Eyeless Jack sculpt and mask - [complete]

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I had a recent ask to make a mask of Eyeless Jack, one of the Creepypasta characters, similar to Slender Man. There isn't too much to go off of, but all of the fan art is pretty consistent: blue, featureless mask, with bleeding black eyes. Fairly straightforward. This was a good opportunity to try some new techniques, learn some things, and have fun. So off we go!

One hitch with the character is that there isn't really a nose, so things have to be built up a bit first, allowing the final result to still be something that can be worn. I ended up working in a hint of a nose, or ridge down the middle, and that worked really well.

Start slapping some WED clay on a head form, and roughly rake it out a bit, followed by a finer rake to get things a little more even, and then a bit of smoothing. Not going for any real form here, just building up the face a bit, so it reduces the offset of the nose.

eyeless_jack-01.jpg eyeless_jack-02.jpg eyeless_jack-03.jpg

I didn't want the mask to look like a flimsy knock-off, with just eyes cut out. Rather, more like they're meant to be there, and formed into the mask. To make sure they were exactly the same, and to help get the curve right, I worked up a model of what I thought the eyes should look like, and printed them. They were coated with XTC-3D to smooth out the striations, and buffed a bit. Then, stuck them in place, with a little more clay built up, which put the top edge of the eyes on pretty much the same plane as the tip of the nose, or a little above.

They're a little off-kilter in this picture, but they did end up with a slight angle to them, so they're not going straight up and down. Looks really goofy here!
Next, rough in the overall shape of the mask, leveling out the eyes, and placing the hint of the nose ridge-line down the center.

eyeless_jack-04.jpg eyeless_jack-05.jpg

At this point it was a little too flat across the front, but that was pretty much the point of roughing it in. Next was raking it back down, and really making the final shape start to take form, while adding some curvature to the face. Then everything was smoothed a bit, to see how close it looked to some of the references I was working off of.

eyeless_jack-06.jpg eyeless_jack-07.jpg eyeless_jack-09.jpg

It ended up being a little long in the face, and looked a little too much like a shield. The bottom point was trimmed down a bit and the top rounded a little more, followed by a good cleaned up of the edges, and then everything smoothed out really well. I noticed the ridge-line was a little crooked, so corrected that, but didn't take a picture, prior to molding. So, imagine a straighter line.

eyeless_jack-10.jpg

Finally, the eyes were filled in level. I let it sit out for a little while, and then hit it with a heat gun for a couple of minutes, just to get a slightly stronger surface, until it had a slight "leathery" feel. With previous WED projects, I've coated with Crystal Clear prior to molding, but this one just received a few coats of Mann Ease Release. It's getting an alginate bath, so no need for much else.
 
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Re: Eyeless Jack sculpt and mask - WIP

I knew this thing was going to need a little extra work, so decided to make a quick mold with alginate, so I could get a quick master cast out of it, which could then be cleaned up, and molded for real with silicone.

I didn't quite get the alginate thin enough, but it still worked pretty good. Once it set up, it got a quick blast of Ease Release, and then a plaster bandage support shell.

eyeless_jack-11.jpg eyeless_jack-12.jpg

Everything came off just fine, although I did tear the alginate in one place. There were some obvious air pockets, from the alginate being too thick, and setting up really fast. No biggie, since I'm cleaning up the cast anyway.

So for the tricky part here, casting resin into the alginate mold. I read around a bit on what to do, and think I found the solution in a thread here somewhere.

Brush the inside of the alginate with acetone, to wick away some of the surface moisture, then spray with Crystal Clear. I also hit it with the heat gun for a few seconds, just to make sure everything was nice and dry. For the master cast, I slush cast in several extra layers, than you normally would, making it nice and thick for all the eventual clean up. I always tint my final layer, so I can see if there are any thin spots, from the front.

The cast came out pretty perfect, except for the air pocket spots. These were quickly trimmed down with a knife, before the resin fully cured. Just to make for less sanding later.

eyeless_jack-13.jpg eyeless_jack-14.jpg eyeless_jack-15.jpgeyeless_jack-16.jpg
 
Re: Eyeless Jack sculpt and mask - WIP

Now the real work...clean up!

