Cosplate Domino Mask - Umbrella Academy Inspired

This was completed as a competition project in four hours and so certain elements were left out or done in a hurry to meet the time restrictions.

The idea of this project was to make a domino mask that could form and hold to my face while experimenting with and learning to use this material I found online called "Cosplate." I got the idea from a YouTuber named Daniel Wiggins who made his mask to look like the domino masks from the comic book/Netflix show Umbrella Academy and so at the end, I tried to use some mesh to emulate the same eye effect and ended up loosing some of the shape of my mask (but that's besides the point). Again, I was just trying to experiment with this Cosplate material.

Materials:

(1) Cosplate- http://www.corsecprops.com/store/cosplate-preorder

(2) X-Acto knife/Scissors

(3) Heat Gun

(4) Black Acrylic paint & brush

(5) Mesh fabric/net mesh

Step 1: Forming

I started by cutting a smaller square to work with that could be formed to my face, and then used the heat gun until the Cosplate was very soft and malleable.

I started with trying to get the nose shape molded first and then moved on to the brow and cheeks.

Step 2: Trimming and Eye Holes

The most challenging part of this step was the process of making sure the mask was even. As you can see in some of the progress pictures, it was not. But I got it closer and closer until they were as even on either side as I could get them.

I used scissors for large stroke cuts and the x-acto knife for smaller ones like corners and the eye holes. Fortunately, Cosplate is very durable and holds it shape very well when cool so I could fold it in any way I needed to cut shapes out like the eye holes and it would morph back to its original (molded) shape so long ad it didn't heat up too much.

Step 3: Painting

I started with a little bit of sandpaper to smooth the edges and give the surface of the mask a little texture so the paint wouldn't chip off easily (hopefully).

Then, I just used a little bit of black acrylic paint and a poly-sponge brush to coat the entire mask in black.

Once it dried, the mask was done. But, as mentioned, I attempted to finish out the Umbrella Academy look by covering the eyes in a type of mesh fabric which leads into the final (optional) step.

Step 4: Optional: Umbrella Academy Eyes

For this step, I sourced the mesh from a pool cleaning net and used the bottom of a Dasani water bottle for the eye pieces to give the eyes the rounded shape while attached to the mask.

As a result of a lack of resources and time, (and potentially skill) this final step sort of warped the shape of the mask and so it didn't come out exactly as I wanted so I will end with a link to the inspiration for this project that had a much better solution for the eye shape.