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!
