thehappymaskshop

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Regular Show - High Five Ghost Costume

For this year's NY Comic Con I went as High Five Ghost from Regular Show. My goodness did I get a lot of high fives. Glorious high fives.

Check out the tutorial here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Regular-Shows-High-Five-Ghost-Costume/

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Old mask, but finally got around to taking nicer photos of it. The old ones were just unpleasant.

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Another tip of the hat to the Batman universe. This mask was inspired by Poison Ivy.

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Oh hello, DC. Is that you again? New Catwoman mask. Inspired by the Tim Burton version for the sake of stitches, dammit.

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An oldie, but a fun one. Far more minimal than the in game version, but I liked the blank expression that the plain, gritty white gave off.

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Oh, lookie here, a two for one special. To make up for in inactivity, here's another for today. A simple Batgirl mask.

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This leather mask is based off the Executioner from Alice: Madness Returns.

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Blighted Beak Mask Tutorial - Team Fortress 2

The lovely Blighted Beak mask for the medic. Due to my odd obsession with plague doctors I am surprised this didn't come up sooner. Alright, kiddies, allons-y.

Here's what you'll need:

- Leather (Varying thicknesses. Don't know the technical measurements, so check the pics. Used a somewhat thick stuff for most of the mask, then a little bit of thin material for ze "goggles")

- Leather scissors or just some strong scissors

- x-acto

- Leather hole punch

- a "gold" buckle (mine was probably smaller than what's in the game version, so size is up to you)

- Rivets

- Clear acrylic plastic (I bought a cheap acrylic frame from michael's)

- Acrylic paint: White and burnt umber(or whatever sort of brown strikes your fancy)

- Super glue (My trusty solution for everything. Super glue all your problems away)

Draw out your main mask piece on paper. Should look something like this. Make your eyes perfect circles.

Trace onto thicker leather. Cut out. Soak in water and shape it into the correct shape. Use your face to get the face right. The beak can take a while. Just keep at it.

Try to keep the eye holes as circular as possible. They tend to get deformed at this stage.

Let dry until hard. Paint white. I did a light wash of burnt umber to give it an aged look.

Paint tip of beak with burnt umber like sooo.

Cut out two strips of the thin leather. Paint brown.

Fit into each eye socket. Unless you're a pro or bothered to measure like I did not, it probably will overlap itself.

So keep trimming until it fits. Super glue into place.

Cut out two circles from the acrylic. I used sand paper on mine to give it that frosted look. Would not recommend this if you'd like to see out of it. If you like having eyes, just leave clear.

Super glue into eyes. You may need to trim the edges to make them fit.

Cut out two leather strips. The width should be based on how big your buckle is. The length should be based on how gigantic your noggin is. One should be shorter than the other, so that the buckle appears on the side of the head.

Cut slit into end of short piece.

I stupidly did not paint my strip brown before this step. I recommend that you do. Then super glue your leather together to keep buckle in place. If you're feeling fancy you can use a rivet. But I hate rivets and rivets hate me.

On your long strip round one end.

Cut out two leather pieces in this shape. Hole punch two holes like so.

Fit rivets into holes. Once again I can't install rivets for crap, so I superglued mine in. >_> Then super glue your short piece to one of these after they're all painted.

For the long piece punch some holes into the end so you can tighten and loosen the mask. Then paint it. Then superglue it to your other riveted piece.

Super glue a rivet piece to each side of mask like so.

And you are done, you fabulous German bastard.

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Bioshock's Sander Cohen mask. Made upon request from a customer. Crafted out of leather.

Sorry for the long delay. And after all that time, not even a tutorial to show for it. A Skyrim Dragonborn Helm tutorial is in the works. Promise.

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Creeper Inspired Leather Mask - Minecraft

Non-tutorial round. Plan on making a GOOD tutorial for an accurate creeper mask. Here is me mocking the shitty failed Creeper head. That tutorial shall never see the light of day for obvious reasons.

So here's a quick showcase to hold ya over until the next tut. May be longer stretches in between thanks to lack of funds and increased complexity. I'm thinking Bioshock or Skyrim for the next round, chaps and chappesses. Thanks for looking.

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Harley Quinn Mask Tutorial - Arkham Asylum

Ok, so this week was SUPPOSE to be a Creeper mask tutorial. HOWEVER, after many hours of tedious measuring, taping, more taping, and painting, it turned out like an ugly mo fo(not in a good way). I put a boot through its ugly mo fo face and threw this last minute tut together. Loved Arkham Asylum, and just played Arkham City. So time to show some Harley Quinn love.

Here's what you'll need:

- 8 oz leather

- leather scissors(or just some powerful ones)

- x-acto

- pen

- scrap paper

- black acyrlic paint

CONTINUE THE TUTORIAL:

Draw out your mask piece onto paper.

.

Fold down center then cut out with scissors. Use x-acto for eyes.

Unfold. Ooh and aah.

Trace out onto leather. Then cut out using leather scissors and again use the x-acto for the eyes.

Soak leather in water until all bendy and such.

Use your face as a mold and press the leather against it. Meld it to your face shape, making sure to line up the eyes correctly. The most important part here is to get the arch of your nose between your eyes correct.

