It's been a tough journey as my first two attempts failed miserably. I started off trying Monster Clay which is an oil-base clay, however the first try at molding failed as the plaster stuck to the armature thus leaving me no choice but to crack the plaster off with a hammer. I saved the sculpt and tried again, however Plaster-of-Paris is NOT recommended as it is very weak and breaks apart with little effort.
I ended up having to scrap that first sculpt and I went back and re-watched and studied a ton of tutorials and videos online. I ended up picking up some water-based clay and starting over. The initial sculpting process went by extremely quickly, since water-based clay is VERY forgiving and can be shaped and smoothed extremely easily. I had a lot of fun with this new sculpt.
So now after having dealt with catastrophic failures with the first two attempts, I took this third attempt VERY slowly. I did not let the clay dry very much and I coated it with multiple thin layers of a glossy purple Krylon MAXX spray paint. I coated the eye sockets and undercuts around the sculpt with vasoline for extra caution. I also made sure to pick up a large bag of Pottery Plaster for this time. For most pro mask makers Ultra-Cal or Hydro-Cal are recommended as it hardens to a near cement-like hardness. However for the few mask pulls I was planning on doing I knew that Pottery Plaster would work just fine. It's stronger than Plaster-of-Paris and works just as well as Hydro-Cal (in my opinion). I made two seperate batches of plaster which allowed me to get a nice thick mold. I let the mold dry for several hours and then it was the moment of truth. I chipped off the excess plaster around the base of the armature to loosen it up and with VERY Little effort I was able to pull the mold right off the sculpt, minus a few chunks left behind. What a relief! Cleaning out bits of clay in the mold is nothing compared to having to start all over from scratch!
In the photo above I am using Monster Makers brand latex paint through a Master airbrush that I found in my tool kit from awhile ago. Works great!
Anyways, I apologize for the long-winded post but I am just really excited about the progress I've made with this mask and the many things I learned during the process!
