San – Princess Mononoke

I waited very late in the game this year to start planning my DragonCon costumes…working fulltime takes a lot away from everything else. Sometime’s I hate being so busy. Oh well. One of my most favorite anime movies, well, movies in general of all time is Princess Mononoke…I’ve always wanted to make San’s mask and well, the rest of the costume seems to be a breeze, so here we go :

The Mask

Below are my progress photos from following the following Mask Tutorial

First I utilized the floral half-sphere foam form to paper mache’ over with a mixture of water and flour and newspaper. It’s totally messy and fun. I tried keeping things as smooth as possible to make the next step super easy. As well as adding many layers to ensure stability.

Next came the paper clay step…you smooth the clay on top of the paper mache’.  I tried to put it on as evenly as possible, but after it dries, you MUST sand a lot. However, I think I would have saved myself a lot of trouble with varying degrees of sandpaper rather than just using the fine paper that I already had…Oh well. It’s something easy to zone out and do, kinda relaxing even.

Time to add in the eyes and mouthparts of the mask…Now, the tutorial suggested using Napkin Rings…which was brilliant…However, napkin rings are not the easiest thing to find…after looking through Michaels, Joann’s, and Walmart…I decided that I just didn’t have time for all this…so the internet to the rescue!! I ordered this set of 4 acrylic ivory napkin rings. 

 

 

 

It’s finally time to start painting the mask. I bought paint from Michael’s…which I’m super happy to say WERE ON SALE…It was three tubes for less than the price of two. So I bought Saffron for the yellows, buttermilk for the lighter areas, and Cadmium red for all the rest because I didn’t want to use straight red…I can’t wait to paint. I need to sand and then Spray down the outer layer of the mask with something so the paint will go on smoothly…Follow the progress below…

Adding the fur

I ordered this fur from Fabric Depot: Shag Faux Fur White it can be hand washed and it’s 2 inches thick. Also, All faux fur was 25% off…so it made online purchasing so much smarter. (the previous link is broken, so I found a white fur by the yard you can purchase)

The outfit

The apron and dress

Accessories

The earrings, necklace, headband, armbands, and weapon (only making the dagger)

Putting it all together

The face make-up for the red marks, I will use these: Face paint crayons. They’re awesome because they stay really well, don’t smudge half as much as most, and don’t itch at all. Oh, and easy to take off at the end of the day…no staining left behind!