Now you will want to put your mold upside down in a bucket or crake so that the opening is exposed and level. Then if you have enough latex pour the mold full of latex. If you do not have enough latex for this you can pour what you have in a swish it around the inside of the mold. Then use a chip brush to brush the latex on any spots that are not covered. Repeat these steps as many times as necessary to get the thickness you want. If you do have enough to fill the mold fill it and let the latex dwell in the mold. The amount of time you let the latex dwell depends on how thick you want the mask to be. The longer the dwell time the thicker the mask. For an average mask I let the latex dwell for an hour, when I make my master copy of the mask which is really thick I will let the latex dwell for three hours, when letting it dwell so long I cover the opening of the mold with plastic wrap so that the latex on top does not form a skin. The reason you let the latex dwell is the plaster will absorb moisture from the latex and form a skin.

Once you finish letting the latex dwell dump the excess back into the bucket or container it was in. Set the mold right side up over a bucket or dish draining pan to let the excess fully run out. The next step is to place the mold on its side and leave it to let the latex dry, you can place a box fan in front of the mold set on low to speed the drying if you wish. Let the mold set overnight or longer if possible.

Dream demon mask being worn,

Once the latex is dry in the mold you will want to powder the inside of the mask with talc, babypowder or cornstarch so that the latex does stick to its self when removing the mask from the mold. With that done release the mold strap and pop the back half off the mold then remove the mask from the front half of the mold, be gentle since you can still rip the latex easy at this point.

Once the mask is out of the mold stuff it will plastic bags or old newspaper so that it holds it shape. Set the mask aside to fully cure for a day or two. Once it is fully cured, which you will know since the latex will darken, trim the excess flashing off with a pair of Cuticle scissors. You can also cut the eye, nose and ear holes if you wish. To fully remove the seam on the mask brush naptha over the seam then go over the seam using a cotton bullet buffing tip in a Dremel tool. Keep the dremel set to low so you do not go right through the Mask. When using the Buffing tip in the dremel go back and forth in both directions over the seam for the smoothest surface.

Once you are satisfied with the seam you will want to wash the whole surface of the mask with water to get all the small latex bits off the surface. Once the mask is dry make sure there are no loose bit of latex on the surface. After that you will want to cut the slit in the back if the Mask will be worn. Make a small hole at the top of the slit with a leather punch, this is to keep the slit from easily ripping up farther.

Just a pic of the completed Dock demon.

The next step is painting your mask. I recommend using an external mix airbrush such as the Pashe H model. You can buy premixed mask paints from monstermakers.com or make yours own by mixing latex and acrylic paints together. Once you have the color you wish it will need to be thinner so you can airbrush it. I recommend using Windex or pure ammonia. I personally use Windex since it does not smell as bad as ammonia. For small details you can hand paint them in with a detail brush. I recommend using naptha to clean your brushes when done followed by warm soapy water. For areas of the mask that need to look wet such as mouths, teeth, etc. I recommend Perma-wet by monstermakers, it is premium gloss coating which boasts the highest shine in the industry. Forms a tenacious, highly flexible bond while sealing and waterproofing the mask. Has a 600% elongation. Used primarily to simulate realistic wet areas on props and masks.

If adding hair to a mask it can be either punched in using a hair punching tool, or it can be glued on in sections using a flexible glue like rubber cement or contact cement. I also recommend picking up Monstermakers Mask Makers handbook. I also suggest checking out the Monster lab at www.themonsterlab.com