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TwoToned-Jester β Homestuck Troll Horns Tutorial 4/4
Published: 2012-02-20 23:34:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 33534; Favourites: 445; Downloads: 420
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PART ONE: [link]PART TWO: [link]
PART THREE: [link]
Because I've gotten so many requests, I\'m crossposting this from my tumblr to here to help people out!
Disclaimer: I'm not at all saying that this is the only way to make horns. Far from it. This is merely what I\'ve found works, and what I construct all of my horns out of.
Materials Needed:
Styrofoam [Enough to make four or so cutouts of your horns. I used blocks/sheets from hobby lobby, because they weren't the pill type of styrofoam and could be sanded easily]
Crayola Model Magic [It's light and can be sanded pretty smooth if you put some time into it]
Tagboard [Or some other stiff paper big enough to draw a template on]
Exactoblade with extra replacement blades [If you have a better way of carving foam, by all means use that! I've just found that the exactoblade that I use gives me a lot of control over how the base shape of my horns turns out]
Spackling [Model Magic has the unfortunate problem of cracking sometimes, and so a sandable spackling allows you to fill in those deep cracks pretty easily. You should be able to find it at your local hardware store, or walmart or something]
Modge Podge [Not only does this help fill in little cracks on the horns before you paint, it also is used to give the horns a final glaze at the end to make them slightly more durable. It is shiny though, so if you want matte horns, go off and find a matte base.]
White Gesso [Found in art supply stores, this is a base used for acrylic paints that will even out your horns before you actually paint them. In addition, if you used colored model magic, it'll make them a clean white before you paint.]
Acrylic Paint [Now I don't remember off of the top of my head which brand I use, but I generally grab a yellow base, two oranges, and a red. I stick to Americana because I'm a poor college student, but I'm sure any work!]
Hot Glue/Hot Glue Gun [In case of any mishaps, and also to make sure your horns have depth and aren't totally flat]
Toothpicks [Once again, in case of mishaps. Will be explained later on]
Paintbrushes [Gotta have something to paint with]
Sandpaper [I used three different grits, a coarse 60, a medium 100, and a fine 150. Believe me, all three are nice to have!]
Headband/Clips/Support for the horns [Smaller horns can be mounted on headbands, sewn into wigs, and attached to clips, but Summoner\'s horns required intensive hardware to hold up]
Reference pictures [I can't stress this enough! Don't try to make the horns from memory, even if they seem simple! It just gets you super frustrated and can lead to bad results. Canon pictures from the comic are your best bet, but if you don't have many refs from the comic (ie, if you're doing an ancestor), fanart can help too.]
Sharpies [Or some type of permanent marker, just to mark things off]
Pins [You only need a few, depending on the size of your template]
Time [Making horns takes time. The clay doesn't dry quick, the sanding takes a lot of time and busy work, and it can get very tempting to just rush through to get done. Resist that urge, because the more time you put into your horns, the better they generally look]
Homestuck is copyright Andrew Hussie, as always
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Comments: 87
How is your neck not broken from having those Tavros horns on your head?
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This is such a great tutorial, and exactly what I needed! Thank you!
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Same for the question below, are there any steps I can skip if I'm making Nepeta and karkat horns? I'm not the richest person ever and it would really help it I can avoid buying some of these materials
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Do you use hot glue gun to attach smaller horns to headbands/clips? I'm going to be cosplaying Nepeta next year for an upcoming convention, can I get away with anything for Nepeta's horns since they're small? I have a lot of air dry clay left and I have no idea what to do with it other than possibly doing her horns out of it. c: Β Β
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Okay, so I *might* be cosplaying Aradia this year. I haven't made Homestuck troll horns before, and from most of the tutorials I have seen here on DeviantArt, the end results are quite glossy. Is there any way possible to make them less shiny, or "matte", I guess?"
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Certainly!Β The example that I used, I used a glossy modge-podge because it was what someone requested, but there are multitudes of matte coatings out there that you can use.Β I'd actually suggest using a matte or satin spraypaint sealer, as it'll be easier to cover Aradia's horns, due to their unique shape.
If you don't want to deal with that, you can also opt not to seal your horns at all!
