Cosplay Make Up Tutorial: 3D Mask Effect

Hallowe’en is almost upon us and with it comes my last tutorial, for now. This is by far the simplest tutorial I’ve done in these weeks leading up to October 31st. It’s also the most versatile in that the method I show can be used in a multitude of different ways. The method I’m showing you I used to create the look of an android with a partially detached face.

You can see I started off by doing my face and eye makeup as well as adding some contacts. I won’t be showing this part as I just want to share with you the steps in creating the 3D effect surrounding my face, giving it a detached look.

1. Simply put, take a black liner pencil and line the borders of your face in a style you’d like to achieve. You can add more lines or less line than I do. You can choose to only line part of your face or color in notches to make it look as those your “mask” is chipped. You don’t even need to choose an android style, like I do. You can also do different shaped masks or replicate the illusion of torn skin without using any prosthetics.

2. Take a Q-Tip, sponge applicator, or brush and begin smudging all of your lines towards the outside of your face or away from the layer that you want to appear to pop out. This will give the illusion of a shadow.

3. Lastly, use a white liner pencil and line along the edge of your black line, opposite from the side you smudged, enhancing the illusion of light catching the edge of what is popping out of your face.

As I said earlier, you can also use this technique for other effects as well. Here’s a couple examples:

And that’s it! Simple, right? Thanks so much for joining me on this round of tutorials. Let me know if you liked seeing these and if you have any requests for future tutorials.