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Homework - Lindsay Reddick
Homework for live workshop student Lindsay Reddick
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Homework for live workshop student Lindsay Reddick
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Hey, I’m excited for the class. One of the first videos I watched when I became a subscriber was Part 1 and 2. I was really fascinated by Bruce D. Mitchell’s masks and wanted to make something similar myself. I remember sketching out a plague doctor mask I was planning to sculpt at the time though when this came up a much better idea came to mind.
I’ve had a little experience with mask making in the past though this’ll be the first one that I didn’t have to mold first, hot glue or end up covering in faux fur.
I did unfortunately get to a late start on my mask base. I’ve been recovering from complications related to a high ankle sprain and haven’t been able to get to my workshop until this week. I’ve had a sketch ready and I’ve been doing my best to make up for lost time.
My goal for the workshop is to build a dynamic mask of a gargoyle/gremlin creature by adding goggles, removable ears and horns to the base. I'd also like to develop skills I can work into other projects.
Though one of my long term goals for the finished mask itself, is to have it where I can wear it at Anthrocon 2017, and show a generous friend and fan of mine what he allowed me to create.
I was inspired heavily by the masks in the trailer and Miss Monster’s masks, as well as a number of gargoyle statues.
All day today I’ve been sculpting the base in clay and starting on covering it in epoxy. Having had gathered reference images and sketched it out months ago I was able to get started right away. Reviewing part 1 while I worked. Feels weird not having to make allowance for tear duct vision on a mask.
Since I don’t have the time to do any tooling before the class starts, I figured I would get it as far along as I can and tool it as I go. Working on the base, the goggles, horns and ears as I go.
For the character I have been thinking it’d be an ancient stone battle worn gargoyle that had been brought to life as a guardian. Through the centuries he’s adapted but, still continued his duties
My only major concern is I feel like I need to stuff them since the foam is so thin. All I have left is to hit them with a heat gun one last time, seal, fill the inside with something both for support and to hold the magnets and to paint them. I don't think these horns came out too bad considering it was my first time working with eva foam in this way.
The goggles were a bit trickier. Originally having had planned to use some lenses from a set of sunglasses that suffered death by my grandmother's crockpot I unfortunately couldn't find but one lens. Ended up buying a set of aviators and spending some time figuring how I was going to break them out. Eventually got them cut to size and I blocked out the eye sockets with clay.
I ended up having to rework the sculpt a few times but, I soon found a look I liked. For cutting the lenses I ended up deciding to use my dreamer's barrel sander bit instead of the cutting wheel I had bought since I didn't want to take any chances and it be the wrong bit and I wanted the control that came with it.
After around 3 bouts with it I finally got them cut to size and the sculpt went a lot smoother from there as did the sculpt when I added the epoxy in.
I'm planning to start work on the ears next though the size and shape of them made me want to do a little research before jumping right into them. I feel like they might need a armature of sorts to reduce weight and have a more sturdy structure.
I figured this was a good point to get to for this week.
Made the start of a set of ears and got the chance to play with my heat gun for a bit more. Though I'm going to take Bruce's suggestion and go with freeform and I'll save the eva ears for a future project.
Taking a moment to assess my goggles I added a bit more of magic sculpt to give a flange to attach the magnets into on the goggles and just finishing the edges on the mask itself. After that I pried the mask off the mannequin as did the clay... After digging out enough clay I was able to pop the goggles off. I'm happy to say they popped right off after I got enough clay removed from them. Guess I used enough vaseline afterall.
My magnets arrived yesterday evening so I will install them today some time though I did get the holes drilled. though the piece did chip a bit during drilling since it was a bit too thin but, I'm not too worried. I might incorporate it into the design a bit. Now I guess I'll go and continue scraping monster clay out of the nooks and crannies of my mask and goggles, do some patch work on the base and do some texturing.
Speaking of freeform air, that was interesting. It was every different to work with, so soft and snow like I had trouble getting it to do what I wanted especially with trying to get symmetry on the ears. Though I did my best and used magic sculpt to fix the discrepancies. I also sculpted teeth in magic sculpt but, haven't had the time to finish them due to our temperatures dropping.
Dremeling the mask itself went pretty well overall though it was pretty nerve racking around the lenses I won't lie. Though luckily it went well.
Overall I was pretty happy with it especially the ears.
So I decided to give it a wash with a dark blue paint, later I'm thinking of going back and breaking it up a bit with some browns though for the sake of time I went over it with black, putting a bunch on and wiping it off.
To dress it up further I also decided to take some of the leather meant for the straps and attach them to kinda mimic hair in a sense. I have intentions to add more later as well and paint them but, so far I think it works alright. It was nice to do leatherwork for the first time. Overall this project's had a lot of first for me, first time working with eva foam, first time working with magic sculpt and free form air, first with leather working. It was a lot of fun and a good challenge I can't wait to make more masks like this in the future and I'm anxious to finish this one up completely.
Thank you Bruce for being a awesome teacher and thank you to SWSCA for allowing me this opportunity