Leather Mask Making Tutorial by Ranasp

This has been a while in the making, I hope that it answers most of your questions if you want to try making a mask of your own.

I took the pictures with the aid of my boyfriend and wrote the text, while

did all of the layout, I couldn't have made this tutorial without her, thanks so much!

shojoboy1024 Featured By Owner Jan 18, 2016 Student

Will this kind of thing work for Animal Masks like the ones used in Zyuohger?

Ranasp Featured By Owner Jan 22, 2016 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

I have no idea what zyohger is, so I looked it up, it looked something like Power Ranger masks but animals? The ones I saw were a lot more...Puffy looking than what leather would typically do. I suppose you could try, or do a variant of it, but it isn't going to end up looking a whole lot like them from what I saw.

shojoboy1024 Featured By Owner Jan 22, 2016 Student

Ok awesome X3

lthrpdler Featured By Owner Oct 10, 2014

Natural Veg Leather Trim piece ( 8 1/2" X 11") sold at Hobby Lobby and Michaels work perfect for this.

Ranasp Featured By Owner Oct 13, 2014 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

::twitch:: I don't advise buying from Hobby Lobby. You're far better off buying a "grab bag" of leather remnants from Tandy Leather Factory or any other leather supply store that sells scraps of vegetable tanned leather. You can quite easily make domino masks out of many of the scraps for much cheaper overall, plus the odd shapes can force you to be a bit creative with the final form.

Krad1213 Featured By Owner Sep 22, 2014 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Hmm I wonder how you would do with a tokyo ghoul mask

Takeshi1993 Featured By Owner Sep 19, 2014 Hobbyist General Artist

This is extremely useful and informative. Thank you.

N-Hyuman80 Featured By Owner Mar 11, 2014

Where did you get the leather? I live in Hawaii and have no idea where to get good amounts of it, except online I guess.

Ranasp Featured By Owner Mar 11, 2014 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

I live near a Tandy Leather Factory so I can just drive down to get more leather, but you can look for online stores or buy off of ebay. You could also try your local craigslist to see if anyone local is selling vegetable tanned leather.

joetrenhar Featured By Owner Apr 30, 2014 Student General Artist

tandy leather online half a hide of vegtable tanned leather.... a grand total of a hundred and something dollors, not cheap and not that much leather when doing this stuff

Ranasp Featured By Owner May 7, 2014 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

A half hide is HUGE when you're talking masks. It's not super cheap, but I have yet to find anything of quality that is. You can also buy a grab bag of scrap leather and usually can get a few pieces of decent size to practice with.

Artoveli Featured By Owner Mar 11, 2014 Hobbyist General Artist

Beautiful work! I really want to try this now.

Ranasp Featured By Owner Mar 11, 2014 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

Do so! Even if you go with a simple domino mask for your first one it looks so much more polished if you shape it like in the tutorial and ends up looking quite impressive.

Artoveli Featured By Owner Mar 12, 2014 Hobbyist General Artist

It's a very good tutorial, by the way, makes the whole process seem a lot less intimidating.

Ranasp Featured By Owner Mar 13, 2014 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

It really is one of those things that has a simple foundation but refining it is the challenge.

smallrinilady Featured By Owner Mar 11, 2014

what kind of paints did you use on this?

Ranasp Featured By Owner Mar 11, 2014 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

Actually, they're leather dyes, which are shown in Step 2.

smallrinilady Featured By Owner Mar 14, 2014

thank you

fiercezombie Featured By Owner Jan 12, 2014 Hobbyist Artist

Heyo, I'm looking to make a clown nose (note the profile pic) and am questioning how to precut leather so it will form the shape of a ball..i.e., how does a clown nose translate to 2D? Or does it not really matter, when the leather is wet and you cut after the fact? Any suggestions? Thanks! Nice work, btw!

Ranasp Featured By Owner Feb 23, 2014 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

I wouldn't say it's impossible, but I'm not sure how it could be made without leaving a seam. You would probably have to make it sort of the way you do a pillow, use VERY thin leather, make two halves of the sphere, stitch them together wrong-side-out, wet them and flip them inside-out so they're correct side out and try stretching it while wet into the correct shape.

m00nm0rph Featured By Owner Nov 7, 2013 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

thank you this is what got me to mack my own.

Ranasp Featured By Owner Nov 8, 2013 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

Did you put it up on DA?

m00nm0rph Featured By Owner Nov 10, 2013 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

yes it is at m00nm0rph.

Quaz72 Featured By Owner Oct 16, 2013

Thanks for posting this tutorial and leaving it up since 2006. Just finished my Dread Pirate Roberts mask for Halloween and it looks so much better than any of the simple masks available for sale anywhere.

