Tweedle-dum to Thresh! Mask making and painting

lawsoffire
Nov 19, 2015
3 min read

Masks are pretty common in the costume world. That being said, it's highly unlikely you're going to find the perfect one for your character unless you're going as Batman. So we've got to get creative. This tutorial will show you how I did it for my Thresh cosplay.

MATERIALS:

- $2 mask

- Newspaper

- Masking Tape

- Gesso

- Toilet paper (!!)

- Leftover expanding foam (optional)

- Acrylic paints

- Craft knife

- Hot glue gun, glue.

I started out with a gormless, plain mask like this:

Doesn't even have a nose!

Mine was like the one on the left. I found it by chance at a dollar store.

Next, I drew some rough, Thresh-shaped features on it (this mask was for the head by the way -- not his hip skull, which I'll get to later). Unfortunately I forgot to take a pic at that stage, but you can pretty much see it all in the image below as I simply cut the bottom off, carving away just under the cheek bones. I also widened and slanted the eyes (it's LADY Thresh, remember) and mangled the nose. I made slits at the bottom left and right corner of the nose as well, which will enable it to fold down flat once we go nuts with the duct tape.

After this I got out my masking tape and started cleaning up the edges to prepare for the paper mache. I also cut another big slit down the centre of the forehead then overlapped and taped it, to make it concave. This is what it looked like after I'd taped down the nose/forehead down etc:

Look at dem eyes!

Anyway, while it's already a far cry from our gormless full face mask above, it's also still a far cry from Thresh. I had some leftover expanding foam that I carved for this part, but you could use any carved foam, or even cut out the tubes of a toilet roll to make the trihorn design of his head. Anything is possible, friends.

I had already done one layer of papermache to see if I could build it up by papermache alone, but that was essentially timewasting to be honest, so I haven't added it in this tutorial. I cut 3 horn shapes out of the foam and stuck them onto the mask with hot glue. To make the skeletal shape of the mask more prominant, I added a thin sliver of foam to each of the cheekbones. You could build this up using extra bit of cardboard, foam, or anything you happen to have handy.

I covered it in masking tape so that the paper mache would adhere better, once with regular newspaper/watery glue mix. For the glue -- I literally use one part PVA glue with 8 parts water, but there's a wide range of adhesives you can use -- even flour and water works really well.

The second layer I did was a bit different -- I used toilet paper and gesso to papermache. I absolutely love this technique -- it melds into a beautiful, forgiving plaster that doesn't crack!

I didn't take a photo of this step, but it's fairly simple. Take some toilet paper and separate the sheets so that they are super thin, then rip them to regular paper mache size (will depend on size of your item). Paint a layer of gesso on your mask, and then place the piece of toilet paper on top. Gentle pat the toilet paper into place with a gesso wet brush.

Voila! A beautiful finish that was super cheap and easy. I found my gesso at Geoff's Emporium in Auckland, for about $4 - it doesn't have to be expensive art supplies.

I used the same technique for my hip skull as well, but cut the jaw and extended it down to create the ghoulish grin. Here's a progress shot of it:

You can see where I've reattached the jaw, adding some more cardboard on the sides to lengthen. Same process was used with foam to bulk out the cheek bones, and then I went in with newspaper and eventually gesso and toilet paper for a smooth finish.

Finally painting time! I recommend black acrylic, and handpainted, just because of the texture. If you decide to use spray paint make sure it's not a high gloss one, or it will highlight any bumps in the mask.

Finally, some highlights on the cheeks and horns, and you're done. Tutorial on the rest of the headress, and the horns for the hip piece, coming soon.

Archai xx