Once you can take it away without it losing shape let is sit until completely dry. 

Paint both sides black.

And you're done. No straps on this one so you'll need spirit gum or double sided tape to keep it on. I used masking tape hence why mine is hanging all lopsided. PS. If you hate doing crafts, have too little time, or just like feeding me feel free to buy one of these from my shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/86621002/harley-quinn-leather-mask

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Bonk Boy Mask Tutorial - Team Fortress 2

I know I'm going to have a field day with the masks from Valve's Team Fortress 2. Thankfully I don't make hat tutorials or I would never escape. So here's a Bonk Boy mask for Scout (a class that I suck terribly at, mind you). Probably the first "clean" looking mask I've ever made.

Here's what you'll need:

- Cintra PVC foamboard(3mm thick)

- Paper Clay(not pictured)

- Hot glue gun

- Metallic paint (I used Folk Art Metallic Bright Red, Folk Art Metallic Silver Sterling, and Folk Art Metallic Inca Gold)

- Sand paper (Medium)

- X-acto blade

- Scrap paper and board

- Cheap plain mask or mold (Optional - I found it made shaping the cintra MUCH easier)

- Elastic band

CONTINUE THE TUTORIAL:

Draw out your main mask piece on paper. Make it long enough to cover your ears. Make perfect circles where your ears will be. Fold and then cut for symmetry.

Trace it out on the cintra.  Also draw out 8 larger circles(same size as the ends of your main mask piece) and 4 smaller circles. Cut everything out with the x-acto blade.

Glue 4 large circles together like so. Do the same with the other 4. Save for later. Now glue 2 small circles together, and again with the other 2.

Boil your main mask piece. This part can be tricky. Hence why I used the craft mask.

Once malleable press your cintra onto the mask form. This may take a few goes to get it right. If you get one part just right, try then boiling only the parts you want to fix.

Once cool make sure it fits your face well. If not keep on boiling and bending. IMPORTANT: Make sure the parts covering your ears are completely flat surfaces. If not the circle stacks wont fit on them correctly. I learned this the hard way.

Smear paper clay along the ends of all your circle stacks to hide the lines. Let dry.

Sand down your paper clay until your stacks each look like one, smooth, mechanical piece. Glue small stacks into centers of large stacks.

Make another paper pattern for the wings. Make sure the circular parts are the same size and shape as your SMALL circles. Trace onto cintra and cut out.

Paint your babies all pretty like.

Paint the radioactive symbol onto your smaller circles. I did mine by hand, but if you're a stickler for precision you can always make a mini pattern.

Once everything is dry, glue cylinders onto the ends of your mask. And glue your wings onto the cylinders. In whatever order.

Glue on your elastic. Having it this tight works since the mask reaches so far back.

Go beat up some freakin' morons.

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Skull Mask Tutorial - Legend of Zelda

                                  For my very first mask tutorial I felt it was appropriate to create a mask from the very shop I shamelessly ripped off when naming and designing this tumblr: The Happy Mask Shop from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

                           Here's what you'll need:

- Cintra PVC foamboard(3mm thick)

- Paper Clay

- Hot glue gun

- Acyrlic paint - white and burnt umber

- Sand paper (Medium)

- Scissor, X-acto blade, and a mark making tool(I ended up using a looped clay tool)

- Scrap paper and board

- Elastic band

CONTINUE THIS TUTORIAL:

First draw out your cartoony skull shape on paper. It's not really necessary to draw the whole thing out at this point. Just make sure you are happy with one half. Mark a line in exactly the middle.

Fold along this line and cut out your pattern. Use an x-acto blade for the eyes. 

Unfold. Enjoy the purtifulness.

Use your pattern to trace out your design onto the cintra.

X-acto that sucker out and voila. Also cut out the teeth separately.

Roughly bevel the edges with the x-acto blade. Sloppiness works for this mask. Gives it a damaged and aged look.

Also use the blade to cut out chunks from the surface. Use sandpaper to round out any jagged edges. Continue to rough it up with whatever mark making tools you have.

Use your board or cardstock to cut out two identical horn-like doodad thingies. Save for later.

Boil some water. Preferably bigger than this, so you can actually FIT your mask inside. Place your cintra into the pot until malleable.

Remove it quickly and try not to burn your hands off. Curve the mask by hand. Be quick, since it hardens soon after leaving the heat. If you don't like the shape, throw it back into the water and try again.

Reattach the teeth by hot gluing it from the back. To hide all the ugly bits.

Hot glue your board horns to the mask. Make sure they are bent out like so.

Bulk up the horns with paper clay. Blend the horns into the cintra as best you can. They get heavy so you will need to prop them up while they dry. Once completely dry sand down the surface. Leave it somewhat rough though.

Paint a base coat of white paint over your entire mask(even if your cintra is white). Once dried go over with a very watered down coat of burnt umber. Let sit for a bit and then use some fabric to dab some texture into the browns.

Hot glue the elastic band to the back of your mask. I made mine pretty tight. You might want to make your elastic a bit longer.

Now go be a classy mo fo.