Cosplay Masks Type 1

What does every vigilante need to conceal their true identity? A mask. Well, a mask or a hood...or some sort of mutation or power that allows them to change their face, or they really don't care if you know who they are for a myriad of reasons........but most of the time, masks.
There are a ton of ways to make eye masks, including super cheap (without looking cheap) versions that are very easily made.

For Green Arrow New 52 I wanted to try a few different versions, first up is the foam version (SUPER cheap, as in I spent about 1$ and five minutes).
Buy a sheet of craft foam in the color you want your mask. At Micheal's they cost about .89$
Sketch or print out the mask pattern on a piece of paper, cut out the eye holes and lay it on your face to see if you need to change the dimensions at all. I sketched out half of the mask as you can see in the picture below. Lay it on your foam sheet, trace it, and cut it out.

 

You might say to me at this point, ".....hey...this flimsy piece of foam is great, but it doesn't mold to my features...." and I'd say, "...yet...patience young grasshopper."

How you make it mold to your face? A very small amount of heat.for which I have experimented with two methods: oven and/or hair dryer. If you don't happen to have a mirror near your oven, I'd say use the hair dryer, which is what I had to do since the foam sheet cooled down too much before I could make it to the mirror. So, if you opt for the oven method, it goes like this:

Oven Method
Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees.
Lay foam mask directly on oven shelf.
Leave in oven until it starts to droop. (About one minute)
Press against face, molding to your features.

Hair Dryer Method
Turn your hair dryer on to the hottest setting, point at mask.
When mask appears to be flimsy, press against face, molding to your features.

I found that parts of the mask cool faster than you can conform them, My solution was to use the hair dryer on only that spot to re heat it and mold that piece to my face, one section at a time, The bridge of the nose for instance is really hard to get shaped on the first try, so I ended up heating it in the oven once, and using the hair dryer about three times to get the whole mask skin tight.

You can decorate the front side of the mask if need be, there are tons of techniques for that, fabric paint, rhinestones, glitter glue, spray paint over lace, etc.

You can use string to attach your mask, but I wouldn't want to use string to cheapen the look of a character, so I used eyelash glue on just the outer points and especially on the bridge of the nose. You can also use spirit gum for a  more secure hold. Voila! Fightin' crime and lookin' good!

Side note, the foam had smudges and some crappy corners because it was a test run for the Green Arrow mask.

 
I will be updating my facebook page over the next few weeks with photos from soon-to-be-happening superhero events....stay tuned: Nerd Rendezvous Facebook
Don't forget to check out your local comic shop's FREE COMIC BOOK DAY May 4th! I know many of them have cosplay contests, events, games, and duh.....free comics.