Sub-Zero Elsa Progress Tutorial: The Mask

 

Sub-Zero Elsa Cosplay Tutorial:  The Mask

Hey all! 

So the Sub-Zero Elsa mashup cosplay I made for GenCon may possibly be one of my favorite cosplays to date.  I was in love with the idea of this mashup and I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out.

This progress tutorial will go over how I made the mask.  The armor and other pieces of the costume I will discuss in a separate post, here.

 



My original concept sketch

 

 

Hair and makeup test after the mask was finished

So making this mask was definitely trial and error.  All in all, though, I think it was fairly uncomplicated.

I started by making a cast of my entire head, so I'd have something to work on.  You can find my tutorial on the process I used for making the headcast here


So once I had a head cast I began by using wire mesh and forming the shape of the mask over the headcast.  This is the kind of wire mesh you use for sculpting and it can be found in craft stores around where the sculpey and clay is.

 



This is what I used.  Jo-Ann Fabrics: $6.99 (or $4.19 after my coupon)

I had to use tape to hold it up on the headcast, but the stuff was pretty easy to shape so it didn't take very long

Wire mesh has been shaped and the plaster strips are being prepared for the next step.

Once I was happy with the shape, I covered the mask in plaster strips.  This is basically a roll of gauze imbedded with plaster.  You dunk them in water and apply in layers.  When it hardens you have a nice hard shell.  I did a few layers of plaster strips and let it dry for a few hours.  Once it was dry I could pull it off and it looked like this.  (The wire mesh and the plaster shell are all one piece now, I did not separate them)

Then I moved on to sculpting a little more detail.  Initially I was going to use light modeling paste for this, as I was only planning on modifying this slightly.  Then I started having ideas so I actually ended up adding on top of this with sculpey.

Oh...and cutting little breathing holes...those are important!  I just used and x acto knife and made little slits

 

 

Then I baked the mask to harden the sculpey.  I sanded it a bit to smooth it out, and then it was paint time!

So first I painted it light blue, then added in some highlights and shadows.  It looked like this:

 

 

Unfortunately the colors didn't mesh well with the rest of the costume.  So I added more green to it. 

Now, since I wanted the mask to look like it was made out of ice, I thought a clever idea would be to coat the entire thing in a super high gloss sealer.  Then spackle some frost over it once it dried

That was a bad idea

So that idea did not work.  The gloss didn't really give it the look I was hoping for and furthermore, highlighted every blemish in my work.  The mask is one of the most important parts of this costume, if not the most important.  So it really needed to stand out and look great.  I hated how it looked at this point and was starting to get a little frustrated and worried.  So I put it up for the night.

The next night I sanded it down.  I sanded and I sanded and I sanded.  I sanded until all the paint was gone, and then some more.  I wanted it to be very smooth.  I hit it with a few coats of gesso and some sanding in between just to get things extra smooth.

The next day I gave another shot at painting this thing.  I decided to try my hand at airbrushing.  I really liked how the mask looked initially, but I wanted even smoother blending.  So I look across the room at the airbrush I've never used and decide today would be the day I learn how to use it.

This mask was probably a good piece to learn on since there isn't really any intricate details.  It's mostly just shading and contouring.  Here's how it looked after I was done airbrushing it:

 

And here's the first paint job again (before the glossy coat)

 

Yup!  I was much much happier this time.  I took a sponge brush and speckled in some pure white on the raised parts to give it a frosty look and it was done!



To complete the mask, I utilized the wire mesh to actually sew in elastic bands that would hold the mask on to my face.  Then I coated the inside with mod podge to seal in any loose plaster dust that was still inside the mask.  The stuff is not fun to breathe or to get in your eye (which is exactly where it goes when you exhale)

And there you have it!

Here's the link again to my headcast tutorial.


Here's a link to my armor tutorial