Happy... eh... Halloween....

Happy Halloween to those of you not hunkering down for Hurricane Sandy.  The whole state of NJ is on "State of Emergency" status so I'm indoors for today and tomorrow.  Work was cancelled as well.  I am incredibly happy on that note.  The wind literally just picked up like 2 seconds ago.  It hasn't really been raining heavily, but the wind's been going since last night.  Now we are getting heavier gusts.  0.o I really hope the tree in the front of the house doesn't fall, it is rather large and old.  PS. I'm trying to get this post done before the power/internet goes out from downed branches and such. 

Store display somewhere in Soho

On a happier note, Marina and I went into NYC on Saturday night.  We wandered around Soho for a few hours, got chocolate (yum!), I picked up a salt scrub and Marina got shoes.  We were very girly, even when we had pizza and watched The Avengers movie later in the night.  We oggled Captain America's bum.... it is quite heroic ;D.

We had plans to go to a steampunk gathering in costume, but we decided against it in favor of Steve Roger's bum and Loki's sexy voice.  I didn't have a costume, but I made a nice mask.  Unfortunately I did not take in-progress pictures T-T , next time I will and I'll give a tutorial.   

I tried for a Day of the Dead look

 The Mask is made of paper mache, I used a mixture of like 1:1 Elmer's white glue/water and used brown craft paper.  A little trick I learned is that a) craft paper makes for stronger paper mache, and b) tear instead of cut the paper to get frayed and fibrous edges.  Those edges help to blend the paper pieces together and create a smoother surface.  When you cut the paper with scissors/exacto knives the straight and sharp edge doesn't blend smoothly within the other pieces of paper and creates ridges that are really difficult to get rid of.  I used a Styrofoam head I picked up at a goodwill store a few years ago as a form to work on top of.  This did not give me a perfect fit at places like the bridge of my nose and forehead depth, but for a first time try, I think I'll let that slide.  

Painting was kind of a bitch.

Painting this sucker was really difficult.  I couldn't keep my hand steady for the red pin stripes and had to paint over and redo a few.  For the stripes I used a brush called a rigger brush.  It's a very thin and fine haired watercolor brush that has unusually long bristles.  Rigger brushes are mainly used for painting long unbroken lines.  To keep the lines from looking blob-like, I added some water to the paint to thin it down for easier application. After that a basic pointed round tip brush was used for pretty much everything else, and after getting some coffee in me, my hand was a lot more controlled.

detail shot

Like I said earlier, I'll make a more in-depth post later on about the paper mache process and I'll take more photos to make a tutorial for ya'll.  I'm thinking of making a cardboard base for the next one and adding horns to make a demon or animal mask..... >:3
That's all for now, the wind is picking up more and it's really raining now so I'm gonna get off my computer and wait out the storm.
See Ya'll Later!
~Amy