First Mask Sculpt

M

MissModeler

New Member
Hello everyone!

I thought I had some good progress made on my first mask sculpt so I thought I would post it up here and get some feedback. As I've mentioned in my welcome post, I'm mainly a 3D creature modeler so I'm teaching myself how to do traditional special effects makeup and prosthetics. So this is just a half mask for my first time so I can learn the techniques and have room to mess up and still have molding and casting materials left over to save on costs.

I have all the main shapes in as well as the larger cuts finished, but what I find I'm having issues with is figuring out a good way to create wrinkles and skin texture in the Monster Clay. What I have now seems a little too random for my liking so I'm open to hearing some techniques with that.

1.jpg2.jpg
 
I just recently finished a mask, modeled in monster clay, this is a pic with the some skin details, hopefully it will help you. For the "pores" I found that using a coarse sandpaper wrapped in a plastic bag to smooth a bit the impression works great!
redskull_skindetail.jpg
 
"wrapped in a plastic bag"

If you give that a workaround you might get to one of the techniches used to create skin wrnkles, pores etc...

Work with a film plastic over the sculpt with your metal (or wood ) tools, with short chip brushes over your wrinkles to smooth out a little. This helps to create cleaner twrinkles.
Cat brushes or similar in a criss cross motion work great for creating the subtle skin texture (without the plastic film obviously).
Over that you can use talc with a hard brush to smooth out your texture.
IPA alcohol also smooths the clay down, but probably too much for subtle textures, talc works great for that.

These are tips, if you play around alittle with theese concepts I´m sure youll get results, with some imagination.

There was a fantastic tutorial about this in The Effects Lab, by a user called Sendy. Unfortunately the site is down. Let´s hope they can get all that valuable info out.

Keep it up
 
There are a couple Stan Winston school tutorials for making nice skin wrinkles and textures. I use a small cat/dog grooming brush, and scrape that across the sculpt depending on where the wrinkles need to be. Also, try making the wrinkles in a X way. Its kind of hard to explain. Don Lanning has a video at SWS that shows the "power of the X" when making wrinkles.

Dont take this the wrong way, but what is the mask supposed to be of? A diseased person, someone with something wrapped around their face? Im really interested when people start sculpting, as Im an aspiring SPFX makeup artist myself.
 
following up on what Snikt said, if you know what you are going to be basing your sculpt from, then you can find just the right reference needed to have it be anatomically correct and look realistic. you can never have too much reference
 
Agreed. reference reference reference. I've got a plastic brush like you use for scrubbing dirty dishes that has no end of uses for helping smooth down rough spots by scrubbing lightly in a criss-cross pattern, making subtle skin texture, and with plastic sheet and a patting motion makes pretty good pores. I definitely recommend watching most (if not all) of Stuart Bray's videos like the one Leigh posted. He has tons of useful tips for making your sculpt look as realistic as possible
 
Update

Thanks for all of the tips, everyone! I got my hands on some good sandpaper that I used to add some pores. I'm also going to fix some of the wrinkle areas and then I think he'll be ready for molding.

As for what the sculpt is supposed to be, I initially just wanted to create something that didn't have too many facial features inspired by Silent Hill. He was initially supposed to be a full head sculpt, but I decided to keep my first mask as a half mask so if I screwed something up I wouldn't lose as much latex and other supplies. I was mainly referencing scars and boils.

mask update.JPG
 
nice man looking good if thats your first damm

- - - Updated - - -

Hi nice looking mask what is this monster clay you speak of?
 
Re: Update

MissModeler said:
Thanks for all of the tips, everyone! I got my hands on some good sandpaper that I used to add some pores. I'm also going to fix some of the wrinkle areas and then I think he'll be ready for molding.

As for what the sculpt is supposed to be, I initially just wanted to create something that didn't have too many facial features inspired by Silent Hill. He was initially supposed to be a full head sculpt, but I decided to keep my first mask as a half mask so if I screwed something up I wouldn't lose as much latex and other supplies. I was mainly referencing scars and boils.

View attachment 655766
Click to expand...

Gotcha. Any close to molding?
 
That's a good looking sculpt, MissModeler. I find when creating a character, prop, or mask, it helps to create a story. What's he been through? Is he human, or a monster?

And using the story you've built up, you can build a direction for the details. Why he has a scar, injury, that sort of thing. Or even to determine his emotions, you can shape the wrinkles and skin to suggest certain expressions when you lack facial features like this. I'd get into modeling and casting right now, but I don't have the funds, so unfortunately this is all the advice I can give. Good luck!
 
Re: Update

I got him to a point where he is ready to mold, I'm just trying to find the funds to afford some decent clay in order to create the wall around him to pour the Ultracal into. Trying not to spend a ton of money on shipping and having sort of a hard time finding a local place to get some decently priced clay; I would think it would be more common here in LA seeing how a lot of the FX studios are out here.

- - - Updated - - -

Thank you, glennc79! Monster clay is an oil based clay that doesn't dry out and is reusable. It also holds detailing really well.
 
I find it hard to believe that being in LA you cant find any clay. Hell even michaels or any craft store should have some water based clay you can use. I use em-210 for it, but I have a local supplier down here in san diego. If youre in LA, cant you just go to burmans or the big FX houses directly?
 
As Snikt mentioned above; there are many others:

Burman Industries, Inc.
13536 Saticoy St.
Van Nuys, CA 91402

Reynolds Advanced Materials
10856 Vanowen St
North Hollywood, CA 91605

Laguna Clay - Industry, CA - online only
http://www.lagunaclay.com/

Motion Picture F/X Company
2920 W. Magnolia Blvd
Burbank, CA 91505
 
Last edited by a moderator:
eacnwood said:
As Snikt mentioned above; there are many others:

Burman Industries, Inc.
13536 Saticoy St.
Van Nuys, CA 91402

Reynolds Advanced Materials
10856 Vanowen St
North Hollywood, CA 91605

Laguna Clay - Industry, CA - online only
http://www.lagunaclay.com/

Motion Picture F/X Company
2920 W. Magnolia Blvd
Burbank, CA 91505
Click to expand...

eacnwood, good call. The supplier here uses Laguna clay, they are my personal favorite. I usually buy my materials from Reynolds or burmans, so good call!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hello everyone and thanks for all of the advice so far!

I'm finally ready to get this guy molded; I got myself some white hydrocal plaster, but I'm not exactly sure how much I should be mixing in order to mold a half mask appropriately. I've read that this material doesn't allow for layer buildup as it will create stress fractures, so I just need help from someone who has molded a half mask or similar to get a correct amount. I would hate to mix up too little and then have a ruined mold/sculpt.

I'm planning on just building a small wall around the head/sculpt as to give a ledge to allow me to brush on the mold material. Seeing as I don't have a bust that's flat on the bottom I'd figure this technique should work if I just set it all up in an area where I can lay it on it's "back" until the mold cures where it won't be touched.
 
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