Majora's Mask - Part 4

Okay, got it molded and a support shell made around the sculpt.

 The mold came out alright but I think I might have to invest in a pressure chamber in the future. As smooth as most of it is, there are still some air bubbles in the silicone, which only means more clean up work later.

 Also, looking at the edges, I felt they were too thin; the mask itself should be thicker. I originally thought of laying paper around the edges and I'd lay some more silicone over that to extend the the lips inward some more, but I thought that too risky. It could potentially mess up my mold and I just currently don't have the resources to do it again.

SOLUTION: Put the mold back on the sculpt and just carve chunks out of the base and fill the undercuts with more silicone.

 (sculpt survived mostly intact but I removed the edging for ease)

This is where it is now until I work on it more tomorrow. My ravine is carved and just needs some silicone.

Commish: Scarecrow v2

Didn't get to work on the Majora's Mask project today or yesterday, as the title states, I was working on a recent commission: a Scarecrow mask.

Done much like the one before but this time with more knowledge carried over from the previous. Came out a helluva lot more accurate, too. Correct colored straps, rope, and stitching. Very happy with this one (despite how it almost caught fire).

The Penultimate Majora's Mask - Part 3

Here's where it was when I last left it:

Here's where it is now, when I just left it:

It's pretty much done. I think have to smooth a few more spots out but for the most part, this thing is ready to mold. The eyes are all that I need to do now...

...That and acquire more molding materials.

The Penultimate Majora's Mask - Part 2

Here's where it was when I last left off:

(I redid the eyes twice, making it 6 times now that I've had to tweak it)

And here's where it was after 8-10 hours of work later:

What's the difference between the two? Lots of smoothing. Especially inside of the the crevices of the carved pieces.

As soon as the face is done, I'm going to do the horns, and after the horns; the eyes, I'll do. There's still a ways to go but I'm getting there.

The Penultimate Majora's Mask - Part 1

I only say "penultimate" because I know it'll only be a matter of time until someone will make a better one. Either way, I've been thinking about this game a lot lately, and have talked to some friends about it. My conclusion: it's a fucking masterpiece.

I couldn't appreciate it fully when it came out but only after thinking about it and getting into, oddly, in-depth discussion about its subtext and themes recently; I've come to find myself possessed by its greatness (compounded with the fact that I've started replaying it again). Despite how I still feel about the overall world layout design of the game (I feel it's a bit more cluttered and sloppier than Ocarina of Time), I'm completely mesmerized by all the somber, melancholy themes that this game has that I completely over-looked when I first played this 13 years ago. Back then, I just thought it was spooky and dark, following the same footsteps as other franchises wherein the property would go from fun to dark, and back to fun again but it's so much more than that. It's gone dark because this game goes from epic, high fantasy adventure in a story that's beyond the main character to, something few things do, inside the mind and life of the hero after the adventure. What's so remarkable about this is that this, true sequel of a Zelda game, goes to a place where the hero doesn't live happily ever after; enjoying his retirement. No: he's restless and questioning his self-worth. This is probably the first and only game in the Legend of Zelda series to explore, in the most metaphorical of ways, the insecurities of its hero: Link. And they do it so well, don't you agree?

I felt the need to make something from it; why not Majora's Mask? And why not make it better than other versions?! Why not have eyes that glow and horns that rattle? Why not? Let's make it look and function as if it actually existed in the real world, based on what it's shown to do from the game.

I knew I wanted to make it look slightly more like the artwork for the game than the actual game model itself. Of course, it had to look like it came from the game, as well, but reference-wise, the only thing I'm really using pictures of the game model for is color reference.

If you look at the artwork, you'll notice that the mask curves inward before it tapers to a point, as well as slightly curving around the side. The horns on the top and sides of the mask are also slightly curved, and from both images, the second horn on either side of the mask is longer than the others.

With those in mind, off I went:

Because I only have so much modeling clay available to me, I had to figure out a way to use the most of what I had. Solution: build a base to lay thin sheets of clay on top of to sculpt on. For 11 bucks at the hardware store, I got a single sheet of inch-thick, 4x8', pink, home insulation foam. 

