Behold The Immortal, rendered in a deathly shade of gray

46 HORRORSHOW
 HOW TO
Latex Painting Techniques, Part II:
Using the Iwata Eclipse with FW Inks

Welcome back everyone to part two of my latex mask painting

By Arnold Goldman of The Monster Makers

series. For this demonstration I’ll be using a precision airbrush

Though not inexpensive, they are highly concentrated and
can be thinned with alcohol or water. Also, in addition to be-
and acrylic ink system that allows for finer paint application ing relatively safe for spraying, they are great for making trans-
than the last demo (in HorrorShow Issue #5). parent washes of color for layering and creating the illusion of
For this lesson I’ve cast a fresh latex copy of my classic vam- depth. Once you begin to use these inks for masks you’ll find
pire mask, “The Immortal,” which I originally created back in them to be an excellent complement to your arsenal of mask
1994. Despite a few hairline cracks and many castings later, the painting mediums. They can be layered over mask paint and
mold was in surprisingly good condition. So I thought I’d give rubber cement paint. It is not uncommon for people to use all
it another go and put the airbrush and inks to the test. It’s been three mediums on one mask to achieve different effects. In ad-
quite some time since I painted this mask, but it was always a dition to the inks you will need your airbrushes, some rubbing
fun and challenging design and a perfect candidate for lots of alcohol, a water source, and a paint respirator, along with a few
detail. My usual paint job for The Immortal is a fleshy, Cauca- other assorted items as shown.
sian color scheme, but this time I think I’ll try another route 2. I begin with a fully cured, trimmed, and clean copy of my
and go with a deathly shade of gray. mask. The casting shown here is made from the ever faithful
So away we go… RD-407 latex maskmaking compound, which offers a nice bal-
ance between soft and firm rubber. Before starting it’s always a
1. To begin, you’ll of course need a fresh, unpainted mask good idea to wipe down the latex with rubbing alcohol using
and an assortment of FW Inks. I’ve picked out a selection of a clean rag. This will prevent any of your hand oils from in-
the primary colors—white, black, and burnt umber. We should terfering with paint adhesion. Depending on your mold sub-
be able to make nearly any color we need from these. But in strate, the alcohol will also remove some of the fine powder
case you’re looking for greater variety, FW Acrylic Inks come that is usually transferred from the mold to the latex during
in 31 colors, the majority of which are transparent. the casting process.

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 3. 4.

3. Now the fun begins. I start by transferring about an ounce make sure you have enough of it or you may end up with a
of gray mask paint and mix in a little light Caucasian flesh headache and your paint job will likely suffer.
tone mask paint for my base color. The flesh paint will serve 6. Once the latex paint is dry, I switch over to the Iwata
to tone down and lighten the gray a bit. I am going for a pale Eclipse. This is an airbrush that I have really come to love. The
gray. Mask paint is a rubber-based medium, so I generally like Eclipse is a very sturdy, very well-made airbrush. It comes in
to stick with that for the base color to insure that I have com- several different models for different applications. Shown here
plete adhesion. (All mask paint, except red and black, have a is the HP-BCS, which is the bottom feed version. This allows
considerable amount a of white in it. It’s not generally known, you to attach larger quantities of bottled paint to the brush
but the white acts as a UV block and adds a lot of longevity and is therefore great for large masks and props. It is a perfect
to the mask. Unprotected latex does not hold up over time in airbrush for thinner inks and paints.
most lighting conditions.) Incidentally, the Eclipse also comes in several gravity feed
We will use the single-action Paasche H to apply the mask versions that are designed for even finer detail work. This ver-
paint since it handles thicker mediums much better than the sion will be plenty sufficient for our painting demo, though.
Iwata. You will want to set your compressor to 60 PSI for the I’m not sure if this brush is actually designed to accept a small
base coat. Incidentally, any basic air compressor with 1 HP or color cup, but I found that one of the Paasche cups fits perfect-
more will do. I would avoid the high priced art airbrush com- ly. Also important to note is that the Iwata is a double-action
pressors. They may be quieter but they cost considerably more airbrush. This means that when you push down the release
and, from my experience, do not last very long. button you can control both the spray size and the airflow.
4. As you apply the mask paint, keep your hand moving and The downward action releases air and the horizontal action
hold the brush at a distance of about six inches using a me- releases the paint. This allows for a high degree of precision
dium wide spray. You can use the number five needle assembly when applying the paint to any surface.
for the base coat. Be careful not to get too close to the mask or 7. Once the mask paint base coat is dry, we start with our
the paint will end up very glossy and runny. first ink color. Since the inks are transparent we are able to
5. When applying the base coat, you want to apply the paint build multiple layers of color for a variety of realistic human
in the same manner that you would use with a can of spray and creature skin effects. Spraying the paint in thin layers al-
paint. The goal here is to create a nice, even mist until there lows for color mixing right on the mask with each previous
is no natural colored latex showing though. Move the mask color showing through. I start with red and transfer a few
around and flex the rubber as needed. Be sure to check all ar- grams of ink into a mixing cup followed by some isopropyl
eas for any spots you missed and go back over them if needed. alcohol. I am using 91% isopropanol, which will evaporate
Also, remember that proper lighting is essential when painting faster than a weaker solution. FW Inks can be diluted easily
a mask or any three-dimensional object. Natural light is always with the alcohol. I am mixing around 10-15 parts alcohol to
best, but you can use florescent as well as incandescent. Just one part ink.

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48 HORRORSHOW
8. 9. 10.

