Gruesome severed heads

A while ago, I got two styrofoam heads from a friend. He didn't need them, and he was sure I could find a good use for them. He was right! I turned these two boring heads into gruesome mutilated severed heads.

Materials

• Styrofoam heads
• Air drying clay
• Wood glue
• Acrylic paint and gesso
• Acrylic caulk 
• Matte varnish
• Super glue
• Toothpicks
• Steel wire
• Screws and hooks
• Chains
• Hobby knife
• Cheap synthetic sponges
• Wood burning tool

Getting started
The first thing I did was cut the heads up a bit. On one head, I made large holes where the eyes are (empty eye sockets), removed the lower jaw and reattached it with the mouth open. I cut away a lot of foam, put it back on the head with a few toothpicks and then filled all the gaps with acrylic caulk. Very important, use acrylic caulk and not silicone! Silicone can't be painted. For the other head, I just cut away the lower jaw; it will hang below the head on chains.

Next, I sculpted lips, ears, a nose and lots and lots of cuts. For the first head, I made a few large holes that look like they have been ripped open (I used a wood burning tool for that), and sculpted smooth edges around them with air drying clay. I wanted to make it look like the mouth had been ripped open and then sewn shut with steel wire, so I made holes and grooves in the clay where the wires were going to be.
On the second head, I put clay all over the eyes and made a few long gashes that went over the eye sockets, so it looks like the eyes have been removed and the holes sewn shut.

 

The next step took a long time. I had to find a way to hide the styrofoam texture, and to make sure all the clay would stay on. For this, I primed the heads with wood glue. About five layers, I think. I mixed a bit of acrylic paint in the glue so I could see if I missed a spot. And on the neck, where the head would have been cut off, I put on a thick layer of caulk and gave it an irregular, organic texture. When I was satisfied, I first painted a layer of wood glue mixed with acrylic gesso over it, followed by a layer of pure gesso. After that, I was ready for painting!

 

Painting
Painting these heads basically came down to putting down a lot of layers. I started with a base coat of raw sienna from a spray can. It's the same color I used for my bloody torso, and makes a perfect basic flesh tone.
After the base coat, I applied a wash of burnt umber. If this is your first visit here, a wash means you paint the entire surface with a very diluted paint mixture, and then wipe most of it away again, so the paint only stays in ridges and crevaces.

 
I also painted the lips, and some shading around the eyes, nose, ears and mouth. I used various shades of flesh tone, ochre and brown to break up the monotonous base color. This is for the most part a trial and error process, you just have to see for yourself how it turns out.

 
And, of course, blood. Lots and lots of blood. For this, I use carmine with a little bit of burnt umber. This results in a dark, brownish red, resembling dried up blood. I painted the eye sockets, mouth and all the wounds with this.
The most elaborate painting, however, was the bruising around the wounds. Like the shading, this is a trial and error process. I put some dark blue, purple, ochre and black on my palette and lightly dabbed thing layers of paint around all the wounds. This is a slow process, you don't want to use too much paint at once here or you'll ruin it.
At this time, I applied a clearcoat of matte varnish. I wanted the "skin" to look dull; more blood will be applied over the matte clearcoat, and because of the more glossy look of acrylic paint, it will look more like fresh blood.

Metal and more blood
I'm going to add lots and lots more blood later, but first, all the steel wire, screws and hooks are added. I carefully drilled through the outer shell of wood glue and stuck the wires and screws through. I dripped a bit of super glue on each hole, to keep the wires in place, and then fixed the cracks in the shell with a bit of acrylic caulk. No matter how careful I was, I managed to damage it in a few places, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

 

And finally, you guessed it, the blood! I simply dripped diluted paint on the wounds and let gravity do its job, letting the blood drip down the face. And to finish, some blood splatters! This was done by dipping a stiff paintbrush in the paint, and then flicking the paint onto the head; this is a common technique to create splatter effects.

Finishing
After the paint had dried, I attached some thin chains to the hooks I put in the heads. One head is just hanging from the chains, the other one has the detached jaw hanging below it. My wife already said I'm a sick, twisted person. Well... she knew what she was getting into when she married me! Too bad I didn't manage to finish these in time for Halloween this year.

