In the summer of 2003 I made 3 masks for a client - 2 with a smile from the same mold and a 3rd with a serious look.
Breakdown of the major steps of mask-making
Photos of the process with a detailed description
| Mask-making is a complex process with many detailed steps. It requires skillls in many areas, including clay sculpting, wood working, and mixing large quantities of alginate and plaster. A breakdown of the major steps involved is listed here: 1) Take photos of the subject from multiple angles. 2) Sculpt a life size model head using oil based clay 3) Make a negative image mold of the clay head using alginate 4) Slit the alginate mold down the back and remove the clay model without damaging the alginate 5) Make a positive model of the head in alginate (replica of the original clay model) 6) Remove the outer alginate layer of the negative mold without damaging the positive alginate cast inside 7) Make a negative image mold of the alginate using plaster 8) Dig out the alginate from inside the negative plaster mold 9) Pour liquid latex into the negative plaster mold, let it sit, then pour the excess liquid latex back out |
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Step 1: I started by taking several photos of Rich so I could reference his face from many angles. I printed a few of the images to use as a reference when sculpting. | ||||
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Step 2: Then I began
the long process of sculpting his head. I used oil based modeling clay
which doesn't dry out. It also allows for easy separation later on when
making a mold of the head with alginate, a water based impression material
used for taking impressions of teeth in the dental industry. This photo
shows a series of stages from start to finish as I worked the dimensions
and details closer and closer to match the pictures of Rich. The final
sculpture was larger than Rich's actual head for 2 reasons: 1) latex shrinks
a little as it dries, so the mold has to be bigger than you want the final
mask to be, and 2) the final mask would be worn by people for the production
of a company video. |
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Periodically I would take a picture of the clay model
and bring it into my photo editing software. By tracing some of the key
points on Rich's face in yellow, and making the image of the sculpture
about 50% transparent, I could overlay the images and check the dimensions
of my model. This would show me where to make changes. In this example,
which was about two-thirds through the sculpting process, I could see
that I needed to bring the nose and mouth down a little. |
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Just for fun, I merged images of the model with the
photos of Rich to get an idea of the final look, complete with his own
spiked hair. |
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Step 3: I don't have
photos of many of the next steps, which happen to be the most complicated
parts of the whole process. I blame it on the fact that many of these
steps have to be done very quickly due to the nature of the materials
and how fast they set, like the alginate and plaster, which left me with
no time to take pictures. What you see here is the finshed model on its
stand. The four legs are there to support the head when it is flipped
over, keeping the top of the head suspended about a half inch off the
floor. |
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This is a drawing of the frame I built to make the alginate cast of the model. I filled the cracks with clay to prevent the alginate from leaking when I first poured it in as a liquid. Getting the model flipped over and placed in the center of this frame was very difficult. The finished model weighed a good 20 pounds, and I had to be very careful not to scrape it on the frame as I lowered it down inside. It was kind of like playing that old game "Operation". Once the head was upside down and centered in the frame, I screwed the support legs in place so it wouldn't shift as I poured in the liquid alginate. | ||||
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Step 4: This image
skips a couple of major steps, but if you look closely at the enlarged
image, you can see the slit down the back of the pink alginate mold. Once
the alginate hardened around the clay model of the head, I had to remove
it without damaging the alginate mold or damaging the clay model too badly
so I could alter the mouth for the second "serious" mask and
not have to resculpt other features like the eyes, nose, and ears. After
pulling out the clay model, I rebuilt the wooden frame around the empty
alginate cast. I then attached another post to the top white board and
screwed it in place so it was centered in the mold with about a half inch
gap at the top of the post where the top of the head would be. |
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Step 5:With the post
secured in the center of the mold, I poured another batch of liquid alginate
into the mold, filling the space which had previously been filled with
clay. This series of images shows the slow process of breaking away the
outer layer of alginate around the inner positive cast of the head which
was an exact replica of the original clay model. I happened to use two
different brands of alginate which made for a nice contrast between the
outer negative mold (pink) and the inner positive cast (white). A nice
feature of alginate is that it does not stick to other alginate which
has already hardened, unlike plaster which will fuse with a previous hardened
plaster mold. This allows you to easily separate the inner cast from the
outer mold with no sticking. |
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The most difficult part of the finishing touches was
getting the hair to resemble Rich's hair, and then having to do it three
times! (Once was hard enough.) I started with a blonde long haired wig
(actually 3 of them). First I cut away the extra hair until the length
was closer to Rich's length. Then I hand-stitched the wigs to the latex
masks with a needle and thread. Once attached, I did additional trimming,
spiked the top with hair spray, and died the sides with mascara. |
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