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;A; tHE HORNS AT THE BOTTOM,,,aRE BIGGER,,,tHAN MINE,,,
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Thanks for the amazing tutorial c: hehe~ i was trying to find an easier way how to model things more...how do i say it..Even o_o i have abit of trouble with things being uneven :c (ish kinda odc x'3) Β but this will be a great project for me to do (: THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!
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Hi, another person with another question!
Your tutorial is super great, and has left me with a question about bigger horns. You mentioned in a comment below that you build a headpiece to attach them to. I'm hoping to do the GHB, and whilst I'm pretty sure I can get the horns made, the hardest question is attaching them. Could you go into what kind of headpiece you make at all?
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Of course!Β Bare in mind, however, that the headpiece that I use for Summoner is balanced for horns on the side of the head, as opposed to ones coming off the top of the head, so it will not be terribly suitable for highblood horns, but the concept is similar.Β Unfortunately, balancing horns is all about trial and error, and it may take you many tries to find something that really works well.
I use part of an old welding headpiece under my wig, which fastens around my head, as well as across the crown of my skull to help balance.Β The horns themselves are directly nailed into this piece, as well as held with industrial epoxy and a few other adhesives, which does well enough to hold them up, but there is also a tension wire strung through the tips of both horns that keeps them from drooping.
My wig is actually attached to the entire thing, so it isn't seen through the wefts, and the final touches ended up being padding on the points where each horn is attached, because while they aren't necessarily heavy, wearing them for multiple hours tends to give me tension headaches, because their attachment points are right over my temples.
For highblood horns, I would recommend using something that goes around the skull, as well as over the top (so as to have a good point to anchor them to), but realize that there's going to still be a fair bit of chance for them to sway on the top of your head (given their height!) and so it's going to be a little difficult to get them to be completely steady, unless you go the route of something along the lines of drilling them right into a helmet or something.
Best of luck to you!
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Ah, excellent, thank you for the answer! I've been trying to figure out a decent answer to this for a while, so that has definitely given me some ideas to play with. The height problem is the one I've been the most worried about. Guess it's time to start experimenting and see what works.
Again, thank you!
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No problem! Β I hope everything goes swimmingly for you, I'm sure it's going to be a really awesome outfit!
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This is a very awesome tutorial!
I did these same things for the horns I am making, and I have a little question:
What did you do to attach the horns to a headband?
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It really depends on the horns!Β I actually dislike using headbands unless absolutely necessary, so most of my smaller horns are wired directly into the wigs that I use.Β If the horns are a bit larger and require support, I hide the headband under the wig and use nails poked through the wefts and a little epoxy to hold them on, and if the horns are extremely large, I build a head piece and directly affix the horns to it, and then style the wig over the entire thing.
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Genius! This sounds SO much lighter than my foil-wrapped-in-model-magic from the convention last year! My partner's horns even fell and BROKE using that method! It made for lots of silent tears for Kurloz, and lots of hopelessly sad signing from me to them. I am definitely looking forward to making next year's horns out of this! Luckily I'm not Meulin next year. xD
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Very awesome tutorial
I will most likely use this for my Rufioh and SummonerΒ
thanksΒ
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this seems very helpful! I`ll try this with the horns i`m making soon. also, dem summoner horns eue (sorry, couldn`t resist)
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Will this work the same if you use an oven bake clay like Sculpey?
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Oh gosh, do NOT put styrofoam in the oven! There's potential for it to melt and also potential for fumes! Oven bake clays are generally heavier and not suited to this method. However, paperclay works pretty well as an alternative.
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Wow! Thank you so much for this tutorial!!!! It's extremely helpful!
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This is a beautiful tutorial for any horns! thank you!
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to make the head peice not show threwdo u have to cut open the wig? [im planing on being gamzee at a con in april an ive got the wig but im not sure i realy wana cut it... [it works for other cosplays as well]] an ive only got playing head bands no fancy head thing like urs so -_- ugh im hurting myself here....
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Oh no! What you can do is drive a nail through the headband and then poke the nail through the wefts of the wig. No need to cut your wig open!
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I'm making Fef horns and I was wondering if it was better to mount them on a headband or have them on large clips.
Thanks!
