EVA Foam Mask Part II

Jack of Blades Mask

In the last post I showed how to shape a mask out of a sheet of EVA foam. This post will continue that process and show how to turn that basic mask into THIS!

The finished Jack of Blades Mask from EVA foam. 

The Materials list: 

1. A formed mask (the previous post is a tutorial to get to that point)
2. Mod Podge ( I prefer the gloss, but you may use any finish you like)
3. Various colors of acrylic paint.
4. Puffy Paint (any color will do because you'll paint over it later) 
5. Twine
6. Sharp craft knife or box cutter
7. Paint brushes
8. White Elmer's school glue. 
9. News paper (to paint on)
10. A large nail or drill with drill bit. (poking holes for the twine stitches)
11. Heat gun 

The Process:

To start, you'll want some research images. I know it seems like I harp a lot about that, but they are CRUCIAL for accuracy. I took my EVA foam mask and traced the designs onto it with a permanent marker. I used my old Jack of Blades mask as a reference instead of digging out my research images. 

Once your designs are drawn onto your mask its time to get out your craft knife. Make sure the knife has a new sharp blade. Using a dull blade will cut harder and the cuts will be jagged and rough. When cutting, make slow careful cuts along the reference lines you just drew about 1/8th inch down. These cuts serve two purposes. One: once you start painting the mask you will lose any drawn on lines. Two: the groove created will give a spot for the puffy paint to stick to. 

After the cuts were made take your heat gun and lightly heat the cuts you just made. The foam should expand and turn those slices into "v" shaped grooves. This cool tip was one I picked up from WM Armory, This guy is a genius in foam armor construction. Click HERE for the link to his blog. 

I then gave my mask a coat of Mod Podge to prep for the painting process. 

I started painting with an experiment. I wanted to try out a crackle finish to give the mask some implied texture. To do this you need to base coat the mask in an accent color. This base layer is the one that shows through the cracks in the top layer of paint. I chose a darker gray, and went to town painting the whole mask. 

The next step in the crackle process is to coat the mask in a layer of Elmer's glue. A heavier coat will result in larger cracks, Likewise a thinner coat of glue will result in smaller cracks. Once the glue layer is "tacky" i.e. you can touch it and your finger sticks a little, its time to apply the top coat of paint. 

The top coat of acrylic paint will dry faster than the glue layer underneath; as a result cracks will appear in the surface of the paint. This gives the mask a very cool texture. 

I then started blocking out the colored sections of the mask. My method for painting is never painting anything one solid color. You can base coat in one color, but the layering of colors adds depth to color and gives it life. 

The red areas around the eyes were painted solid red and then darker shades of red and streaks of black were added the closer you get to the eye. This gives the eye a nice shadow that makes them pop. 

Close up of the eye detail. 

I also wasn't afraid of visible brush strokes. I liked how it kinda looked like flames. 

Also, don't worry about the seams between colored sections (talking about he area between the red and the black sections) these groove lines will get filled in with the puffy paint and make that seam look much better. Additionally, to tidy up the transition areas on the mask where there aren't cut grooves like the picture below I just took a paper towel and dabbed it in black paint and essentially dry brushed that seam. this blurred the line and made it look a bit more feathery instead of a hard line.

Once that's done, it's time to paint in the mouth area. 

I added a bit of shading using the same black as the top of the mask to the area underneath the nose. This was also a dry brushing application.  After that I gave the entire mask another coat of Mod Podge to seal in all the layers, 

After that layer dried I decided the "white" portions of the mask needed a bit more aging with a layer of yellow. I watered down the yellow and mixed in some mod podge to make a sort of glaze and daubed it on in the same way I did the black feathering with a paper towel. 

It is now time to apply the puffy paint to all of the grooves you cut, This is tricky and takes a bit of practice. However, because you sealed the layers underneath with Mod Podge; cleaning up mistakes with a damp paper towel is easy and doesn't cause any damage. 

It may be a no-brainer, but don't put any puffy paint in the mouth groove, the mouth is supposed to look like a crack.- Once the puffy paint is dry its time to paint on top of it. I used metallic gold acrylic paint. But if you have puffy paint that just happens to be the right color or a color you're happy with, feel free to skip this step. 

Now it's time to poke the holes for the twine stitches. I used a large nail. the foam and the layers of paint are easily punctured with the nail and makes a nice clean hole that is just the right size to push the twine through. This is the inside of the mask that shows how I knotted the stitching. 