With a hack saw (again, what I only have available to me), I chopped up the sheet to smaller sheets, hot glued them together to roughly the shape I want, and spent 5-6 hours with the hack saw chopping about this foam brick.

Cleaning up the mess went much faster.

The next couple days after, I spent time sanding the chunky lump into something more smooth and shapely. Once I had enough of that, I used what Modge Podge I had left to cover the base, filling the pores, and creating a surface that wouldn't pull so much of my clay. Pictured below is what it looked like after two layers were put on. I ended up putting on three layers just to get rid of the the Modge Podge.

Once cured, I took some clay, rolled it out with a rolling pin and slapped it on top of the foam base and started sculpting, smoothing, and blending it all together. Not to mention, making sure the surface was level and somewhat symmetrical (as much as I could make it). 

The picture below shows the stage of progress 7-8 hours into it.

Once it was to a point where I was happy with the thing, I used a small bowl to cut out where the eyes were gonna be. I did it four times before I was happy with the placement and, even then, that was from realizing when the eyes were in place, just how asymmetrical the sides were from each other.

A full 12 hours or fiddling, tweaking, and adjectives of "altering" later.

Looking at it now, I might have to do the eyes again; they still look like the reason why I changed it four times over before: they still look too close. If I do them any smaller, then I lose the eeriness of the mask and its proportion. At least, it's still in the early stages so I can fix it if I want, as I also plan on doing the eyes last.

We've still a long way to go, kiddies. Stay tuned.

Party-Man

Can rock a party like nobody can.

So long have I waited for this day. So long! And now I have it. Still needs suspender buttons but I'll get those on when I have the suspenders with it.

Took quite a while to put these together, I was going off of vintage patterns for tuxedo pants that were in French and assumed that the person sewing knew enough about sewing that it left out any instructions and things like the waistband, fly, pockets, and lining (all of which I added to the final pants). So, learning as I went. Again.

Lining on the inside were left-overs of the Joker Mob tie I made awhile back. I can't tell you what a happy little mistake these were. I just didn't want to throw them away, so I put them in the pants. As a result, not only do they make the front pleats lay straight but they. Feel. So. DAMN. GOOD!

Need the shirt, shoes, waistcoat, and jacket now and I'm good to go. Not like I'll ever wear them but just to say I have them is what is important.

Leatherface'd My Face ('74 Style)

I've always wanted a good Leatherface mask. I've known for ages what it was made of an how it was put together but I never bothered to do it.

Well, last night, I bothered to do it and I wanted it done the way the original one was done: with liquid latex and fiberglass insulation. I had spent about a week going around town gathering the supplies I needed (the only thing I had was the insulation) and was just waiting for the alginate (for face-molding) supplies to ship in.

Now, I only had enough supplies to support one cast and I had attempted three times previously to make a life cast of myself, by myself, with very poor results. Fucking this up was not an option for me and I had to work with whatever I produced.

This was the final result.

 Decent, but I still kinda fucked it up. The way I set it down to cure and the weight  of the thing caused the nose to be squished flatter than what it was. In the picture, you can clearly make out where I had to fix the bits with Super Sculpey over the gypsum (it's like a cross of plaster and cement) lifecast. There were also quite a few holes in the mold, something I can't seem to ever compensate for, so this cast had a few lumps that I had to chip and sand away.

Skip a few hours later of laying on the fiberglass insulation and latex and you get this picture.

The face was fully laid up and to get enough for the back of the mask, as I was running out of latex at this point (4 fl. oz is definitely not enough if I do this again), I laid out what latex I could spare on the tablemat/cutting board I put together and laid out thin layers of the insulation on top of that. I covered the thing with as much latex as I could before I ran out and had to use Modge Podge for some areas.

