I had a free afternoon yesterday so I FINALLY got around to starting Horse's Minotaur mask.

I started with a cardboard base and layered epoxie onto it to give the basic shape. Next, I need to sand back the areas that look too big (the nose in particular is too big and boxy and the jaw looks too deep to me. The central head also looks too round. Brainy bull! I also wonder if the head overall looks too big and bulky or whether sanding back some of it might sort it) and then add another layer to build up the shape. I am making the horns separately as this seems easiest. I will also make a neck piece to go under this and down to the shoulders.

Now, things I need from you guys. Any suggestions for how the basic shape can be improved? Also, any sugestions for handling the neck piece? At the moment I am thinking of just making a collar-type neck piece that has the head perched on top. It would be fixed to the head by a strip of leather at the back (the head piece ends quite high on the back of the head to enable it to be taken off) and to perhaps have leather "gussets" under the chin, so that he can raise his head without showing his human bits. Is there a better way to do this? One that will look neater and allow at least as much movement (at the moment there will only be vertical movement of the head. No lateral movement). Also, I will be adding eyes and am a bit uncertain as to how to bevel the eye area, seeing as it is a pokey litle area to get into, so I couldn't use a doll's eye beveller. I coudl pick at it with a scaple, I guess, but woudl be interested in any other ideas.

Now, bear in mind that this is the rough basic shape. This is not the finished surface! I am some way from getting there. However, I want to know if there are any changes I need to make before I get to work on refining it.

Thanks all!

Oh bloody Hell mau....you don't do things by half, do you???( gawd that's a mega amount of sanding and smoothing). Do you have a mask?...But a Dremel thingy would do the eyes for sure....
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3984.m38.l1313&_nkw=dremel+type+tool&_sacat=See-All-Categories

LOL! No, I don't have to sand all of that. That is just the initial layer to stabilise the form and start to build the shape. Apart from reducing the areas that I now think are too big, the rest will be adding, not taking away. And the final layer will be the smooth one as putting on epoxie smoothly is a lot less trouble than taking rough epoxie off! That only took me about 2 hrs across yesterday, and much of that was making the cardborad form.

I must get a dremel at some point. I have absolutely no idea what size or type would be most useful though.

Just the small hobby size one....

oh wow this looks fab Maumau! It's looking great so far even though it's not finished.
How's the weight of it doing? You don't want it to end up being too heavy that Horse end's up being top heavy..but then he might be able to carry it cause he's such a big doll. Also would the weight affect him looking up and down? If it's too heavy then it might pull his head down. I know you said you wouldn't need him looking up just yet, but would be worth giving it all a check now before you get too deep.
I'm not sure how stylized you want to go with the look of it. I've gone down the route of it looking realistic as possible so if my crit doesn't apply then feel free to ignore~
I think the overall size of it is looking ok so far, considering it's meant to be a mask and all. If it was meant to be in scale with himself then I'd say the head was a wee bit too big.
The nose could be a tad too big, but not by much. Looking at actual bull pictures the top of the nose seems to be slightly smaller then the bottom part, and the bottom part leads down to his top lip. Also, their nostrils seem to sit slightly more on top of their nose, at the moment yours are more on the side, so when he's face on you can't see them, but when I've been looking at bull photo's their nostrils seem to be a little more on show face on. (I'll link all the photo's I've been looking at, at the bottom so you can see what I'm talking about)
I'd also say his cheeks sink in a little too much. Most of the pictures I've looked at have quite flat cheeks and not so much cheekbone. However, at the moment with such sunken in cheeks it does help to accentuate the fact that it's a muscular bull, so you might want to keep that a bit. If you puff it out too much then you might loose that 'brute' feel it's got at the moment if you get me xD Although, maybe on the other hand it won't if you keep his strong jawline.
I'd take the mound on his head down a little, it does add to the muscled feel but looking at pictures of bulls this isn't as prominent as what you have, or you can hardly see it at all.
Here's all the pics I was looking at, I dunno how much bull reference you have yourself so I'll dump them all anyway:

face on:

http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Local-Bull-C.jpg
http://curtfletcher.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/bull-face.jpg
http://www.jkbulls.com/Bulls.html
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/13/17620516_6c83502b32_b.jpg
http://fineartamerica.com/images-medium/hereford-bull-hans-droog.jpg
http://www.bundanon.com.au/files/imagecache/resize_675_width/files/Belview%20Robin%20Hood_Large.jpg

profile:

http://locksparkfarm.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/bull-and-cow-close-sharp-resized.jpg
http://purecorriente.com/db2/00142/purecorriente.com/_uimages/Bull-011.jpg
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1232616081043447880ucEtPK
http://www.phillipspharms.com/images/canada_national_photo_1996.jpg
http://www.sfgate.com/blogs/images/sfgate/techchron/2006/06/15/bull498x371.jpg
http://www.holsomeparkcamping.co.uk/pics/1231719111Cow%20and%20bull.jpg

(i broke it down cause there was a lot of links)

As for how to attach it, I think a hood sounds good. You could glue a piece of fabric around the edge of the mask and have it come down to his shoulders. That way all of his human parts would be covered. Then you could either have straps on top of the hood or underneath it to hide it. If you wanted the hood to not stand out so much then you could find fabric that was a similar shade to the colour you'll be painting him (if you are that is)
Another thing you could try is sculpting an entire head that goes down to his shoulders, like this horse head:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41218000/jpg/_41218175_horsehead.jpg
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2006-06/07/xin_47060307082063257895.jpg
http://a2.vox.com/6a00c225211933604a00e398a4404a0003-500pi

that was you wouldn't have to worry about strappings so much because his head would keep it on. Only draw backs would be is I don't know how easy it would be to do. It might restrict his movements even more if it's done in epoxy because the mask would be rigid. (although you could try casting it into a more flexible material, but I don't have a clue how you would)
Also taking it on and off, you'd have to be careful about damaging his face up so you'd need to cover his face (might want to do that anyway what ever route you go, or at least line the mask)

Raevn, you are an absolute goddess. This is JUST waht I was looking for. I am on my way out at the moment but will read through this very carefully before gettng my scalpel out tonight. Thank you so much.

that's fab mau...that will be stunning when done