CUSTOM MASK MAKING PART 3

Sadly i am NOT going to get to showing you how to plaster mold copy these masks before i take my Christmas holiday break properly. As it is i am breaking my own 20 year rule by getting these last few posts out. I wanted to show you a little more on the teeth building part of these masks before i shut down fully until the turn of the year though. I WILL try to get the short HOW TO video that accompanies this post done tomorrow 06/12/09. The HOW TO will show you in much better detail of course how to do this, but for now here is a static run down of how to make the teeth for these masks.

On this mask i have sunk the mouth section slightly as i want to experiment with the placement of the smaller teeth a little. I may have sunken it too far though. This is of course no problem as i can easily remedy this later. If i have to do so i will try to explain what i did. So lets start adding some teeth then.

Remember i am using what i like to call 'poor artists polymer clay' - 'plasticine'. You will not be able to heat this up to make it hard, but you can paint it in un-dilluted PVA glue to make the surface go hard which WILL allow copying the mask in plaster.

As with any clays polymer or otherwise it's always a good idea to prepare the pieces you are going to be using first. In this case the teeth. This way you can guage size & amounts of required items better as you work. Well this method works for me anyway i am not a great multi-tasker lol.

These pre-pressed sheets of plasticine come in handy 'strip' sheets too. When making ghoulish teeth the task is much easier when you want split teeth. I simply peel off 2 strips then trim to the right length as i want them.

Fangs of course are easy enough to roll out.

Because we can not bake the plasticine hard, we can not simply hot glue them into place either. So a little pure PVA works wonders in getting the plasticine to fix to the paper which it hates to do by nature.

When it comes to adding the pre-shaped parts that you do not want to alter in any way you MUST be gentle when fixing these in place. Of course you may want to adjust the positions too so only press these into place when you are sure you have them where you want them to go.

When adding 'fangs' i find it is best to fix the fangs in place FIRST. This way you can guage the position of the smaller teeth much easier. Since most fangs are going to be longer & wider than any smaller teeth you may be planning to add, they WILL 'off-set' the position of the smaller teeth a fraction with every tooth. Adding the fangs first gives you 'eyes on' insight as to how the smaller teeth will be situated.

With the smaller teeth work from the center of the mouth out. This way you can line the center of the first two teeth perfectly with the face. It makes little to no difference which direction you take after that point for both top & bottom teeth.

Remember nature does not have things worked out entirely right just yet, well not for the constantly changing human race at least. Especially when it comes to teeth. For some reason most humans & i suppose it more than likely follows for most demons & other monsters too then that some have crooked, imperfectly lined teeth. So i this case for a demon mask try NOT to make the teeth perfectly lined up etc. Off-set the teeth slightly & having some lean out more WILL actually give YOUR demon mask some great characteristics i assure you.

Do not forget to add the small bumpy ridges above the teeth in the face too. These are actually cavities in a real skull where the teeth roots would fit. Like the teeth (& fangs) give these some variations as you sculpt them on the mask. It is little touches like this that make the difference in any sculpture be it a serious piece or a fun piece alike.

PVA glue, especially undilutted PVA glue dries very quickly in a warm room. So check as you work the glue you brushed on is still wet or at least sticky before you add more features. There is nothing like creating the perfect section on a sculpture such as with this method. Only to leave it over night then carry on the next day to find someone moved it & something fell off that you simply could not remake as good.

I had a feeling i had sunk the inside of the mouth back too far.

 To fix it i simply cut out the back of the mouth (inside the rear of the mask) then re-glued a new flat surface right up against the back of the newly added teeth. Hmm, this is no good lets have some close up's...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




A final coating of PVA glue & thats the teeth for this mask all finished up.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This mask can now join the others in storage until after the turn of the year at which point i will get to copying them in plaster. To then copy back out some paper mache wearable copies.

I appologise for the seemingly random 'gaps' in this & other previous posts i have made. I have NO idea what is causing these & no amount of editing & re-posting corrects the problems. I have noticed other bloggers are suffering the same thing occaisionally. I still felt i had to appologise for it though.