Skip even a few more hours of me fiddling around and burning myself with hot glue, and I got this:

 About 6-7 hours worth of work and I kind of hate it. I was really wanting it to come out smooth (at least, smoother) like the original mask but I honestly couldn't get the fiberglass from clumping as I was laying on the latex. Having said that, I think it was because I was using thin strips instead of a larger sheet and too much of both latex and fiberglass. The stretched, wrinkly texture gives the mask an interesting look, I'll give it that, but it just isn't right: it's far too lumpy looking for it to be genuine.

The latex I had bought, it was from a small costume shop in the next town over, and all they had was this pink, flesh-y colored stuff (and after having made the godamn trip), I went and bought it anyway; hoping it would dry to that parchment-yellow that latex does. 

It sort of did.

You can see in the photos where some of it still stayed a bit pink. Again, it adds a nice touch but, like I said, it's not right.

Other inaccuracies are the position of the scalp, it ought to be brought farther down on the face; the mouth, I fudged that up by cutting it crooked by mistake and opted to hot-glue the wire in (instead of sewing it in, which I only noticed after the fact); the eyelets are not on the neck as I opted to keep them off to save on precious, precious money from being spent.

For the most part, I'm glad that I was able to pull this off, I set out to do it and I "did it" for the most part. Overall, though, I'm fairly disappointed in it: it just didn't turn out the way I wanted. Instead, this is just gonna be another case of me going out to do something that I had my heart set in, have it turn out a way I wasn't aiming for, but too stubborn to chuck away. 

I'd love to do this again and apply what I learned from this over onto that to make something better looking, but as it is, me being extremely strapped for cash until I can find a way to make some money (barring having to go back slaving away in an office or the "service industry" and getting stuck) with the skills I possess: this'll have to go on the back-burner. It'd be pointless for me to invest in more supplies in an attempt to make another one to just stick on my shelf.

In other news: starving artist looking for work and commissions! BUY SHIT FROM ME!

Some Quick Builds: A Scarecrow and Some Books

I had some more burlap fabric (thinking about bookbinding) than I had anticipated, so I decided to do something with it.

Why not Scarecrow from Batman Begins?

Stitched and put together on Tuesday, distressed it Wednesday, took photos this morning (Thursday) after some more touch-ups. 

The only things I bought were the hemp rope to stitch the thing together with and the d-rings in the back; everything else I made with stuff on hand, by hand. The noose rope is a bit thicker than the original but, again, this was made with whatever I had laying around.

Took a total of 5-6 hours worth of work in all.

Before that, I had some left-over paper from the Skyrim CD Case/Book thing I did. Not wanting to throw it away, I turned it into some books. They'll be up on my Etsy shortly, they won't go for much, but I just want to get rid of the things.

Clearly, the green one is based off of the journal Indy has in Raiders when he's in the Well of Souls and the blue one is just one I made in the vein of the previous one. They're all beaten and battered to hell because when I was putting them together, I did it kinda quickly, therefore: sloppy. So, in order to create some continuity in the overall look, I just beat the hell out of them.

S'fuckin' easy.

Happy Halloweens!

Besides, these "punkins," I also did a commission for a couple this season for their baby boy, Darius. The costume was a cute-sified Zergling from the Starcraft games. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take many pictures during or after it was completed.

This was the concept pic I threw together:

...And this is the only pic I have of it from when I was modifying the claws on the back. Hopefully, I'll get some pics of  the finished thing on the kid soon. The couple seemed very pleased with it and so was I, considering most of it was hand-sewn.

To Honor the Hebrew God Whose Ark This Is...

Finished, finally! After a weeks worth of abysmal failures in trying to cast the center jewel piece (for future reference, stay away from shit sold at hobby/craft stores: i.e. Castin' Crafts and Easy Cast Epoxy. These things suck). It was only recently that the two jewels that I cast in epoxy resin came out decent enough to work with. By decent, I mean cured to a semi-hard density and isn't tacky. Remember, folks, you get what you pay for; if you buy cheap, you get cheap.

Anyway, weathered and sealed the thing up to last forever and ever.

Pictures!

 Despite the unexpected amount of trouble I had with building this thing, this is easily up there as one of my most favorite things.