How to make a custom face mold!
Hi there! :D
Welcome to the annual tutorial ™!
This time, I'll show you how to make your own face mold using easy access materials. If you haven't already, check out my video on how to make cardboard clay beforehand, as the clay will be used in this video.
Also, you might want to watch my video on the Hag Claw from „Dead by Daylight“, where I use the technique from this video to make a custom hand mold.
So, of course I've come across the odd cosplay channel's video on how to make face molds over the years, but all involve buckets of materials like silicone or casting bandages. And subsequently lead to a huge mess where you have to protect all your furniture and clothes from splatter and wait for hours breathing through straws while someone smothers you in goop.
That's all fine and dandy if you're into that, but I wanted to find an easy way to a somewhat accurate face mold.
Of course this method will not give you a mold with every single dip and wrinkle of your face depicted, but it is a start on the way to a better fitting mask than what you could buy online. And it's a solution for everybody that for whatever reason doesn't fit the standard mask bases that are available. One of the biggest concerns in making cosplay masks is comfort. You don't want weird annoying pressure points all over your face from a too tight mask, but you also don't want a mask that you have to adjust every few minutes because it's too big.
Also, if your mask base is too tight, chances are you will be destroying your finished mask in the long run. Your body heat often makes the material soft, which is a great way to go that extra step in having a well-fitting mask mold even better to your personal features, but it can result in trimings falling off on a too small mask; in hot glue points getting loose or even cracks to appear in the finishing.
Fun fact: This is the third try I filmed of making a mask base. The previous tries failed spectacularly, mainly because I used duct tape. I thought it would add a lot more stability than masking tape, but in the end, the fiber in the duct tape pulled the mask into all kinds of directions when it either reacted with the glue or dried up in the back. So I ended up with an unshapely lump and many gigabite of useless footage.
Also, unfortunately I couldn't talk that much anymore for the later part of the video, there was construction going on outside that was way too noisy.
As I'm always afraid that I don't make sense, so let me just summarize:
If you want to make a mask template that you will be using as a base - meaning that you will place additional material on top that you then lift off completely to create another mask based on the measurements of that template – in that case just follow along what you see on screen.
If you want to make a singular mask to wear immediately that is custom fitted to your face, then you will have to follow the additional info I'm giving – so leaving out eye holes or maybe sketching specific shapes onto the tape once it covers everything (before glue), as well as adding a material of choice to the back instead of more clay. That can be paper, felt or fabric. It might sound counter-intuitive, but if you're planning to make a mask with a mouth opening, cut that one out after the entire mask is done and dry, but before you add the backing material. It's tough, but otherwise you risk damaging the mask.
If you want to make a mask with a 3D effect (like an open mouth), then it's best to make a template mask that is completely closed safe for the eyes, and then craft a Legion-type top mask to go on it. You can check out the video on the „Dead by Daylight“ Hag mask I made to see more of that process.
So I hope I could make sense of the process, I know I'm not the best at explaining lol.
By the way: end of the Plague Mask story was that after contemplating walking out to my neighbor's and admitting that I am the weirdo in the house and need help, I tried one last time and wiggled out. I did damage the mask so I had to fix it off-camera lol
Thanks so much for watching! If you like, subscribe to the channel or check up on the craft dungeon next Friday to catch a new upload :D
Let me know if you have any questions or project requests in the comment section below.
As always, here's the rather short list of materials for today:
cellophane foil
PVA glue (US: https://amzn.to/3iOcUB4 DE: https://amzn.to/3A1rlrs )
cardboard clay
packing paper or newspaper
masking tape (painter's tape)
scissors
felt tip pen if needed
felt/fabric if needed