 

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About cosplay and freaks

Last weekend, I went to Facts Convention in Gent, Belgium, with my wife. I bought some Back To The Future stuff, she bought some Nightmare Before Christmas stuff and I got to meet Sean Astin.
The next day, an article about Facts was published in De Morgen, a newspaper that's considered one of Belgium's top newspapers. It made a lot of people angry. The author described cosplayers as "freaks" and "nerds", and generally mocked and made fun of the visitors.
I usually don't go to conventions in costumes, simply because the halls are too crowded and hot. I save the costumes for outdoor conventions, where I can carry around huge props. However, I can perfectly understand the outrage this article caused.
Most outsiders consider cosplay something childish, and I have had to endure my share of stupid jokes about my hobby. When you dress up as a character from movies, comics or games, or like to participate in haunts and scare the crap out of visitors, outsiders look at you as if you're someone who refuses to grow up.
However, when you wear shirts of your favourite football team, paint your face in the team's colors, collect sports memorabilia and watch games as if your life depends on it, you're considered a "devoted fan"? I personally don't give a rats ass about football. Even when the Belgian national team would play the world championship finals, I wouldn't watch the game and I still wouldn't give a single fuck.
I don't look down on people who watch football, though. Everyone has his hobbies and interests, and it's not because I don't give a crap about something that I think less of someone who doesn't feel the same way about it.

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Skull Mask

A while ago, I made a cast of my face with the help of my wife and a friend. And here's the project I needed this cast for: my skull mask! It's inspired by Will Morgan's Necromancer mask, and will be part of my costume for this year's Elf Fantasy Fair.

Materials

• Face cast (see this Youtube video for a making-of)
• Fimo Air ultra light clay
• Oil based clay
• Sculpting tools
• Wood glue
• Super glue
• Acrylic gesso
• Acrylic paints
• Matte varnish
• Fabric scraps
• Elastic bands (the type you use in clothing, not rubber bands)

Sculpting
I first covered the face cast with a thin layer of oil based clay. I didn't want the mask to fit too tight, especially because I wanted to cover the inside with some fabric to make it a bit more comfortable to wear. Especially around the eyes I needed enough space for my eyelids. I did mark the exact location of the eyes, to make sure I can see through them properly.

I used Fimo Air ultra light to sculpt the mask. In Will Morgan's tutorial, he first sculpts the mask in clay, then he makes a silicone mold and casts it in urethane resin. This was a bit too advanced for my skill level, so I just use the mask I sculpted. Because the clay is very light, I can easily wear the mask for an entire day without getting cramps in my neck.

There aren't much pictures of the sculpting process, because my hands were full of clay and I didn't want to get clay all over the camera. Not really much to say about it. I'm not exceptionally skilled at sculpting, but it turned out quite ok.
The clay took quite a while to dry. It was still on the face cast, so it could only dry at the front. After five days, it had dried enough to take it off the cast so it could fully dry, and after a week it was done.


Painting
Unfortunately, there were a few cracks in the clay. To fix this, I brushed a few layers of wood glue over the mask. This filled in all the cracks and made it a lot stronger. To prepare it for painting, I first painted it with a mixture of wood glue and acrylic gesso, followed by a coat of pure gesso.

I used two colors for painting. I started with several washes of yellow ochre for the base color. First a very light wash all over the mask, followed by a bit darker around the eyes, teeth and in the deeper ridges. Next, a bit of burnt umber to make the eyes and teeth pop out a bit more.

 

To finish it, I sprayed two coats of matte varnish over the mask.

Finishing
Before glueing fabric on the inside of the mask, I first attached two loops made of elastic band to the sides, so I can loop another piece of elastic band through it to keep the mask of my face. These are glued in place using super glue.

After that, I glued two layers of fabric on the inside. First, a piece of felt. I didn't cut it to size first, I glued the entire piece on and then cut off any excess. Next, a piece of scrap fabric from an old black T-shirt. I did this because the felt gave off a lot of loose fibres, and the T-shirt fabric by itself would still feel quite hard. By combining the two, it's a lot softer but without all the loose fibres.

I have tried the mask on and it fits perfectly. To put it on, I simply loop a piece of elastic band through the two loops, around my head. To conceal the rest of my face, I will wear a black morph mask underneath it.

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Voodoo Hat

For the next Elf Fantasy Fair, my wife and me are making voodoo themed costumes. Here's a cool hat I made!