8. The key to painting with the inks is not to lay the colors effort. Once this marbling texture is complete, we will go back
down too heavily. We want to build them up slowly. It’s a bit over this pattern lightly with a little of the original base color
difficult to see in this shot, but I am applying a light wash of to tone down the effect. We do not want to completely cover
red around the gums, eyes, and some of the recessed areas. If the effect, but use just enough to move it into the background
you are used to using a single-action brush like the Paasche a bit. By repeating this pattern in multiple layers with a clear
H, the double-action feature will take some getting used to. coat in between each layer, you can create an extraordinary
Most people seem to pick it up quickly, though, and the trigger level of depth to the painting.
mechanism is very smooth and easy to manipulate for almost 12. Here I have switched back to the red to enhance the
any desired effect. gums, tongue, and add more color around the eyes. You will
9. Next, I dilute some blue ink and start to accent the vein- want to be sure to spray some alcohol through the airbrush to
ing and begin to build up some additional color; again, making clean out any leftover ink before you switch over to the next
sure not to go too heavy. Some colors seem more concentrated color. Even though the alcohol evaporates quickly it is a good
than others, so you will want to test the spray on a white sheet idea to keep your respirator handy and use it when necessary.
of paper or a scrap piece of latex before spraying it onto your 13. After the second round of red I move into the shadow-
mask. If the paint seems to bead up on the rubber or looks too ing. Here you can see that I have applied some brown around
weak, you simply add more of the ink and try again. the mouth, eyes, and nostrils. One nice feature of the inks is
10. The colors are still very light at this point so it’s hard that they can be reactivated with the alcohol and wiped off; so,
to see the effect. In this image I am spraying the blue on and if you make a mistake, you can fix it and go back over it with
around the same areas that the red went down. In areas where more ink. Fortunately the alcohol will only wipe away the ink
the two colors meet, a violet color will be created, but some and not the mask paint beneath it. You can see that the shad-
areas will only have the straight blue and red at this point. By owing is starting to pull the mask together.
the end of the paint job I hope to have a nice color range with
lots of areas of interest.
11. One technique that is very popular with mask painting
11.
is the use of textural effects. In this shot you can start to see
the color build up taking place. I’ve also added the next color,
which is a yellowish white. Here I have applied this color in
very fine and irregular, squiggly line patterns over the entire
mask. To create this effect you will want to get the finest line
possible and keep your hand moving as you apply the paint in
a thin lightning bolt type pattern. It is a technique that takes
some time and practice to master, but is well worth the extra

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14. 15. 16.

14. Here is a close-up image of the shadowing and the pro- bright, but I will tone that down once I apply the gloss medi-
gression of the paint job so far. I’ve tried to apply the color in um to the eyes. I want the eyes to really pop, so I am overdoing
irregular patterns as well as following the peaks and valleys of it a bit. Once I apply the gloss there is no going back, so in this
the mask topography as a guide. You will want to be careful to case it’s better to have too much than too little.
break up the colors as you lay them down. This will help you 19. There are lots of options for eyes and pupils, but it
achieve a much more lifelike effect. seems that I am really into the slit iris these days. It does seem
15. Here I’ve switched over to black and gone back over appropriate for the look of this character. Again, for the slits I
the same areas where I applied the brown. I have outlined the use the finest brush I can find and do the outline in pencil first
teeth, gums, and deepened the nostrils and eye sockets. Notice before I commit. I am really liking this color scheme.
also that I have darkened the gums and aged the teeth using 20. Here is a shot showing the final eyes with gloss applied.
the brown ink. I will continue to adjust and darken the colors As with the last demo I applied five-minute epoxy to create a
as I go along as needed. wet look for the eyes. This time, though, I added a little bit of
16. At this point I am not sure where I am going with the red ink to the mix so I could knock down some of the bright-
eyes yet. I know I want them to stand out so I lay down a fair- ness of the yellow. Had I not done so, the eyes would be so
ly bright white to use as a background color. It’s actually too bright they would’ve likely glowed in the dark. They may still.
bright at this point, but I’ll be covering this completely as I 21. And here is the final mask. With FX Inks you do need to
build the eye color scheme. For spraying in the eye area you seal the paint so it will stay put. For that you can use our Per-
will want to bring your air pressure down and use as fine a ma-wet gloss coating. To bring the shine down some you can
spray as necessary. I will cover the overspray with the black we mix in about 25 percent Liquitex matte medium to the Perma-
are using for the shadowing. wet. I decided to use the gloss straight this time, though. For
17. I decided to try a new color scheme for the eyes on this building up multiple layers of color and depth, this same clear
paint job, so I start with a green outline over the white. An air coat/matte mixture works excellent.
pressure of around 25 PSI will work well. Again, it is impor- So that’s it: The Immortal in gray using FW Inks applied
tant to adjust your paint flow for as much control as possible. with the wonderful Iwata Eclipse double-action airbrush. I
This is true for any areas of detail on the mask. Any of the went a little subtle on the detailing for this mask. But with the
green overspray will be lost in the black that surrounds the Iwata you can go bananas with details if you so choose. I highly
eyelids. recommend this airbrush if you want to take your airbrushing
18. I next apply some bright yellow inside the green, over- skills to a new level. The layering and detailing possibilities are
lapping them to get a nice blending effect. The yellow is super enormous with this airbrush.

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20. 21.

I hope you enjoyed this demo. Please contact me via

e-mail or phone at www.monstermakers.com for any
comments, questions, or suggestions for future demos.
And thanks for letting me indulge myself once again.
Until next time, happy monster making and remember
that rubber monsters rule!
For more info on latex monster mask making and mask
painting, please visit www.monstermakers.com.

HORRORSHOW 51