Straight out of the mold, the surface of the cast was slightly sticky, with some residue, almost like a post-it type tacky feel. I'm not sure if it was the Crystal Clear, or maybe the first layer of resin not quite fully curing? Pretty sure it was a mixture of the paint, and moisture from the alginate. But anyway, this was easily cleaned off in the sink with a scotch brite pad, and some dish soap.

The master is sanded all over with whatever grit paper I had on hand, 240 I think. The curves, and insides of the eyes were cleaned up with the Dremel (on low speed!) using various engraver bits, and polishing wheels; those things work amazingly well! Maker marks go in the eyes, with the crazy-tiny engraver bit.

eyeless_jack-17.jpg eyeless_jack-18.jpg

On with the first coat of bondo, and then lots, and lots of sanding. I used a couple of different orbital sanders on the overall form, and then back to the polishing wheels for the areas around, and between, the eyes. Last picture is just for fun. The flash on my phone made it look like it was on fire or something. Actually kinda cool. :)

eyeless_jack-19.jpg eyeless_jack-20.jpg eyeless_jack-21.jpg eyeless_jack-22.jpg

With the first pass done, there were still some low spots, so they were marked with a pen, ready for the next coat of bondo, which is currently curing. I already know I missed one spot, so it'll take a third pass to be fully done. Oh well.

eyeless_jack-23.jpg
 
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Re: Eyeless Jack sculpt and mask - WIP

Yikes, been quite a while since I've updated. Just finished paint last night, and have the rest of the progress pictures I neglected to post along the way. So, picking up where I left off:

A few more passes with bondo, and then primer. There was one more coat after this, as I had a problem spot over one of the eyes.

eyeless_jack-28.jpg

On to making the real mold. In the past, I've just gone with the easy, "brush on several layers of silicone, and then give it a shell" approach, but this time tried to do the more matrix mold approach. It was much more difficult than I thought it would be, and didn't work perfectly, but definitely learned a lot.

eyeless_jack-30.jpgeyeless_jack-31.jpgeyeless_jack-34.jpgeyeless_jack-37.jpgeyeless_jack-41.jpgeyeless_jack-39.jpgeyeless_jack-42.jpgeyeless_jack-43.jpgeyeless_jack-44.jpg

In particular, I had a lot of trouble getting the shell separated from the clay, prior to silicone, and then more problems getting the original out after silicone. That was my fault though, for making a 1-piece shell. Lesson learned. Also, remembered once I poured the silicone, that I actually have mold straps...whoops.
 
Re: Eyeless Jack sculpt and mask - WIP

After a long road getting to this point, it was time to paint. Ran into MANY hiccups there, trying different types of paint. My biggest mistake was using Createx paints, for the final colors. They are great paints, but not good for this application. They require heat to cure, and then have a rubbery feel once cured. And don't seem very durable...scratch easy.

First, primer. Black base coat. Liquitex ink, light blue. Then several layers of Tamiya transparent blue, fading towards the center. Followed by final coats of Tamiya clear. It's actually darker than it looks, just hard to get a good picture of the effect.

eyeless_jack-47.jpgeyeless_jack-48.jpgeyeless_jack-49.jpgeyeless_jack-51.jpgeyeless_jack-54.jpg
 
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Re: Eyeless Jack sculpt and mask - WIP

Finishing touch-- the weeping eye effect. I don't like the typical pictures that have the actual "drips". I tried several variations of that theme, and they all looked cheesy, so I went with a more gradual stained effect.

This was several coats of a Golden transparent grey, followed by Liquitex gloss, mixed with Liquitex black ink.

The inside is padded with foam, covered with velvet, and then a couple of elastic straps to hold it on.

eyeless_jack-64_zpsba6103fb.pngeyeless_jack-62_zps890e3b25.png

Finally, the complete ensemble:

eyeless_jack-58_zps60a17593.pngeyeless_jack-60_zps123ddffa.png

- - - Updated - - -

That reminds me of the Court of Owls mask from Batman:
View attachment 434762

Ha! You're right, definitely a similarity. :)
 
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