How to MAKE a Geico Caveman Costume

My first Instructable!!!!
While watching TV I saw the famous Geico Caveman commercial. I thought to myself what a great Halloween costume idea, so I went to work and took some pics along the way. Hope you enjoy and hopefully this Halloween there will be a bunch of caveman walking the streets!!! Total project cost was about $30.00 excluding some stuff I already had, and it took about two days to complete.

Step 1: What You Will Need

MATERIALS:

For lifecast:
Alginate
plaster bandages
plaster
petroleum jelly
bald cap
drinking straws
another person

For sculpture:
modeling clay
miscellaneous utensils
orange
more plaster

For mask:
liquid latex
wig
spirit gum
makeup
scissors

Step 2: Make a Lifecast

As Wikipedia defines a lifecast "is the process of creating a three-dimensional copy of a living human body" in this case just the face. I found an excellent instructible on this (Lifecasting-Hands) so I wont go into that much detail. Sorry forgot to take pics

First put a bald cap on so it covers your hair.

Second apply the petroleum jelly to all facial hair like eyebrows, eyelashes etc.

Third mix alginate and apply over face and let dry (it will turn rubbery) put straws in nose so you can breath.

Fourth wet plaster bandages and apply over dry alginate and let harden.

Fifth, wiggle your face to loosen alginate, pull off alginate and plaster bandages together, the plaster bandages keeps the shape of your face. This is a negative of your face.

Lastly mix and pour plaster into the negative, let dry and then you will have a positive of your face!!

Step 3: Lets Sculpt a CAVEMAN!!

OK, so you have a positive of your face, now you need a game plan.

I found pics online and used them as a reference, my plan was to sculpt one part at a time starting with the forehead and brows then work down. Even though I have a big nose already, I made it wider so it looks different and made some protruding cheekbones to help with the Neanderthal look.

Step 4: Add Some Detail and Texture

Now that you have the basic caveman look you should add some imperfections just like a human or caveman might have. You can use anything around like a knife or other utensils for this. I used a sharp knife for the forehead lines, an orange for the texture of human pours and a pine cone for some creators.

Step 5: Cast the Sculpture and Adding Latex

So your done sculpting, now mix up some plaster putting a thin layer on first, making sure it gets in all the cracks. Then keep plopping more on until you cover the whole thing. Let it fully dry so when you pull it off the cracks and lines are not left in in the sculpture.

The second pic shows the inside of the casting even though it looks like the positive its actually a negative. It looks wet because it is, I added the liquid latex in multiple layers so it gets thick. The last pic is when it is almost dry. I left it over night just to be sure it fully cured. END OF DAY ONE

Step 6: Test Fitting and Trimming

Day 2, I took out the dry latex mask, cut out the eyes and tried it on. Fit like a glove! As you can see the mouth is totally covered so I later cut it out along the cheek lines and removed the mouth and chin ( hay I need to talk).

Step 7: Its Beard Time

This part took FOREVER!!
So now we make the beard. The beard hair is the same hair as the wig. I bought a "religious" wig which had hair past my shoulders, so I cut it and put in some gel to make it look wet.

I applied a thin layer of liquid latex where the beard was going to go, then used the leftover hair and applied small bunches starting from the lower chin and adding layers on top, using latex to make it stick. I later added the mustache and trimmed the whole thing. This took about 3 1/2 hours to do.

Step 8: Coloring the Mask

Here comes the tricky part, matching the color of the mask close to the caveman's skin. I went to the 99 cents store and picked up some cheap oil based makeup and went to work. Use darker makeup in the lines and cracks so they are more visible. As you can see the mask is now in two pieces. I later added hair to the lower cheeks so it would blend in with the beard.

Step 9: Putting It All Together

This Step will mostly be pics that are self explanatory. Start with the forehead using spirit gum to stick all mask parts on. Then put the beard on, next the nose and cheek part since it has hair that falls over the beard. Lastly fill in the mouth, eyes and around the mask with the same makeup and put on the wig!

Step 10: The FINNISHED Product!!!

So here it is the Before and After, it was a little weird my close friends and even my own Mother did not recognize me at first HaHa, so go out and populate the streets caveman style! Hope you enjoyed my first instructable, more to come!!