KRYTEN from RED DWARF

 

Again, this is oil based clay which has been built up over a mannequin's head, which has been wrapped in cling film. This is to stop the clay ruining the polystyrene head.

 This was a process of refining the basic shape of Kryten's head and smoothing the clay carefully.  This took a long time to get to something I was happy with...

Behold Kryten.

If at first...

  

Ok so I finally manage to get a free day in my diary to try out my first mask. I had already been working on the clay sculp for a month or so. I built it up one tiny piece at a time until it looked something like this,

Some of you may recognise that this is the character Garrus from the Mass Effect games.

To create masks that will cover the entire head you need to cast it in two halfs. So first I made a dividing wall out of clay like below,

Next I covered one half in plaster and let it set,

When it set I removed the dividing wall carefully and covered the other half with plaster,

....and then, when that side had dried, I carefully pulled the two halfs apart reveiling a perfect cast for my mask..

But unfortunately

lifes not like that....

The plaster cracked and crumbled through my hands whilst also destroying my beautiful clay sculpture.

sigh.

Next time I'm going to create something much simpler and put a lot more plaster in the mold. Stay tuned.

Halloween 2010

What do you get if you take half a bald wig, half a dentists lip retractor (or Harvey Dentures LOL), one bloodshot contact and a whole bunch of corpse paint and liquid latex....?

A pretty tasty two-face.