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Face casting

In a few months, it's time for Elf Fantasy Fair again! The costume I have in mind requires a mask. More specifically, a rigid, skull-shaped mask. To make sure it fits comfortably on my head, I made a cast of my face, wich I will use for sculpting the mask on.
Making a face cast isn't that easy. You can't do it by yourself, so I called in some help. My wife, her mom and stepdad and one of our friends were glad to help me. And we got the entire process on video!

Materials
To make a cast of a body part, you can use either silicone or alginate. Alginate is much cheaper than silicone, but an alginate mold dries out quickly and isn't permanent. Immediately after molding, you have to make a plaster cast, before the mold dries out, and after that, it's thrown away. So, here's the stuff you need:

• Alginate (I used Smooth On Alja Safe Acrobat, a fibre reinforced alginate)
• Plaster bandages
• Vaseline
• Gloves
• Plaster
• Clay

Alginate is a powder derived from seaweed. It's mixed with water to make a slurry that sets into a rubbery consistency. Pure alginate is quite runny and not easy to use for making a cast of a face, the fibre reinforced type I used is designed especially for use on vertical surfaces.

Preparations
The first thing I did was drawing an outline for the alginate on my face using a sharpie, and then I greased up my entire face using vaseline. Alginate releases from skin quite easily, but eyebrows or other facial hair need to be protected or you risk getting the alginate stuck to your face. I have a short beard, wich wasn't really a problem. A swimming cap is very useful to protect your hair, but since I'm bald that wasn't needed!
Before we mixed a batch of alginate, we cut a roll of plaster bandage into 30 cm strips so everything was ready. Keep in mind to wear clothes that you don't mind getting dirty (they will no matter how careful you are)! I used a large trash bag with some holes cut in it to protect my clothes.
And one very important thing: make sure you have a comfortable chair! I sat on a regular chair, and I had to tilt my head back the entire time. Towards the end, my neck started to hurt quite a bit! Some sort of beach chair would have been a lot better.

The procedure
First, your entire face except your nostrils is covered in alginate. The powder is mixed at a one to one ratio by volume with water. As soon as it's mixed, the clock starts ticking! The Alja Safe Acrobat sets very fast, it starts thickening after five minutes. I had mixed way too much, and we had to throw some away. It's better to mix up small batches.
The most challenging part is the nose, because the nostrils have to be kept open so you can breathe. Don't put straws up your nose, that's way too uncomfortable. I used the back of a sharpie to block one nostril at a time while my crew was putting cold goo on my face.
After the alginate has set, it needs to be reinforced. Alginate by itself is very flexible and tears easily, so it needs a support shell. This is easily done using plaster bandages. Simply dip them in water, and build up a plaster shell over the alginate. It takes about fifteen minutes for these to fully harden, after wich the mold can be removed.


Finishing
After the plaster has hardened, it's time to remove the mold from your face. Some tutorials tell you to remove the plaster and alginate separately, other recommend removing them together. I removed them together so the alginate was supported all the time.
We carefully peeled the edges off my face first, while I used my facial muscles to slowly loosen it from the inside. Take your time for this, you don't want to damage the mold! It works best if you tilt your head forward, support the plaster shell with one hand and use the other to get the mold off your face.
After removing the mold, you first have to plug the nostrils with some clay, and then immediately pour plaster in it. An alginate mold isn't permanent and dries out quite fast. I used Ultracal 30, a mixture of plaster and cement that's very strong and durable. This stuff sets slowly, so you don't have to rush things. At first, I was afraid I didn't mix it right because it took so long to set. It took an hour before it started to thicken, and the next morning, it had set.
After the plaster has set, you remove the alginate and plaster bandage; they can be thrown away now. The plaster casting probably needs some cleaning up around the nose. In my case, there were some minor flaws around my mouth. Because we underestimated how fast the alginate set, we had to tear off a piece and start over again, but it's not really a problem.

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Book cover ornaments

I've this isn't the first time you stumbled upon my blog, you know I have made a few customized sketchbooks. I've got this cool technique to make imitation leather, that's both a lot cheaper and easier than using real leather. If you want to learn about it, check out this post (this was my first book project, wich kinda failed, but it explains the technique nicely and I don't want to explain it again every time, so I just refer to this post).

