Hi guys, I'm Hendo and today's How-To is the Blue Spirit from Avatar!
In Avatar: The Last Airbender the Blue Spirit oni mask is actually made out of metal but
I'm going to make mine out of wood for two reasons: first, wood is actually going to
hide the seams when I make it out of foam, and second, I actually think it's going to
look a little cooler with a wood texture.
I'll list all of the materials that I use in the description below.
I'm skipping the part where I make the pattern because it's honestly mostly guess and check,
but I did keep it, so I'll make it available at some point as a link in the description,
too.
Okay, let's do this!
First I'm cutting the pattern into 1/4" L400 EVA foam.
Then, glue the base of the mask together using contact cement.
Hot glue works too, but it requires working a little bit faster and it often leaves a
lot of gaps.
The eyebrows are also 1/4" inch thick, but I'm beveling the edges now so that I don't
have to do it when it's all glued together.
I'm gluing two 1/2" pieces of foam together for the nose because I'm going to shave it
down a LOT.
I'm drawing the shape so that I know which parts are raised and which parts to carve
down.
The cheeks are 1/2" foam.
Again, I think it's helpful to circle which parts are raised so that I know what NOT to
shave down.
Before gluing all the face details, I'm going to sand down any uneven seams and dremel in
the wood texture.
To create wood texture, just hit the foam with the edge of the sanding bit.
Vary how hard you press so that some lines are deeper than others, and you get a really
realistic wood texture.
Do the same thing for the individual face details as well and make sure all the grain
goes in the same direction.
Now you can glue it all together.
I like to hold it on and outline it, so I make super sure it goes in exactly the right
spot.
Make sure the crown pieces are dremeled on the front, back, and sides.
Now you should carve out the teeth.
You don't actually want individual teeth, it's better to just use one long rectangle
and then dremel in the spaces between the teeth.
Then cut out the bottom chin piece.
Don't forget to carve in the wood texture to these too!
Use 1/2" foam to carve out the fangs.
I use masking tape to make extra sure the teeth stay on.
You can add a little more wood texture by carving in with an exacto knife and then using
a heat gun to open up all of the cuts.
This really only works once, so make sure you have all your cuts down before you use
the heat gun.
Add any last minute details that you want before sealing it with Plasti-dip!
Now I'm going to seal the foam with spray on Plasti-Dip.
I usually use the brush on kind when I want a really smooth finish, but since this has
a wood texture, that doesn't really matter and I can use the faster method of spraying
it on.
I'm laying it on pretty thick, but while it's still wet, I'm also going to brush it into
all of the crevices to make sure none of the detail gets lost.
I didn't film it but I also sprayed on a black primer for the base.
Now is the best part, PAINTING!
The first layer is going to be a dark blue that sits in all of the cracks of the wood
grain.
Now, get a mid-tone blue and brush it lightly over the mask.
You want it to be perpendicular to the grain and you don't really want to fill the cracks
too much.
You can see the grain showing up pretty well because I'm brushing over the cracks and not
really inside of them, so they're staying nice and dark blue.
The next layer is your highlight layer of light blue.
Just do the same thing, brushing a little bit lighter over the mask this time.
While the blue is drying, you can go ahead and paint the face details.
Start with a muddy brown and again make sure it really gets into all those grooves.
Next, get an off-white and again use that technique of gently brushing over the mask.
Then, do the same thing with a highlight layer of true-white.
In my opinion, everything looks a little bit better with black shading.
It doesn't really have to be weathered, but a little bit of a shadow makes sure that all
the details pop!
I'm just going to take a scruffy brush and some black paint and give everything a nice
shadow.
It'll seem a little subtle at first, but once you're done, the whole thing is really gonna
pop!
I'm also going to add a tiny bit of weathering by making the wood look like it's chipping.
All I'm going to do is add a little bit of a light tan to the edge of some of the cracks.
Here's how it looks before and after the painting!
I didn't film myself actually doing it, but I covered the eyes with black mesh.
All I did was take a splatter screen, cut it out to the eye shape, and spray paint it
black on both sides.
Then I attached it with hot glue.
I also added ribbon to the back.
There's one on each side, and one on the top, just like in the show.
Now it's done, and all you have to do is go outside and be a NINJA!
I cheated and just put it on somebody who does WAY cooler flips than me.
Thank you so much for watching.
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments, and be sure to tell me what
you want to see me make next!
Until next time, thanks for crafting with me!