Next alien creature mask for Return to the Planet : experimenting with a race genetically derived from big cats – in this case, a jaguar. The mask base is instamorph, draped over a clay sculpt, with the teeth moulded separately. The whiskers are re-purposed old ukulele strings. The painting (in acrylic) is still rough, just to work out the idea.
That sensible reason being that Cyclops+Unicorn=Cylicorn. The alternative result of using an Earth based myth-referencing concatenation system of nomenclature is Uniclops. And, somehow that doesn’t have quite the right ring.
Cylicorns are just one of many species that could inhabit The Planet in May.
Plastic shells for the next two aliens. All this series are being made as half-masks, so the performers wearing them can speak. Or Meep, as the case may be.
Day two, Instamorph stage alien mask for a show next year, start of the paint job.
Latest mask – one which probably should be posed with a bottle in a brown paper bag.
Now, the shell has been made, ears formed, eyes put in and cuts made for eyes nose and mouth. Painting tomorrow . . .
All going well she’ll soon be ready for her supporting role in the NZ Comedy Festival.
I’m in an improvised comedy show next month, which mostly explains why I am spending this afternoon creating a mask for the eponymous Gorilla.
So far, I’ve finished a rough clay form over a plaster cast, next step will be draping it with a thermoplastic sheet (Instamorph) and then will be painting and adding fur. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon, not bad at all . . .
Mask using Instamorph painted in acrylics, and made over this clay sculpt. Now mostly finished bar some necessary sinister moustache twirling and eyebrow trimming. Then I guess he’ll go looking for some railway tracks and a helpless victim.
Victorian villain mask
I spent last weekend in a portrait class that focused on understanding how faces twist to express emotions. On Sunday we worked from a live model in one long pose (the expression collectively chosen was ‘anxious’). The rest of the class worked in 2D, using paints, pastels and pencil to capture a likeness. I decided to instead use clay and Instamorph to create the base for a mask. It was an interesting challenge!
Next step: taking the white mask base and painting it, adding in eyes etc. With his permission, I took photos of the lovely model, and will use them to help finish the mask.
Model and clay base
Model and mask
Instamorph is the brand name of low-temperature thermoplastic pellets which I make into sheets and then mould into my masks. It becomes soft and transparent in hot water, white and opaque as it cools, and once cool is both flexible and strong. It can be welded to other bits of Instamorph with heat, and worked in a somewhat similar way to wax with metal tools.
It typically takes around 200gms for a human sized full-face mask (or enough for an A4 3mm sheet), and I buy the stuff in 8kg lots, most recently via Amazon. As far as I can tell it is pretty much identical to Polymorph in the UK and Plastimak products sold in Australia; similar variations on the theme are sold under names such as Shapelock and Friendly Plastic to cosplayers and electrical hobbyists and makers of various things crafty. All are manifestations of Polycaprolactone, or PCT. You can also find variations inter-rolled thinly with fabric and sold for hat making and such.
If you work in vetinary or human medicine you may encounter a similar material, already made into sheets, used to make remouldable splints for animal or human injuries. Get some and play: it’s a great material.
For maskmaking, it replaces the material Celastic, a kind of plastic which was softened in acetone and by all accounts was very nasty to use. It replaces papier mache, which takes days-weeks to dry and doesn’t give anything like as strong or solid a result. As well, unlike leather or papier mache, it doesn’t soften or loose shape when a performer gets it all sweaty.
It is for masks made by draping over a form, a positive (I make mine of clay), in contrast to masks made by pouring a liquid such as latex or neoprene into a negative mold.
Superheated the plastic resembles a hot glue (I use small metal tools and a spirit flame for this) and I use it to cement eyes and extras into place. It is great material to make bits such as teeth, tusks or horns, whether part of a mask or as costume accessories on their own.
Once a mask is made, sand the surface lightly and paint with good quality acrylics, if finished with a satin or matte waterbased polyurethene this finish is perfectly durable – although it can be sanded and refinished at any time.
Tools to help with the Instamorph :
Extra things I’ve learnt :
– A silicon cookie sheet at the bottom of a large roasting dish makes an good working tray. I usually use nearly boiling water, which is not what the manufacturers recomend, but works for me. Also, melting in the microwave works, but don’t tell anyone I said that, as it’s probably also not recommended.
– Pingpong balls are insanely flammable! Really don’t use a flame tool (like my handy creme brulee torch) near any ping pong eyes.
– Knives are very sharp and prone to slip. Cutting out the rough shape when the plastic is not quite hard with the sharpest of sharp snips is the best way, then clean up with hot tools around any rough edges. You can also heat metal tools in a flame, then sort of ‘punch out’ the eye shapes.
– Instamorph is the best glue for instamorph (I now usually melt strips of it to hold in eyes etc rather than using glue).
– Plan your eyeball style and placement early.
– Boys always want to put on girl masks.
– Accept random wrinkles as “gifts of character”
Rummage through my other masks!
mask in progress
Masks lined up for the show
The Captain