I knotted the ends of the twine to keep it from slipping back through the holes made by the nail. Also, I used the nail to push the twine through the holes. if you have a more ingenuous method feel free to let me know. :D 

I haven't done this to my mask yet, but I think i'll end up gluing a piece of fabric or a slimmer piece of EVA foam to the inside of the mask to make it more friendly on your face. 

This is another picture of the finished product, 

If you liked this post, Please feel free to like/ follow/ share 

Forming a mask out of EVA foam

Greetings all.

I recently posted that I was interested in alternative methods and materials to make my Jack of Blades mask from. I believe I've found the answer. EVA foam comes in a variety of colors, thicknesses, and patterns. For the masks I purchased a few of the 1/2" mats that hook together like a puzzle. I also bought a heat gun because I have been wanting one for a long time and It gave me a reason to buy one. I started more as a test than anything to see if this method would work for this project. I have been researching how to form EVA foam from a variety of sources. However, this post will cover some of the helpful things I've learned through trial and error.

I took one of the test masks that I sculpted from clay (that were too heavy and fragile) and used that as a base to form the foam mask from.

I then cut out a large oval from the foam sheet' and started with the oven method. I was dissatisfied with using the oven for these reasons:

1. Using the oven takes too long. The instructions I read said to preheat your oven to 225 degrees Fahrenheit and leave it in the oven on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes before trying to form the foam.  
2. If you are using EVA foam with a textured pattern on one side the oven will make the foam curl while heating. I believe this happens because to make that textured pattern in the foam the companies use a heated roller and stamp into the foam. This changes the feel of the foam and as a result both sides take heat differently. 
3. Because you are sticking the entire piece of foam in the oven again and again to form it to your specifications; any forming you were able to accomplish before the foam cools is then undone because it gets reheated. 

With very little success this was the result after trying to form the mask using the oven method:

As you can see there are some very basic facial forms happening (which for some applications may be just what you need.) But I wanted more contoured shapes to match my research images. 

I then switched to using the heat gun method which I like much better. The heat gun seemed to do the trick. I was able to spot heat portions of the mask to form them individually. and over time the mask started to take the shapes that I wanted. I did find that you should heat the foam gradually with the heat gun by going back and forth over the surface of the foam. If you heat one spot the surface of the foam will burn even on the lowest setting of the heat gun. 

I want to be clear, I do NOT advise trying to form foam masks to your own face! I did try and use my face after a while to make sure the fit was okay, however, I did this only after the foam was cool enough not to burn me. 

On that note. using the oven and the heat gun can be dangerous and they are obviously hot; please execute caution when attempting anything like this. 

After using the heat gun I came up with something like this: 

I then decided that I needed to increase the contours in specific places to make it look even more face-like. I drew circle areas on the mask with a felt marker (no pens as they will leave dents int he surface of the foam.) Specific areas like the eyebrows and cheek bones and the chin needed extra attention in my mask. 

HELPFUL HINTS: 

I made the mistake of using pen to draw lines on the mask and this left a dent. I found out by accident that if you gently heat wrinkled or dented areas of the foam that the air in the foam heats up and expands to fill the gap. I don't know how well this works on deeper dents though. 

More progress posts to follow. But if you liked this post or any other posts of mine feel free to follow me here or on Twitter or Pinterest. Also if you have questions I'd be happy to answer them for you. 

DIY rotted barn wood props and scenery from pink insulation foam.

Again referencing my first post. I'm currently attending school for theatre design and production in hopes to one day to do set design for movies. Anyways, last semester my school hosted a guest artist by the name of Scott Gerwitz, a very talented painter/theatre artist that works out of Chicago. He taught a painting and texturing workshop for turning generic pink insulation foam into very detailed and realistic rotted barn wood props and scenery pieces. The display piece he made prior to teaching the class and brought in for us to see is here:

Corner piece simulating a dock pillar that had been exposed to weather. 

As you can see its simply textured and painted insulation foam. 

A close up view to show detail.

Want to learn how to do something like this? 

Things you'll need:

1. Rigid pink insulation foam.
2. Box cutter or sharp blade.
3. A metal bristle brush.
4. Jaxsan coating 
5. Wide disposable chip brush.
6. Small amount of water. 
7. Various colors of paint.

The process starts with a block of insulation foam. This pink foam can be found in most home improvement stores and usually comes in 4 x 8 foot sheets. Also, it's not always pink. there are blue, gray, and green varieties as well. I believe the only difference between them (if there is one) is the "R" value which is only important if you are actually using it for it's intended purpose.

As always, it helps to have reference images handy when you make anything. For this project it may help to have pictures of old barn wood to match paint colors and the overall texture of the wood. 

