Creating a Paper Mache Bane Mask

During the last month or so of the Summer break before Uni last year, I decided to jump on the “Create Your Own Bane Mask” bandwagon and try and make a really cheap student-budget version of my own. To be fair, it didn’t turn out too badly, spare a slightly skewed positioning of certain pieces and a terribly done paint job, haha!

I was inspired to make this after seeing “The Dark Knight Rises” in cinemas with a flatmate at the time. Being very bored and very low on funds that Summer, I thought a cheap and fun crafty project was the right remedy for that! I had one or two friends use their heads as modelling practice for it, and once it was finished I took it on a night out and it proved to be a massive hit with my mates and even a few excited strangers!

In total, the mask costed roughly around £7.00 to build from scratch to completion. I already had a lot of cardboard boxes going spare in my flat, all I needed to really buy was the superglue holding everything together, flour for the homemade papier mache (flour and water mix – cant go wrong!), straws, superglue, newspaper and paint. Most supplies were purchased at a Poundworld store in Hull over the course of the project.

There are two versions of the video: a U.K. Version and a U.S. version. One of the videos did originally have the musical score from the film playing over it, but obviously due to Youtube’s copyright restrictions etc, it was removed. The other video has a general rock / metal soundtrack playing over it.

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Enjoy!

Leave a comment!

Have a nice day!

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The Self-Negotiated Brief – Part Fifteen: Initial “Warg” Sketches

Here are some initial designs and notes for my “Hellhound-esque” character for the project. Instead of referring to this character as a “werewolf” (because let’s all face it, it’s such an overused concept nowadays) I’m going to be referring to it as a “Warg”, because this also feeds into my research of hellhounds and other canine-based creatures in mythology. Since doing these particular sketches, I’ve looked into heightening / lessening the percentage of “wolf” in the characters aesthetic, to see which will look more suitable for the grim-ness of the narrative.

As it stands, I am liking a healthy mix of the two! Perhaps I will end up using both for a transformation sequence. I am much more swayed towards the “humanoid” looking sketch, as it adds that much needed “creep” factor to the character. He is an “abomination” by all other characters accounts, and I feel that giving him a look closer to a human would add to the sickening vibe he has. I personally feel that monsters / creatures with humanoid features are much more terrifying. Making the creature look more “human” makes the reader tend to feel more uneasy, because of the closer proximity to reality.

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NOTES:

• Minute pupils
• Either white-blue or orange-yellow

• Character Trait – ALWAYS eats with hands

• Two rings in left ear
• EARS DOWN

• Eyes are demented in comparison to usual old, dead eyes

• Slight beard look on chin hair

• Has “walking out of his own body” experiences

• Massive arms

• Always wears a rosary bead necklace (RED)

• “WHO IS AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF?”

• “TARANTULA” opening (PENDULUM) is retrospective, walk along, past through present music
• Brody has a bony spine

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NOTES:

• “HELLHOUND”

• Spherical eye-sockets
• Teeth growing
• Ears flop down and grow thick fur
• Hair on crown thins and falls out

• Humanoid at first
• Marginally scrawny frame
• Neck is strained
• Nose is progressively more snout-like
• Ripped clothing
• Elongated tongue

• Jaw becomes more prominent
• Cheeks stick out
• Shoulders become hunched

Spring Awakening Collaboration

It has certainly been a bust Summer for me already! During the past two-and-a-half months since I’ve broken up from University, it has been non-stop requests and commission work from various people and businesses. It has been really nice (albeit a little bit hectic) being so in demand! This isall quite new to me – but either way, I am absolutely loving this creative streak, and I’m getting so much portfolio work done because of it.

After I had completed the t-shirt commission for James Ramon Baker (director and starring role in the local production of “Spring Awakening”), and seeing my work debuted in a professional setting, I was asked to contribute more towards this theatre production. James commissioned me to create an individual drawing of each of the actors / characters in the musical. These would go towards being put on an album cover for the cast recording (which is available for purchase now from Hull Truck Theatre).

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As well as being grouped together on the cover, each individual character has been put on individual pages in the inside booklet. In total, there were 16 individual characetrs drawn for the cover (one character had to be re-drawn due to an innacuracy in the costume). Each character was drawn separately, and edited together for the full group image using editing software. They were drawn up and coloured using my standard tools:

• Mechanical Pencil
• 0.8 Pigment Ink Fineliner
• Copic Markers

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ROW #01:

• Fraulein Knuppeldick
• Wendla Bergman
• Melchior Gabor
• Herr Knochenbruch

ROW #02:

• Martha
• Ilsa
• Moritz Stiefel
• Georg

ROW #03:

• Rupert
• Ernst
• Hanschen
• Otto

ROW #04:

• Dieter
• Anna
• Ulbrecht
• Thea

Hope you enjoy those little doodles! Thanks to those being commissioned, I’ve gotten many more requests since! One of my payments for doing this project for “Spring Awakening”, was free entry to the local production of “Footloose” – which was equally as amazing! Anyway, I’ll keep you all updated on the projects I participate in in the coming weeks! For now, enjoy a preview of the cast recording! If you like it, please don’t hesitate to buy a copy!