Best Villain Award Dragoncon 2001

I just love dressing up as Darth Maul.  I have had many cewl compliments on my likeness to Ray Park, which never ceases to amaze me because I think I look nothing like Darth Maul.  I'm a girl.  But its funny to know that people assume you are a guy.  I guess the make up gives a certain sense of androgyny.

As for "how"  -- the make up was all done by hand by me.  I simply used  a picture of maul and used my face as the drawing board. 

Of course, no two paint jobs are alike, and this does take about 2hrs -- though once you get proficient at it, the time shortens down to about an hour.  This includes all the gluing and latex work!  The bald cap is the hardest to work with.  And although you can reuse it, the first time always looks the nicest. 

Also note that I paint the cap and glue horns onto it before I wear it! No way I could paint the back of my head by myself.  The horns, I used to apply those big gaudy brown looking horns but they are too huge for my taste.  I use kropserkel's horns now -- lets see if you can point out the pictures above where I am wearing them!

Now do note about the bald cap -- after the first use it becomes more difficult to hide the fact later, that it's still a bald cap.  Normally the thing lays flat against your forehead when you glue it, but after a few jobs, the ends become less flat, tend to ball up sticking to the glue and will leave a slight ridge.  I was thinking I may have to cut it to prevent this.  *sigh*  Which is not something I really want to do.   Also using a high quality bald cap will help the look.  The one I use is a medium class, "Woochie" bald cap.  They are about $10-15US each compared to low quality $5 ones, but  a very nice cap and the original color was black, not see through or skin color.  The surface took the paint well, too well in fact, you can't wash it off!  

Now that I don't know where to buy woochie's from, I buy caps from another source, and find them very nice as well, though they are not black.  I still paint the cap ahead of time using a mannequin head. 

The paints I used originally were reel tattoo for the black and water based for the red.  But those were harsh and still had some flaking.  Impossible to remove as well. Then I moved to WolfeFX water based, which comes in a palette rather than a liquid form.  I have had no problems with these cracking or flaking, and in fact, WolfeFX is the best one so far! Doesn't even smudge!  Under a camera, it doesn't look horrible either.  The reel tattoo had issues with bright lighting.  It would look faded and crappy.

If you are a makeup enthusiast and would like some tips on creating this look, please browse through my TattooFAQ .