1. After you have cut the foam into the desired shape and size the next step is to carefully take a box cutter or another sharp blade and cut vertical lines down the entire length of the block into the surface of the foam about half an inch down. (it should be mentioned that you are trying to simulate an organic piece of nature, rarely do perfectly parallel vertical lines appear naturally.) With this in mind you may also try offset some of your cuts so that they intersect with previous cuts, something like this:

   

   Example of how to slice into your block if foam. 

   
   
2. After cutting the grooves into the surface of the foam, take your wire bristle brush and rake the surface of the foam on top of the cuts. This will scratch even smaller grooves into the foam and really make it look like a piece of wood. This step may take some time and is quite a work out as you have to push with a certain pressure to do the job. 
3. The next step is just as messy. Now you have to slather on a coat of Jaxsan. This is a water based product that gives structural strength to all sorts of materials. This stuff is gold because the possibilities of what can be done with it are endless. You need to make sure you get it into all of those little cracks and crevices.
4. After you've coated your block in Jaxsan, you need a brush of some kind (make sure you wet it in water before hand) and brush across the board over the Jaxsan layer. This step is to smooth it out. When you are satisfied with the result let it dry for a couple hours. You may also want to coat the ends and sides of your block as well. If you are interested in texturing the sides, use the same process as step 2. the ends can also get textured too. All I did for mine was stipple on some Jaxsan with a chip brush. you should have something that resembles this by the end of this step:

   

   It should look something like this by the end of step 3.

5. Time to paint. For my sample I mixed up a couple values of brown and watered them down quite a bit. Now the trick is simply layering the different colors on top of each other until you get the look you want. Now would be the time to pull out your research images if you have them; as they will go a long way in deciding what colors you need to mix in order to replicate the look you are going for. 
   
   
   

*** A couple words on cleanup. Please don't wash Jaxsan down the drain. Get a pail of water and get as much of the Jaxsan out of the bristles as you can before cleaning them out in the sink. Trust me, you do not want that stuff clogging up your drain pipes. Once the pail of clean up water has settled at the bottom; you can just pour the extra water in the sink and scrape the collected Jaxsan sediment into the trash. 

Jack of Blades Cosplay, so far.....

If you read the post "a little about me" I did yesterday, you'd know that I have a fascination with the Fable games; Specifically the first one which in my opinion (and many others) is the best. Jack is the main antagonist in that game.  As I stated before, if this is your artwork I'd like to know so I can give you credit.

Jack of Blades

So far, The only pieces of this costume that been created are the mask he wears on his face, the two masks he wears around his torso, the brooch, his sword, and the cape/hood. The masks were made out of clay that were sculpted on top of a plaster facial mold that was made from my own face. Unfortunately, being that the masks are made of clay, they are quite heavy. I'm currently looking into alternative methods and materials so that they can be remade much lighter. Also, because Jack of Blades isn't human, he doesn't require breathing..... but I do, haha So with the remake I'll have to come up with a way to make to be able to breath with the mask on. 

As you can see, breathing is problematic currently. I think what I'll end up doing is making the cracks that make up the "mouth" that are then wrapped in twine into actual holes so that I could breath out of my mouth. 

These are the rest of the pieces of his costume I've made so far:

Here's a close up of his brooch:

The brooch is made of polymer clay and painted and then jeweled. I believe when I made the brooch and all three of the masks actually that I coated the final product in a varnish type product as well. 

If you liked this post, there's more to come, please follow me :D And as always if you have any questions, feel free to ask. 

Throwback to last Halloween Splicer From Bioshock

Halloween 2014
Splicer from Bioshock


As always, when you're planning to build anything the first thing you should get (after inspiration of course) is plenty of research images. These can be obtained with a simple Google search. These images will help you when making design decisions like what colors to paint it, or what is the actual shape of the object?

Screen shot from Bioshock, obtained from Google

 As you will see, I didn't pay close enough attention to my research images. In the mask that I made, the ears are too close. However, you can also (instead of trying to replicate the item exactly) opt for a little originality and make it your own. Both options are good.

Pipe weapon is just sections of 1 3/4" PVC that has been painted to look like oxidized metal.

