in responce to a certain person wanting to make life sized models of a certain band for a certain project, here is a how to guide:
to make an acurate realistic head, you need to take a plaster bandage cast from the subjects face. to do this:
first make sure to keep hair away from the face (with hair band or whatever)
then, and this is really important, apply vaseline to all areas of the face, ESPECCIALLY eyebrows and eyelashes, this is because if you dont any hair will be pulled off with the plaster when its dried.
the plaster will be on a roll, so before you start, cut it to smaller pieces (i'd cut it to squares about 2 or 3 inches) then with a bowl/bucket of cold water, dip one piece of bandage at a time and apply to face, being careful to smooth it well, so as to get most acurate details.
you have to work kind of fast because plaster dries pretty quick, and you want it to be drying even. wet plaster doesn't stick well to plaster that is already very dry. probably two or three layers will be strong enough. when its dry remove it carefully. this part might hurt, depending on how badly the vaseline was applied. be careful when youre working not to get any plaster bandages wet until exactally the time you're going to use them. any part that get wet and dry before they're applied will be unuseable. also while plaster is drying it tends to feel a little warm, it sort of creates its own heat. this isnt really noticeable with plaster bandage, but if the subject feels it and gets worried, you can tell them its normal.
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to take a papier mache cast from the plaster face cast:
on the inside of the plaster cast, cover it well with vaseline.
mix up some wall paper paste and tear some news paper or other light paper to smallish pieces and soak in the paste.
one tip here is that if you want the face to be skin color you could amke your first layer with skin coloured paper (or another colour. you could try making your first layer from that tissue paper they sometimes use to pad out gift boxes and stuff, and then the skin colour as the second layer, as this will give a more skinlike texture, or alternatively paint it afterwards (if you think you wont be able to paint it acurately, why not ask an art student or make up artist friend to do it some will do this quick job for free
)
alternatively you could forget the whole face cast idea and get a large photo of the persons face printed and stick that for the face, depending on what you're after this could work well, and save time and money. OR you could make the cast with skin colour wax instead (wow)
anyway, do about 5 or 7 layers of papier mache, depending on what you want to do with it you could do more layers, but it'll take longer to dry. i like to go one layer at a time making sure its pressed well into the cavities. it should dry over night. then take that off the paster mould.
to make the rest of the head ball up some newspaper until its about the right size and shape and fit that to the face. cover that with a few layers of paper mache, over lapping to the face part a little so its secure. (try and remove any vaseline left on it. maybe with white spirits or something if you want it to be really good)
then get some kind of wig or whatever and glue that on for the hair.
you can do the hands like that too if you need to.
-----
to make the bodies:
take measurements of the band/person. get some steel wire that is bendable by hand, but not so bendable it will change shape without you meaning it to (something like the wire in coat hangers, you can get long lengths of it from builder suppliers like chadwicks on thomas street) cut the wire to the lengths you've measured. these should be something like:
1. from the knuckles on one hand, across the shoulders to the knuckles on the other hand.
2. from top of the head to the hip .
3. the length of one foot, up to the hip, across teh waist and down to the other foot.
bend these to more or less the right measurements, and attach them to each other useing duct tape or strong masking tape. obviously make them to whatever position you want them to be in, as it'll be pretty hard to change afterwards.
build up the form by twisting and balling newspaper and taping it with masking tape to the frame, leaving the wire above the neck and from wrist to knuckle bare, so that this can be pushed into the head and hands later.
when its bulit up to the rough form, you probably want to put a layer of papier mache over the neck (overlapping to the head to secure it) and hands and arms or any body parts that will be exposed as skin. otherwise if its going to be under clothes then it wont matter too much as long as its the basic form.
then you should be finished. this should be durable enough for most things, if you're concerened it wont be just do more layers of papier mache while you're going along.
ok bye
to make an acurate realistic head, you need to take a plaster bandage cast from the subjects face. to do this:
first make sure to keep hair away from the face (with hair band or whatever)
then, and this is really important, apply vaseline to all areas of the face, ESPECCIALLY eyebrows and eyelashes, this is because if you dont any hair will be pulled off with the plaster when its dried.
the plaster will be on a roll, so before you start, cut it to smaller pieces (i'd cut it to squares about 2 or 3 inches) then with a bowl/bucket of cold water, dip one piece of bandage at a time and apply to face, being careful to smooth it well, so as to get most acurate details.
you have to work kind of fast because plaster dries pretty quick, and you want it to be drying even. wet plaster doesn't stick well to plaster that is already very dry. probably two or three layers will be strong enough. when its dry remove it carefully. this part might hurt, depending on how badly the vaseline was applied. be careful when youre working not to get any plaster bandages wet until exactally the time you're going to use them. any part that get wet and dry before they're applied will be unuseable. also while plaster is drying it tends to feel a little warm, it sort of creates its own heat. this isnt really noticeable with plaster bandage, but if the subject feels it and gets worried, you can tell them its normal.
-----
to take a papier mache cast from the plaster face cast:
on the inside of the plaster cast, cover it well with vaseline.
mix up some wall paper paste and tear some news paper or other light paper to smallish pieces and soak in the paste.
one tip here is that if you want the face to be skin color you could amke your first layer with skin coloured paper (or another colour. you could try making your first layer from that tissue paper they sometimes use to pad out gift boxes and stuff, and then the skin colour as the second layer, as this will give a more skinlike texture, or alternatively paint it afterwards (if you think you wont be able to paint it acurately, why not ask an art student or make up artist friend to do it some will do this quick job for free
) alternatively you could forget the whole face cast idea and get a large photo of the persons face printed and stick that for the face, depending on what you're after this could work well, and save time and money. OR you could make the cast with skin colour wax instead (wow)
anyway, do about 5 or 7 layers of papier mache, depending on what you want to do with it you could do more layers, but it'll take longer to dry. i like to go one layer at a time making sure its pressed well into the cavities. it should dry over night. then take that off the paster mould.
to make the rest of the head ball up some newspaper until its about the right size and shape and fit that to the face. cover that with a few layers of paper mache, over lapping to the face part a little so its secure. (try and remove any vaseline left on it. maybe with white spirits or something if you want it to be really good)
then get some kind of wig or whatever and glue that on for the hair.
you can do the hands like that too if you need to.
-----
to make the bodies:
take measurements of the band/person. get some steel wire that is bendable by hand, but not so bendable it will change shape without you meaning it to (something like the wire in coat hangers, you can get long lengths of it from builder suppliers like chadwicks on thomas street) cut the wire to the lengths you've measured. these should be something like:
1. from the knuckles on one hand, across the shoulders to the knuckles on the other hand.
2. from top of the head to the hip .
3. the length of one foot, up to the hip, across teh waist and down to the other foot.
bend these to more or less the right measurements, and attach them to each other useing duct tape or strong masking tape. obviously make them to whatever position you want them to be in, as it'll be pretty hard to change afterwards.
build up the form by twisting and balling newspaper and taping it with masking tape to the frame, leaving the wire above the neck and from wrist to knuckle bare, so that this can be pushed into the head and hands later.
when its bulit up to the rough form, you probably want to put a layer of papier mache over the neck (overlapping to the head to secure it) and hands and arms or any body parts that will be exposed as skin. otherwise if its going to be under clothes then it wont matter too much as long as its the basic form.
then you should be finished. this should be durable enough for most things, if you're concerened it wont be just do more layers of papier mache while you're going along.
ok bye
