MASKS & CHARACTERS
These masks are primarily done using a build-up silicone method, which is similar to oil painting. The masks must be built from the underlayer-up, using each subsequent layer to add detail, texture, shape, and structure to the sculpt. This is useful in characters that have a goopy, bloated, slimey, or loose-formed organic appearance.
The
BANDAGE MAN
“The Bandage Man” was a build-up mask project that explored the various materials that could be used to form texture and create structure on a silicone mask that had no pre-existing sculpt.
The concept behind this mask is based on an old US urban legend of a supposed bandage-faced ghost that wanders the countryside and is usually seen near condemned buildings.
I wanted to explore medical materials like gauze bandages, syringes, and IV tubing becoming organically infused with a monster. Thus, he has syringe teeth (replaced with paperclips to avoid any danger), a thin casting of a face I took from a mold, along with bandages infused into the skin.
Another unique aspect of this mask and character are the IV tubes rigged on an inner layer of the mask, connected to his temple, nose, cheek, and throat. These are designed so slime can be pumped through the mask and give it a more active, gross look.
Max Wax
The image of a slightly spooky, slightly adorable, goopy candle-man had been burning in my head for years. Max Wax is the end result of said vision. Clad in a cartoonish tuxedo, he awkwardly lumbers his way through a household—attempting to help but more often making things worse!
The process was done by incorporating a large foam structure to serve as the shape of his head, complete with a cavity at the top for placing programmable lights, to allow for a natural candle flicker from within his skull.
Linus Sinus
This was a collaboration between myself and my partner, Diana Cortes, for an upcoming short film I co-directed with Caleb Pritchard. Linus was intended to be a generic “booger monster” based on 90s kid commercial aesthetics; but as we built him, an abrasive and dumb-as-rocks personality began to shine through.
Linus will just about smash anything while gushing blue goop from his nose and mouth! He likes to hide in closets and underneath beds, waiting to go bump in the night and terrorize kids!
Linus was another build up using foam and pin-cushion techniques to give shape to his face detailing and create structural texture pockets for silicone to build upon. Hair was punched in with an old nylon wig.
meltozoid
This was a collaboration between Rob Benevides and myself in 2017 using the build-up silicone mask method.
“Meltozoid” was the titular monster of my college thesis film, but he’s grown into a much more beloved character in my roster of monsters. The original concept was visually inspired by Rick Baker’s fantastic work on The Incredible Melting Man.
We followed anatomical drawings of facial musculature and built up a silicone layer to emphasize the structure. Then, the build-up method truly shines here, as the other half of the face is completely covered by slime that was organically cured as it ran down the side of the mask.
The
farmer
“The Farmer” is a monster in my horror feature, Burnt Hickory, currently in post-production. He’s based on a fictional urban legend of a farmer that went mad in his field, due to some supposed music coming from the nearby forest.
He began digging and digging, to escape the music, until he buried himself alive. Parents now tell their children if they misbehave, the Farmer will be outside their windows, digging their graves!
This mask was also done with the build-up method as a collaboration between myself and Bruce Dickens. We wanted the mask to have a bloated, rotting, grotesque appearance that was akin to a campy 80s haunted house ghoulie. In order to achieve that sculpt, foam understructure was added to sculpt his face before beginning the silicone build-up.
muckman
This was done for the short film Lagoon, directed by Gabe Merritt. It was an entry in a 72-hour Horror Film Race, so a mask had to be assembled quickly and without a sculpt. The build-up method proved nicely here, but I decided to approach it with a similar route used for the “Bandage Man,” where I used organic materials to layer texture onto the mask.
In this case, it was an ancient fish god that was resurrected from a lake after thousands of years, so he needed to look particularly overgrown. Real moss and yarn were used before adorning him with washes upon washes of slime.