Another thing I add to almost all of my books is some sort of cover ornament. Corners, symbols, all sorts of stuff. Until now, I always made them out of cardboard or MDF, but these thingies take a lot of time to make, much more than you'd think. Since I sell these books in my Etsy store, I should charge an insane price if I want to take into account the amount of time that goes into making one.
To speed up the process a little bit I decided to make molds of my cover ornaments, so I can just cast them in resin. Also, it makes it easier to make multiple copies of one book and keep my store stocked. Until now, after a book was sold, I had to remove it from the store.
So let's get started! I made some ornaments like I did for my other books, and then made silicone molds from them.

Materials

• MDF scraps (I never throw leftover away, they come in handy for stuff like this)
• Coping saw, files, sandpaper
• PVA and cyano acrylate glue
• Acrylic gesso and paint
• Sand (more on that later)
• Foamcore board
• Hot glue gun and sticks
• Release spray
• Molding silicone

Shaping the ornaments
I made four corner ornaments, four clasps for wrapping straps around the back of a book, and an Elder Sign sigil. This involves a lot of cutting, filing and sanding.
MDF doesn't really hold a sharply defined edge very well, especially thin MDF. There's a trick I learned from Bill Doran at Punished Props, though. If you apply cyano acrylate glue to the edge, it becomes very hard and keeps a good edge much better. Use thin glue for this, not the gel type, so it soaks into the fibres. After it has dried, you can sand and file it much better. Oh, and it never hurts to keep a bottle of acetone near when working with super glue. I managed to glue my fingers together on more than one occasion...

I wanted to give the Elder Sign sigil a textured background. I sprinkled coarse sand over it, smoothed it out as much as possible, and then dripped watered down PVA glue over it, soaking the sand with it and glueing it in place.
Before making a mold, I painted all pieces, first in gesso primer and then gray paint, and sanded it between each coat. Painting it makes it easier to spot any flaws.

Molding
When my ornaments were ready, I made molds using silicone. There are two kinds of mold making silicone: tin cured and platinum cured. Tin cured is cheaper, but it shrinks a little bit (not much, and usually not really an issue) and has a shorter life span; after a few years, it will start to deteriorate. Platinum cured silicone hardly shrinks, but it is quite sensitive to cure inhibition. Certain kinds of clay, glue and paint prevent it from properly curing. Most of the time, tin cured will do just fine.
The type of mold I made is the simplest type, a flat-backed box one part box mold. To construct the box, I used foamcore board and a hot glue gun. Foamcore is strong enough to build a molding box, but easy to rip apart after the silicone has cured. To make sure no silicone creeps under the ornaments, I glued them to the bottom of the box using PVA glue. And even though it's not strictly necessary for silicone, I applied some mold release spray.

Next, I mixed up some silicone and poured it into the mold boxes. To prevent bubbles (and if you don't have a vacuum degasser chamber), pour it from high enough, so the stream gets stretched out and most of the bubbles pop. It's best to pour it in the corner of the box and let if flow over the items, instead of pouring directly on them.
The next day, the silicone had cured and I liberated the items from the molds. They turned out quite ok, without any visible flaws. I already made a few casts using polyurethane resin, and it works perfectly!

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Shrunken head, part 2

Over two years ago, I wrote the first part of a tutorial on how to create a shrunken head. I promised a second part, wich would deal with painting and adding hair, but I never got to it. Painting it went ok, but adding hair was harder than I thought, and I more or less forgot the entire project. Until now!
For this years Elf Fantasy Fair, my fiancee and I choose Voodoo as the theme for our costume. And even though shrunken heads strictly speaking don't have anything to do with Voodoo, we thought it would make a cool prop anyway. I had to make a new mold, because I threw the old one away.

Materials

• Oil based clay
• Water based clay
• Vaseline
• Plaster
• Sculpting tools
• Liquid latex
• Acrylic paint
• Wool crepe
• Unbleached string
• Hair spray
• Tissue paper 
• Steam iron
• Heat gun
• Ashes (fireplace or barbecue)

Making a new mold
Like I said, I didn't have the old mold anymore, so I had to make a new one. I made a head using oil based clay, and then a two-part plaster mold. I have described this in more detail in the first part of my tutorial. This time, I added some more wrinkles and skin texture. My sculpting skills have improved a bit the last two years, there's quite a difference between my first mold and this one.

