Made by Scott Emrick
For the local musical production of Hunchback of Notre Dame I created seven masks. Six are typical gargoyles some based on actual Notre Dame gargoyles, the seventh being a saint. I used the original process and recipe in Jonni’s book to create them.
I first had to create a form to build them on starting with a styrofoam manikin head. I reinforced the head with plaster cloth wrap strips.
I used an old action figure from when I was a boy to figure out the designs for the masks. I then made a full size sculpture in clay on the mask form. I covered that with paper mache. After it dried I removed the mask, trimmed and sanded as necessary. I then painted the mask with monster mud which was part gray latex paint and part thinset (for the stone like texture and hardness).
I finished with a thin black wash (water and acrylic paint) and some lighter gray/white dry brush for highlight areas. Lastly I added a black braided elastic strap threaded through two slits in the mask and hot glued to itself. Last a cord stop made the mask adjustable.
Great masks! Thanks for sharing how you got the stone like texture, very cool.
Wonderful, wonderful work. Don’t store these masks after production! See if a local pub or other venue would like to exhibit them for a time.
The masks are just wonderful. I loved looking at them. Thank you