The painting process went something like this..... (sorry, I don't have any pictures for this bit, but it's pretty easy)

Usually when you're trying to paint on shiny plastic you'd want to rough up the surface with some sand paper to give the paint something to stick to. I went a different route and decided to seal the final paint job with a water based sealant like Mod Podge. The steps for painting a metallic surface starts out with a metallic acrylic paint. I just happened to have a bronze/copper color on hand so that's what I used. I think in the game it would be more like an iron or lead pipe, but meh :) . I applied several layers with a foam brush making sure I applied the paint in circular motions around the pipe instead of lengthwise down the pipe. this helped give the illusion that the pipe had a brushed metal look to it.
something like this:

I do not own this image, I got it from a Google search.

After those paint layers dry, you could stop there and seal it with a water based sealant. I elected to make my new metal pipe look corroded and nasty instead. I did this by dry brushing a teal green color around the ends of the pipe and where the pipe connected to the fitting on the other end; and I think it made it look cooler. 

The Splicer mask is constructed out of the generic white plastic masks you can get from any craft store and cut to the bottom of the nose exposing the mouth portion. Once cut, the masks "bunny" features are filled in with air dry clay); this includes the cheek portions of the mask and the raised eyebrows. Once the clay is dry,

I used paper mache to get one solid shell over the entire mask. The ears of the mask are just cut out pieces of EVA craft foam that were had the same paper mache treatment. once the paper mache layer on the mask and the ears are dry I used hot glue to combine the two pieces. I also ended up doing a little paper mache over the seams where the mask met the ears to disguise them a bit better.

 then the mask is painted white. Then painted gold details are added around the edges of the mask are done.

 Over those two layers is added a dry brush of black to simulate aging. After the aging layer is added, a watered down red spatter layer is applied directly on top. This is of course to look like you've been doing what splicers do best in Rapture for a while. ;)

The only step left is to attach some ribbon straps to the sides of the mask with some hot glue and tie it around your head and you're ready to go!

A little about me.

I figured I'd give a bit of information on myself. For starters, I am a college student attending WMU for theatre tech. and design. My focus is scenic design, and it's been a dream of mine to design set for movies as well. but I also have a passion for costuming too. It wasn't until recently (the last couple years) that I found cosplay. Prior to finding out that this was a thing; I thought wearing a costume was only for Halloween. However, the concept of either making or buying a costume that emulates your favorite video game or movie character just for fun really appealed to me.

Stepping back in time a few years.... The year is 2010, me a fresh high school graduate attending a smaller private college for interior design. I've always had an eye for color and a style for things that made your home look nicer and reflect your aesthetic. And after three years I'd have my associates degree. Jump ahead three years and you'll find me faced with a dilemma. I had no desire to decorate old ladies houses for a commission for the rest of my life. What then can I do to apply what I've learned in this three years of schooling that I can do for money (that was the kicker for my parents.) The answer came to me when the SYFY channel had a one season long spin off of their hit show Heroes of Cosplay, called Hot Set.

It was that night after watching the first episode of Hot Set that it dawned on me that movies needed somebody with the knowledge base that I'd acquired at my small private college. My eyes were opened to a whole new world of possibilities. Jump forward in time another two years. Same me, but with a much greater understanding of what it means to follow your passions and working in a field that you love.

Speaking of which. That old wives tale that goes something like "if you do what you love you'll never work a day in your life" is totally bogus. Yes you may like what you do, but by mom always says work is just another four letter word; and I think we all know some other four letter words.... don't we? haha

Anyways, I've got two more years to go until I graduate with my BFA, and I still haven't decided what my plans are after that. My options are finding another internship, trying to find employment, or looking at grad schools. The latter of the three options is a scary concept as I will have been in college for as long as most doctors and cannot dream of making that kind of money to start out with. So there is risk involved, but hey, when isn't there, right?

Back to cosplay. I have never cosplayed before, however, I am currently working on three costumes. And as the trouble with most creative types; the inspiration doesn't take sick days. As a result, I get new ideas for cool costumes to make (always make if you have the skills) daily. Unfortunately, going to school and working at jobs you hate is still a thing. Finding time to do it all is frustrating sometimes, as many of us with time consuming hobbies can attest.

My current projects include a cool Victorian driving coat that my mom and I started the Summer before I started at WMU. It is yet unfinished, but I love that thing mostly because as we grow older (for those of us who have good relationships with our parents) you start to cherish the time you can spend together. Especially so for me because the my future living arrangements are so up in the air because I don't know where i'll be in two years time with work or school.

In addition to the Victorian driving coat, I'm about half way done with my Jack of blades costume. For those who don't know, Jack of Blades is the main antagonist from the first Fable game that came out for the original Xbox; as well as Fable anniversary.

I do not own this image I obtained it from a Google search. If this is your image and would like it properly notified I would like to give you credit and to congratulate you on your amazing artwork. :D