Funny to see what my ancesters got up to. We had to learn this stuff as part of our history lessons in school… it actually gets kind of boring after a few years.
‘Time to learn about samhain, kids.’
‘Aaawwww…’
How’s your costume coming along linda?
Linda,
Try Crayola Model Magic. A friend of mine uses it to make masks of Greek gods and other fantasy creatures. They are absolutely brilliant and all you have to do afterwards is paint them dry brush style in the colours you want.
The clay that Crayola makes is SUPER light weight! I’ll post a picture of the mask she made for me so you can see it. Definitely worth a try and you can mold the mask exactly to your liking! Should make your project VERY easy to do.
I’ll post the picture when I get home tonight.
p.s. Don’t see you around much anymore…you over on the other side of the fence in CGSociety world now?
Meredith
Hi guys :]
Thank you so much for the help. I’ve not been around lately because I’m suffering from pretty bad insomnia, and I’ve not got energy to do a whole lot except try to stay awake/fall asleep when I should.
I’ve not started on the costume yet, but I’ve been suggested by someone who is pretty much an expert in these areas to use something called varaform for the horned mask. Since I’m a little hesitant about the price (it costs quite a lot
and I’ll never use the suit more than once) as well as about the texture of the stuff, I’m going to try to make it in papier mache first, and see how it works - then go for the varaform. I have to order it from England, so it’s such a fuss. I can’t find any company in Sweden that sells it.
I’ve changed my mind about the horns. They’ll start at the temples, instead. Not the cheeks. I think putting them on my cheeks will just make the mask more difficult to wear.
Anyway, again, thank you. I’ll post updates as soon as I can. Right now, I’m looking into getting hold of the kind of airbrush one can use for bodypaint.
Just a thought, reading all this and being a bit of a dab hand with papier mache, why don’t you try the hardware or auto stores for that filling foam that billows up when you spray it, and make a rough approximation with that of the mask, then carve what you want out of it. If you carve too much, you can always add more and I don’t believe it is terribly expensive. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it can be carved with a sharp knife and refined with sandpaper. Just a suggestion 
Awesome idea by the way 
All right. I did a makeup test tonight. I tried out several colours and painted on top of them - trying to find something I liked.
For a while, I was thinking of abandoning red and going grey-white-blue instead. A little like this face that I painted some time back:
But as it turns out, it looked much too dull. Too little contrast. I want a makeup with a little ‘oomph’.
So I tried bright red, crimsony, but ended up feeling it was cliché. Not until I painted on top of all of this with a colder, pinker red did I feel that I found the right effect. My face looks pinker in the photo than it was - it was darker and deeper, a very cool colour, but it was difficult to take a proper picture of.
Anyway, I feel I’m pretty sure of what direction I want to take the actual makeup in. Not exactly like the sketch, I know, but I think I like this better. Sorry you can only see half the face, but the other one I didn’t bother with the details on. Also sorry for skin-coloured neck and such, haha, I just didn’t feel like doing a makeup test on that as well.
I’m going to go take a bath now and try to scrub this off my skin. I feel happy I did it, I know more about the kind of effect I’m looking for, now. (Mind you, this is just paint: I’m going to combine with different things, make sure some of the fake bumps are REAL bumps, get some texture in there. Not decided on how yet, but I feel I’ll have to.
Also, still going to have the horned mask over to top part of the face. Whee!)
awesome 
the prettiest face and that skill just stun
those bumps in the nose look so real, makes
me wanna feel them, hehe, reminds me of a
trip to Thailand where I lost a thumbnail size
piece of skin from my nose to a sunburn.
I’d been in the sun for like two days and
the skin on my nose felt oddly hard and dry.
We were at the hotel roof pool and i jumped
in the pool and came out and felt my nose
tingle, so i touch it to scratch it a bit and
the skin comes off and the flesh shows…
spooked me a bit … had to walk a week in the
shades under a broad rimme had after that
to wait for the skin tio grow back
.
I would like to have at least the half of imagination you got into your head, hahahahaha. I think your custome is turning out cool, I’m sorry but that’s just everything I can say. By the way, when Halloween is already over, I would like to see a painting about your entire custome, of course, if you don’t mind. Also I remember some months ago, there was this school project, which I next to my friends had to make a video about anything, so I perfomed a dead body covered in blood. Well, this artificially blood was some kind of powder to make some strawberrry drink and when we were done, I just could not take that blood out of my face, and i was inside the bus with all my face red coloured, was so embarasing, besides, it kind of hurts. Well, my greetings linda, keep working on that custome. Bye.
Whoa, I think that makeup is even more stellar than your gargoyle’s makeup. Amasing, you make it look like fun to make yourself into an art!
Hi Enayla,
What kind of body paint did you end up getting to help you get the effect in the photo you posted? Did you end up airbrushing the base red and then painting the detail by brush with the same type of paint or something completely different?
thanks,
t
Hey didn’t see any updates before… : .
