Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Ultimate Warlock mask, after improvements

This photo is designed to be a comparison photo for the well known photo of the real part IV movie mask taken by Dick Warlock. You can see it in the background...

I am still accepting commissions for this piece, also offering it "part 4 end scene" style (basically the same mask with part 4 blood). If you want to own a near-perfect reproduction of the only mask used in 3 films, complete with custom-matched basecoat, the crack through the forehead and every known scratch or scuff on the original, this is the one to get. Thanks for looking!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Couple of tidbits: finished remake and old hangman

The remake is the same mask from earlier, I made improvements to the nose and brow area and added straps. The hangman is from several months back, I found this photo on my camera and can't figure out why I never uploaded to my computer because its the best photo I ever took of that Hangman (sculpt by DBach, paint by me). Thanks for stopping by.





Friday, December 17, 2010

The original mask, by Jacques Plante



Above is a photo I found online while browsing images, showing the second prototype for the famous Jacques Plante medium size Fibrosport Elite street mask, on which the Jason mask was very closely based. This mask remained in the office of Jacques Plante, the man who invented and popularized the modern goalie mask, for many years and was auctioned off in 2007 by his heirs. The medium mask, which the Plante company of Magog, Quebec, Canada also made for American companies Cooper and Rally, was catalog number 653602. The Cooper version was also known as the hm7.

The major differences between the original Plante design and the Jason mask was in fabrication: the Plante mask was made of a sturdy fiberglass resin and was relatively thick: the hockey masks made for Friday the 13th part 3 were pulled in clear acrylic and were very thin and brittle. The Plante mask, which commonly had a back plate to attach the five straps to for extra security, also had padding on the inside so the mask didn't crack your face open like an egg if you were unlucky enough to be hit by a puck. The masks made for the Friday the 13th series were also somewhat more crudely fabricated: the discriminating eye will notice mold chipping around the eyes and other anomalies that make the Jason design really unique.

The Plante masks, which were made from the late 1960's until the company closed its doors in 1976, were made in a very wide variety of styles and customized versions that fit your face perfectly were made as well, mostly for professional ice hockey players. The "street" mask that became iconic outside the hockey world in 1982, was available in white or beige and retailed for fifty dollars.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

My hocks so far


A friend did up a sample of my hock work in MS paint, its a bit low-rez but you get the idea... I'll be adding an X, a JGTH, an 8 and the box cover hocks soon.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

New remake!

This one is going to be my keeper, I dig how it came out, just need straps. There's about five layers of paint and clear coat in the detailing, so this is a time consuming process but the end result is one of the most beautiful hocks in the franchise. Thanks for looking!




Thursday, December 9, 2010

New part 4 comparison shot with movie mask


The mask is on a H.U.D., the most accurate part 4 out there. Great combination!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Monday, November 29, 2010

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Coming soon... the box cover hocks

And now for something completely different...

So I've been brainstorming hockey masks at work lately and I had the idea to do a line of masks that are not featured in any of the films but appear on the VHS boxes. Since I don't have a cooper and don't know how to get one (and its just painted white anyway, how dull), I have selected the three masks from The Final Chapter, The New Blood and Jason Takes Manhattan for duplication.

These hocks differ greatly from the screen masks (or at least their onscreen appearance) in that the artists took a great deal of time and effort in texturing the surfaces (on the 7 and 8 especially) and of course making the part 4 one a bloody mess (which will be really fun).

So you all know these anyway, but here are the 3 masks I will be attempting after I finish up my current projects...


Thursday, November 18, 2010

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Remake and Ultimate III for sale

Hi y'all

So I'm selling my remake mask that I've owned for about a year now. Its painted on a NECA and has the original NECA straps. It was also featured on Fridaythe13thfilms.com several months back. Asking $155 shipped:




Also selling my prized possession, my Ultimate Ultimate III, my keeper with probably the best eye cuts of any of my Ultimate III masks (for those that haven't tried, getting the eye cuts perfect on a 3 is really tough). Its the exact mask you see here. This one is $300 shipped.






Saturday, November 6, 2010

Monday, October 25, 2010

Red 7 paintup








By far my most accurate part 7 and on the most accurate possible blank, I'm real pleased with how this one came out. I was surprised with how detailed the texture was on the surface of the Red 7, those effects guys really sanded the hell out of the screen mask, probably so that thin washes could really bring out the detail. Thanks to Mario Kirner for offering the Red 7 to the community, hopefully I can get one in the future (this paintup is for a friend).

By the way, here is the screen mask...

Sunday, October 17, 2010

An Editorial on the Hockey Masks as Art

As I've mentioned before here on the blog, every time I do a hock I learn more about the original film prop that I'm trying to replicate. Of course, when I'm trying to replicate it to the "Ultimate" level, i.e., taking a complex mask like the 3, 4, or 7 and getting every tiny little scratch and detail perfect, I use dozens of photos and screen caps to map out the screen mask and assemble it onto a frightstuff blank. Along the way I discover a great deal of details I had never even thought were present; its absolutely mind-blowing how truly complex the part 3 and 4 masks were and how many tiny, intricate things there are to attempt to reproduce. I have not yet truly captured every detail of either mask, nor can I ever hope to, all I can do is get it close.