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Fef horns might be a little heavy for clips, but if you have time, trial and error should let you know if the clips are stable enough! Usually, the only horns that I wire to clips are the smaller ones, like Karkat and Terezi.
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Okay thanks so much, and thanks for putting up the tutorial!
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I am making Aradia horns. Do you think that the foam core is a good idea for these since hers curve outwards a bit? I have considered using a wire for the shape and modlemagicing around that. Which version would you recommend? Just to clarify, the model magic is sandable, right?
Sorry for asking so many questions, I just want these horns to be perfect, and I'm on a tight budget, so I can only afford to make one pair of horns.
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First, yes, model magic is sandable!
Second, I'm a little out on if this is the best way to do Aradia horns. If you're /very/ good at carving a block of foam, this can be a method that works quite well. You just have to realize you're working in more than one dimension at this point, and that instead of just making flat templates, you're probably going to have to find a way to bulk up the horns to the side, just so you can sand them into the more outwardly-curving shape. However, it's time consuming and a little difficult to do the carving, so unless you have a lot of free time, and room to redo them in case your first pair do not turn out.
What I've found for more curved horns (Callie Ophiee, realistic Makara horns, Aradia, etc) is that you can braid together thin wire (though for Aradia, I'd say go with the highest gauge you can safely bend so they have more support!) for the core, than surround the wire with foil to bulk them up so you're not using too much model magic. Just a wire core will eventually stress the horns far too much, causing them to rip apart.
Oh gosh, I'm sorry I'm not very clear, I do hope your horns go well! If you have any other questions, I'll certainly try to answer them!
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No, I think I understand. Thank you sooo much for helping me out with this. It's hard to find good ways to make her horns. I think I'll try your wire/foil/model method. Thanks again!!!
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I know that this is for horns, and someday I intend to make some, but in the meantime, would this kind of thing be appropriate for making some kind of model gun, perhaps? It's for a school project, and I'm looking up horn tutorials because I know that a lot describe carving and sanding polystyrene and foam, which is what I intend to use.
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I suppose the basic principle is the same for any sort of carved and sanded piece. Depending on how detailed you'd like to get, there might be a better way to cover the foam to rid it of it's porous texture though.
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Can I ask two questions?
Using this method, how strong would you say they are? I think that this foam core method is genius, but I'm a bit paranoid of them snapping in half in the heat of a Con...
And also- What kind of paint did you use to paint them? :3
This is brilliant, and your horns are simply beautiful !!!
~Hawky
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The strength of your horns depends on the thickness of the horn and what horns you're making! Certainly they're still not completely damage proof, but the only problem I've ever had with any pair was when someone was manhandling my Summoner horns far too roughly, and the tip broke off. Other than that, all of the horns I've made have stayed pretty solid. If you don't go out of your way to abuse them and don't make them paper thin, they should be fine.
Ahaha, oh jeeze, I just use basic .99 cent acrylic paints I pick up from my local hobby lobby. One yellow, one orange, and one red.
Thank you! Best of luck to you with your future horn making!
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Thank you so much! :3
~Hawky
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As I put my horns on my headband they began to crack a lot....should I use plaster to seal them up again and repeat the whole painting and sealing process again? 
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Oh dear! What type of horns did you make and how're you attaching them?
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I made Calliope Horns...I attached them with superglue onto a headband.
Its my fault kinda because I glued them on in the wrong positions they began to crack in the back when I twisted them into their right places.
They're kinda falling over though with the headband...I'm not sure what to do.
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Ah! I've made those before! Unfortunately, Calliope's horns are going to be much to big to just glue on, so you would benefit from driving a small nail through your headband and into the horns, and then gluing. I use either hot glue or liquid nails, depending on the situation and how heavy the horns are.
Twisting the horns will cause the outer coating to break yes. Hrm...it can be difficult to repair, but if you think you can fill in the cracks with another medium, I say try it!
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oh my god I love you soooo much for posting this! I wasn't sure how to make the more complicated troll horns!
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Can air dry clay work instead of Magic mold?
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Air dry clay can work, but I'd caution against it, especially if it's Crayola brand. That particular brand tends to crack really easily, and it's much heavier when you use it for larger horns.
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I just want to make terezi horns.
Would you still recommend using foam for hers'?
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