Casting a head
When the mold had dried enough and the clay sculpture was liberated from it, it was time to start casting. I used vaseline on the seam of the mold to make sure it wouldn't leak, and then filled it with liquid latex. I let it sit for about an hour, emptied it again and let it dry.
Two years ago, I used plain latex for the entire head. After the first layer had dried, I repeated the process a few times to build up a nice thick latex skin. This time, however, I used plain latex only for the first layer. After that had dried, I mixed equal parts brown and gray acrylic paint, and then added an equal volume of latex. I also added a bit of water, because the paint thickens the latex mixture quite a bit.
The process is repeated a few times with this mixture. It takes a bit longer to dry, but the result is a latex cast with a base color. When I first tried to paint a latex head two years ago, I found out it takes quite a few layers of paint to get good coverage on latex, this should make things a lot easier. In this case, as you can see, my first layer of latex already was quite thick, and the brown base color didn't really show through. With my first new head, this was the case, though.

After the head had dried, I carefully removed it from the mold. There will probably be a line of flashing where the seam was, this is removed with a sharp knife. I also stuffed the head with tissue paper. The inside remains tacky for a while, even after the latex has dried, and has a tendency to stick to itself.

Painting
On to painting! When painting latex, you can't just use acrylic paint. Even though it seems to work at first, acrylic paint isn't as flexible as latex and will start flaking off very quickly. You can either buy latex based paints (wich are quite expensive) used for making masks, or you can mix acrylic paint and latex. The latex gives the paint flexibility and adhesion.
So it's basically the same mixture I used for casting the head. You should start by mixing the right color first and then adding the latex. Liquid latex is milky white, so the color of the mixture will be a lot lighter. It darkens again when it dries, so don't panic. You'll also need to add water to dilute it.
A very important warning: don't use new or expensive paintbrushes for this! There's a good chance you'll ruin it. I started by painting a dark brown base color (equal parts brown and black) over the entire head, using a sponge. Next, I mixed some brown and ochre and did a light wash, followed by a black was to highlight the wrinkles.

 

Sewing up the eyes and mouth
After painting, I first sewed the eyes and mouth shut. I used unbleached flax string and a thick needle. The rubber is quite hard to punch through, even with a sharp needle. Two crossed stitches across each eye, and a few across the lips, braided together. Also, a few longer pieces of string (also braided together) through the top of the skull, for carrying or hanging the head.

Adding hair
This was the most challenging part, even though it turned out to be easier than I had feared. The best method for adding hair to latex skin is punching. Using a special two-pronged needle, you punch strands of hair through the latex. This gives the best result, but it's very, very time consuming.
An alternative is glueing. Even though this looks a bit less convincing, it is a million times faster than punching. Often, punching is only used for the hairline, and the rest of the hair is  glued on.
For the hair, I recommend using wool crepe. This is used for making single use fake beards, and can easily be glued. Alternatives I had tried were a cheap wig (wich looked ridiculous) and hemp fibres for sealing water pipes (looked even more ridiculous and smelled horrible). Wool crepe can be found at theatrical suppliers. It looks like a dense braid.
The first thing you need to do is unravel the wool. I cut off a 5 centimeter piece and streched it out. Even though it looks like a braid, it's really just a single strand of wool. Since it's all curly, you need to straighten it first. This is very easy, just put it between two paper towels and use a steam iron on it. The 5 cm piece had turned into a 20 cm long strand of hair!

And then it was time to start glueing! I cut off 5 cm long pieces and dipped the ends in latex. I also put a bit of latex on the head itself and used a hot air gun to dry it a bit, so the hair stays in place immediately. For a full head, I started in the neck and worked my way up to the top. In this case, I gave him a mohawk, and eyebrows.

One downside of glueing using liquid latex is that it will probably show at the hairline. I fixed this a bit by rubbing some short wool fibres on it, so they stick to the latex and camouflage it a bit. I plan to try punching hair again in the future, that should look much better.



Finishing
There's one last thing I did to finish it. The latex looked too shiny and plastic-like. I took a bit of ashes from our fireplace and rubbed them over the entire face. This takes away the shine, and gives the skin a very convincing old, dusty, mummified look. The ashes stick to the latex very well and don't rub off.

So there you have it, after two years my tutorial is finally finished. I would like to thank David Gagné from Dark Artifacts, who wrote an excellent tutorial and got me started on this project in the first place.

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