It has given me a whole new respect for FX artists, and in particular, Robb Wilson King, Set Designer on Friday the 13th Part 3, who was charged with painting the original masks that appear in part 3 and 4. Based on some of the better photographs I've seen of the original masks, as well as screen shots I've used to map out these masks, I have to conclude that the prevailing sense among mask painters about the part 3/4 masks-- that they were simply beaten up with whatever tools were on hand, randomly scratched, poked, ripped and gouged and then just dirtied up before a layer of clear was thrown on-- is wrong.

Its wrong because the masks were not randomly attacked with tools in order to make them look used. There is an artistry to the damage and dirt on both masks, and clear elements of composition-- texture, balance, value, space and use of symmetry and lines are all evident on these masks, something I hadn't realized until I really attempted to reproduce them detail for detail.

On the part 3 mask for example, they made sure that the major damaged areas are roughly evenly spaced apart, and that each larger scuff is in its own quadrant of the mask. The "puck" mark in the middle of the forehead interrupts what would otherwise be a wide, blank space, drawing the eye to the center; the blackish rim of dirt on the outer edge of the left eye is actually a focal point from which dirt and damage fans out across the left side of the mask; the various dirty spots and scuffs that form a sort of "raccoon" or goggle pattern around the eyes and nose, encircling the brow are balanced across the mask. Major damage is balanced, though not duplicated (because that would look too fake) on each side. The left side has the dirty eye rim and a large streak of dirt running from the left eye like a tear drop; they are balanced on the right by the mouth scuff and the black streak on the right cheek. They put a thin, but elongated scratch across the upper left forehead so that side wouldn't be too bare, balancing that with a very dirty upper right border. Underneath it all are the beautiful wavy contours of the crackle medium, cracked into a variety of strips and blocks across the surface, following the curves of the plastic. If you could find that part 3 hock in the L.A. landfill its in today, you might truly be holding a work of art (depending on the condition its in).

The part 4 mask, though weathered very differently, has similar elements of composition, though its perhaps stronger on texture and the use of lines than the part 3. On the left side, there is a heavy bit of scratching with contoured lines that fan out from the outer left eye hole, reaching across the temple area, curving around the eye socket into the cheek and creeping onto the nose. The lines are not perfectly parallel but chaotically intersect and merge, forming a spiderweb pattern before disappearing toward the outer edge of the mask. The front of the mask has contrasting, roughly linear diagonal scratches that cover the mouth and parts of the forehead. They don't have the chaotic weaving of the eye marks, but are shorter and rigidly parallel in the mouth area. All of these details (and far more, too numerous to mention) combine to form a mask that appears to be naturally weather-beaten by random occurrence. The texture in the dirt, scratches and other tiny bits of damage make it really amazing close up and makes for a work of art that is really beautiful in its ugliness.

Unfortunately, almost none of these finer details can be seen on film. Thus, they are almost never replicated by most hock artists. Not to knock anyone, but it would be nice to see more people really do their homework and try to reproduce the artistry that Robb Wilson King had used in creating the originals. The part 7 mask made by KNB has similar compositional elements used, making it another real work of art.

Anyway, thats one of the reasons I like doing hocks. I like finding art in things that are dark and dismal I suppose, and I like to see a professional really dedicate himself to finer details, even if they don't really show up onscreen.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Wednesday, October 13, 2010


Just a photo I was playing around with... its my Ultimate III on a Hangman by DBach. I have some new hock projects coming up, including painting a Red 7 and some other stuff. Cheers!

Monday, September 27, 2010

ULTIMATE 'Dick Warlock' mask, first photos...


I have to finish up a few odds and ends like adding a glossy coat to the blood drip and setting snaps in the cheeks, but he's basically done! This is by far the best mask of this style that I've done and I didn't make a mark on it without being able to match it to a photo of the original. Every scratch, every dot, every bit of paint is matched to the screen used with the highest degree of faithfulness that I could manage...




Of course the original is now owned by veteran stunt man Dick Warlock, hence the name. It was made in 1982 during production of Friday the 13th part 3 and painted by set designer Robb Wilson King. It is the only Jason mask to be seen in FOUR films, notably, the end of part 3, all of part 4, and the hallucination scenes of part 5, which is the final version seen here. It is also seen in the prologue sequence of part 7 (which features part 4 flashbacks). Even the part 5 and 6 masks are believed to be recasts of this one piece. Its reuse throughout the series makes it THE hockey mask of the genre, so I wanted to do it as much justice as possible. I will have more comparison photos and a finished version in the near future.