Easier than a professional mask, and a great way to show off artistic ability!

Step 1: You Will Need

- any type of sculpting clay
- cheap plaster of paris from Michael's or a hardware store
- one bottle of liquid latex from Party City or Amazon (Amazon is literally half as expensive)
- vaseline
- paint brushes
- cheap acrylic paint: white, skin tone, pink
- rubber cement
- fake blood
- patients

Total cost (latex from Amazon) $40

Step 2: Sculpting

Since this is meant to be cheap and easy the methods I use are supposed to help you through this with ease. You want to take a piece of tin foil big enough to cover your face and do that. Press the foil into all the recessed areas to get a general shape of your face. Find a rounded surface that can get dirty and sculpt the general outside shape of your face. Then starting from the middle build up the clay and smooth it with water to get an arc. Make your nose as exact as you can. The purpose of this is not to look anatomically correct. It is so the mask fits the basic shape of your face.

Step 3: Sculpting Step 2

After you finish your face you can start sculpting the creature face. Traditional this are separately and latex is pored between the layers, but that requires expensive molding materials, more time, and high grade latex. You can sculpt whatever you want, but if you want it to look like mine... 1 add clay to the sides and bottom of the nose until the lower part of the mask meets the top of your nose (remember not to remove clay add it for a better fit) 2 remove a quarter size cylinder all the way down through the clay and smooth edges for both eyes. 3 add thin strips of clay to the mouth and smooth them

Step 4: Casting

Grab a box that can be ruined and place your sculpt in it. The purpose of cast is to get a negative of the sculpt. Mix the plaster in container you can. (Ruined also) I used a Gatorade bottle and filled it about halfway each time. You want the first batch to be runny to fit in all the recessed places. Plaster dries in less than 5 minutes and gets hot. Wash your hands after each batch. You want to cover the entire mask. The next batch and every batch after it should be like thick cake batter. This will help build the mask faster. The thicker the coat the less you need to do. The end result should be an at least 1/4 inch thick shell. I can't stress enough make sure your edges are super thick. Let the mold dry for an hour after your last coat. Take a sharp knife and cut around the edges of the plaster all the way down to clay. Then using the knife slowly pry the plaster off. ( Be patient and careful. If it cracks simply hot glue it or mix up some plaster and use it as glue. Then pour a generous amount of plaster over it to make sure it is reinforced. Also plaster will come out of most cloth. Wash with hot water and soap.)

Step 5: Clay Removal

Once plaster has set it becomes fairly water resistant. Use and tools you can to remove all of the clay then rinse the mold with hot water. This will loosen up clay and help you remove it. The end result counts on this step.

Step 6: Start Adding Latex

Latex is a liquid that dries into rubber at room temperature. That being said a hair dryer will speed up this next step. (LATEX WILL RUIN ANY CLOTH IT TOUCHES) brush a small amount a Vaseline into every part of the mold. Make sure to coat deep areas. This will help remove the latex. Make sure it is just a coating not a build up. Pour a small amount of latex into the mold and swirl it around. A hair dryer will really help here. You need to move it around until every part has been reached. Heat will help trap the latex so it doesn't keep running. Use and old piece of cloth to start dabbing latex into the mold then let it dry or heat it. Make sure to get deep areas and edges extremely well. Do this until the whole thing is the color in the picture from one of my other masks. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. latex sticks to itself so well that is almost impossible to separate it. You need to dust the entire in side with powder. I learned the hard way. Start pulling the mask very slowly from the mold. You may need a knife to start an edge. At the first sign if tearing or if the mask is to thin lay it back down, and cover with mor layers. Powder the other side once you remove the mask. Note that white means it isn't dry, clear is too thin, and yellowing is just right.

Step 7: Paint, Blood, Stiches

You can paint it however you want I'll tell you how I did mine. Just know that some paint and rubber cement reacts badly with each other and produces an awful smell. Test yours by making a small piece of latex on wax paper, mixing 60/40 paint to cement then brushing it on. Let it dry. If it smells use different paint. Again learned the hard way. Take a 40/60 mix with white paint and cover the whole thing using an old piece of cloth or the brush in the cement can. Allow it to dry and add skin color. Use a very small amount of it and dry brush it on with the cloth. Use black sharpie for the eyes and mouth. Then mix 70/30 fake blood to rubber cement and use the brush to apply into the mouth and some on the eyes. This will take several coats. Stitches were made out of pulled apart yarn attached with latex. You can cut the back of the eyes out and make sure the mask fits cut eyes accordingly. Add more sharpie if you cut the eyes more.

Step 8: Application

Take latex on you finger and apply to the bridge of your nose a circle on your check and chin. Press the mask firmly into your face and pull up and adjust it however you need to. Put latex on the wings of the mask and stretch them to the sides of your face. You can add fake blood to the stitches too.