I’m going to be wee lihl party pooper, but I was looking over the pictures, I think some of the appeal in the above picture is that the scars follow the shapes of the face. That really spices the picture up a lot.
And on your test the round scales sort of seem out of place, but the scales on the nose are really cool. IMHO it would suit your complexity better to go with straighter scales or even scars(allthough in this context, scars : scabs, yugh)… Hmm, haven’t done much of sketching, I should need the practice anyway. Maybe I can illustrate it.
You could use your natural bone structure to add to the effect of direction and visual rythm of the scales, perhaps an extra layer of more reflective paint would add more to the illusion of height difference.
I do think the round scales are somewhat out of place like this, Maybe they’d do better in less visible area’s. I’m probably pushing your timetable over the limits with these suggestions though heheh… 
PS:by less visible I mean area’s alike the hairline, where contrast recedes and you could use them to even out features. (since they’re mathematically easy to use as filler, :))
Id have to say, I also prefer the scars, I like the elegant sweep they had, and if your losing the cheekbone horns then atleast keep the scars…
It’s all painted with classic theatre makeup (some of it water based, some oil based). I don’t have an airbrush at the moment (nor have I ever) so it’s painted in using a brush.
The problem with the scars in the makeup I had designed - I can’t do that. I’ll have to, on top of making the actual mask, somehow manage to make the designs in latex, and miraculously learn how to apply such to my skin without it looking cheap and stupid. I’ve tried it out before and I can’t get the effect that I want, so I’ve skipped the design below the cheekbones. Trying to do THAT in just paint ended up looking dumb, not at all like scars or anything like them (nor was it intended to ‘be’ scars to begin with). It looked like stupid marble-like patterns.
The problem with concept sketches is that they might not be doable. They’re initial concepts that might look cool and all, but might also be practically impossible. This one, I can’t do. I can’t do the ‘scars’ like that. I’ll have to decide between making the mask (covering all the way down to the nose) or trying to learn how to make latex bits and pieces for my makeup, and I think I prefer the former alternative.
The end result of the makeup, I won’t know how that looks until I’ve done the mask. It’ll be designed to fit with whatever designs I go with for the mask - if the mask has little bumps like the makeup did now, I’ll do that for the face as well. If not? well, the face will match it, but I’m going to have to skip the sort of makeup that I had in the concept sketch because I simply can’t do it. I have to think reasonably here. The costume is expensive enough as it is without me having to take classes in making latex masks and details. So, I’m sorry.
The makeup test was for me to figure out how I can work the colours. Since I’m still undecided on the mask-concept, I can’t settle on the makeup quite yet. Please don’t condemn the entire makeup/mask judged on a half-hour makeup-test that I did way after midnight when I was bored ;] You’ll see. Even if I go with the bumps, it’ll surprise you. It’ll be neat.
I’m quite sure you’ll be able to come up with something neat. That’s why I’d even bother to suggest anything.
Have fun, curious to see what you come up with.
All right, covering your face with plaster isn’t pleasant. Once I’d covered the eyes, I sat down on the floor and waited for the plaster to harden – and it was scary. I kept expecting something to creepily brush by me, because if it did, it would take forever to me to get the plaster off to see what it was. Nothing did, of course. Thank gosh.
Anyway, I’ve made a cast of my face, my neck and the upper part of my chest, now, and as you can see – the upper part of my head (only part I need, ha ha) is sitting on top of my stove, together with the horns that I’m working on.
I think I’ll start on the mask tomorrow D: if the horns have dried, that is. I ended up making them with thin metal threads and regular papier mache. They’re light and I think the mask will be able to hold them up without tipping over.
Also, I found the corset I’m going to wear. It was filthy cheap so I was really lucky – but it’s not red… it’s violet. So instead of going for only red, I’m going to go for red-purple makeup… with the tips of the horns being fiery red, but the red sort of merging with lilac on the face. I think it’ll be neat.
That’s the progress for now, either way. I’m thrilled about the horns. They’re unpainted so far, of course, but I used red paper to make them to simplify the painting process.
I’ve also picked up all matters of little sparkly stones and crap that I’m going to use on the mask when I model it – it’ll be very pretty. I’m very excited about the whole thing right now.
Man, my flat is SO messy right now. Plaster and paper and fate knows what ALL OVER THE PLACE.
You’re an artist, your apartment should be messy 
Sounds like it’s going to be an awesome costume, wish I could be there to see it in person… As for the scars, a friend of mine has worked with make up some and he did a pretty convincing bullethole on my forehead a few halloweens ago. All he used was make up and a sort of blood-gel to simulate the crusted blood. Do you think that would be enough for you or do you need more pronounced scar-tissue?
Rad! Its inspiring me as I’ve been wanting to do something like this for some time. Maybe I can still pull something off. Linda this is a site that makes some contacts for eyes. Kinda pricey though cause they are hand painted I think. http://www.9mmsfx.com[color=white]/
Also here http://www.sfxeyes.com/ they have cheeper ones aswell
If you don’t go that route or you just go for regular contacts, I think green would look best againt the red because it will stand out.
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