Thanks again, and you rock!

Ranasp Featured By Owner Nov 8, 2013 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

I'm glad it was a help! Did you take a picture of your completed costume?

Quaz72 Featured By Owner Nov 10, 2013

quaz72.deviantart.com/art/Drea…

Ranasp Featured By Owner Feb 23, 2014 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

Excellent!

celticphox Featured By Owner Sep 17, 2013

This is a fantastic tutorial and it makes the process seem much more realistic and possible. Thank you SO much!

Ranasp Featured By Owner Nov 8, 2013 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

You don't get much more real than wet leather slapped onto your face.

It really is a simple process, it's the refinement that takes work. I'm glad you liked the tutorial.

rayhartenstine Featured By Owner May 8, 2013 Hobbyist General Artist

WOW very cool thanks for sharing this... cool tutorial...!!!

If you went to all this trouble you can also make a plaster of paris casting of your face and then use that to weigh down the leather on the plaster face casting and wait for the leather to dry as well in fact a dry plaster of paris face casing would help absorb some of the water from the leather and aid it in the drying process.!!!

Thanks again!!!

snazzie-designz Featured By Owner Apr 8, 2013 General Artist

Great tutorial

Thanks for making it

bear48 Featured By Owner Mar 27, 2013 Professional

nice

Jwraither Featured By Owner Feb 6, 2013 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

great, thanks so much for sharing, very helpful!

grnwoodtree Featured By Owner Jan 25, 2013

You rock for offering this information up - thanks

Ranasp Featured By Owner Jan 26, 2013 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

Thanks! The info is out there though, so I can't say I really did anything too original.

KiriSosha Featured By Owner Jan 12, 2013 Hobbyist General Artist

neat, very useful

Kitsu4tail Featured By Owner Dec 18, 2012 Hobbyist Artist

where do you go to buy the leather?

Kitsu4tail Featured By Owner Dec 18, 2012 Hobbyist Artist

THANK YOU! this will help so much with cosplaying

PirateLotus-Stock Featured By Owner Dec 18, 2012

Hi ^.^ I featured this here: [link]

Ranasp Featured By Owner Dec 23, 2012 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

Thanks! Glad you found it useful.

nullmanic Featured By Owner Nov 13, 2012 Hobbyist Digital Artist

Needed this!

Asrath Featured By Owner Nov 9, 2012 Student General Artist

Holy shit, that actually looks quite easy and fun to do!
I've always thought that making leather masks was REALLY hard, but now I really want to try it myself!
Only, the leather! Where can I buy the right kind of leather, and how can I recognise it? Does it always have that beige brown hue? And are coloured/processed leathers out of the question? (I think, yes... but I have a bag full of scrap leather in different colours, and it'd be nice if I could use that. I guess not though...)

Ranasp Featured By Owner Nov 24, 2012 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

You MIGHT find vegetable tanned leather that's already been dyed, but I'd worry about how well it would hold its shape if it's already been wet down.

Asrath Featured By Owner Nov 24, 2012 Student General Artist

Yeah, I tried it with a small piece and it doesn't work. So I need to find just unprocessed vegetable tanned leather...
Do you know a place where they sell it??

Ranasp Featured By Owner Nov 24, 2012 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

The leather factory is the most common place you can find it at, otherwise just google search for "vegetable tanned leather" and you'll get lots of places show up.

AndrewRP8023 Featured By Owner Oct 13, 2012 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

Great tutorial! Thanks!

ElaineSeleneStock Featured By Owner Sep 25, 2012 Professional Photographer

Brilliant!!! Thank you soo much!

DontFearTheClowns Featured By Owner Aug 13, 2012 Student General Artist

What I did when I tried this, was make a plaster "lookalike" of me. i got a friend to cut some plaster bandages, dunk in water and cover my whole face in a couple of layers of the stuff (after my face being completely covered in vaseline beforehand. ew :s ). once it dried and I took it off, I closed any breathing holes such as the nose or mouth, and then filled it with plaster, waited for it to dry and voila! a free face to work with~

(could have also worked with wax

)

Ranasp Featured By Owner Nov 24, 2012 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

The only mild worry would be the wet leather softening the plaster over time, but if you seal the plaster that shouldn't be much of an issue.

DontFearTheClowns Featured By Owner Nov 25, 2012 Student General Artist

(i dunno why i said to fill a plaster mould with plaster...that wouldnt work at all >.>)
but filling the mould with wax (you can buy a packet of wax pellets which you melt down from any art and craft store) would work well, because the wax would retain its shape, unless in really really warm weather