Quick and Easy Horn Tutorial!
So I have gotten a lot of asks on how I make my HOMESTUCK TROLL HORNS! Now they aren’t the best, but they take A SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME to make! You have a CON tomorrow and haven’t finished your HORNS? Do them in a DAY! Just read this tutorial!
Now here is an example of the horns I shall be making.
(iwill-be-justme is cosplaying midna, ignore her in the picture currently, look at the hella rad horns upon my head)
Okay to start off you need wrap.
wonderful, right? An easy start I know. Now this section takes about half an hour to do, maybe less maybe more. I kept getting distracted when I was timing myself when I was doing this project and due to that I used a whole day to make the horns. Now make two little scrunched up round pieces.
I mean, try to make them AT LEAST the same height. It doesn’t exactly matter in this stage, they will grow anyways. Now this part is a bit odd but it works. Trust me, I’ve made Feferi, Kankri, Terezi, and Vriska horns (we don’t talk about the Eridan horns). So what you need to do is rip the wrap into little strips and roll the bottom half of the horn in it until it is your desired width and roundness.
You kind of just keep doing this until something like this is formed
So yes, you do sometimes make the strips of wrap longer so you can even out the horn so its not all thick at the bottom and extremely thin at the top (if that makes sense). Like this!
Now do the other one and try to make it the same height and thickness! (make sure to keep crushing the wrap so it sticks together, and crush it against the table so its flat, also roll it against the table so it gets round!)
I made mine about the size of a quarter!
Look at that! Same height basically! Now take your clay out! I use this clay. (the clay part takes about 45 minutes, but again, I was very distracted)
Now make the clay AS THIN AS YOU CAN! Considering the wrap isn’t all that heavy, you don’t want your clay weighing it down! These horns still aren’t all that light, but hey! Its better than nothing!
Now start to wrap your horn outlines! It doesn’t matter where I guess, just make sure everything is covered!
Now everything is covered! Now I bent my horn due to it being a Feferi horn. (Little Feferi horn tip! DO NOT BEND YOUR HORN THAT MUCH! MAKE A SLIGHT TILT! ITS ON A CURVED SURFACE THAT IS CALLED YOUR HEAD! IF YOU BEND IT TOO MUCH THEY ARE GOING TO BE SO CURVED AND LOOK A LITTLE AWKWARD! ONLY CURVE IT SLIGHTLY!)
Now you see how chunky this is? This is gross. Ew. Grab some picks. Now I’ve tried to flatten my horns out in many ways, this has been one of the best ways to me even if its kind of awkward.
Yay picks!
Look at this bad boy oh yeah good style and such. Now the way I do this is kind of weird, you kind of just... push on the clay? Smooth it out that way I guess, in a rolling sort of gesture? I don’t know, if it works it works.
So I did that and this is how it looks.
You need to try to get out all of those little cracks that aren’t cracks but you know what I mean. Now I didn’t really try too hard considering I was very distracted, but trust me, it looks better without the little cracks.
Yay, now you’ve gotten one done! You can use the picks to make little indents to make it look like those, uh, I don’t know, indents on horns, like a rams horns, they have indents. Yeeaah... Just do the other one.
Now that you’ve done that, you need to stick the wire in! This part is hard considering you have put SOOOO many layers of wrap on, but it IS possible! Now there are many other ways of putting horns on, so if you prefer like, I don’t know, clips attached to the horns then ignore this next part.
I use this wire, it comes in different sizes and I can never remember which one I used for which horns so whatever.
Make sure to cut the wire so its not extremely long. (also try to get the clay around the wire so there is no little hole, if that makes sense) Now cook it! I believe it takes 15 minutes to cook and then who knows how long to cool down! Then we grab the sandpaper! We sandpaper to get rid of some of the fingerprints and smooth out some of the lumps. Also sandpaper can make some tiny lines that could possibly make the sandpaper look more realistic in a way I guess...
And then we paint. I don’t know how long it will take you to paint, but do not forget to do layers! ALSO I DIDN’T DO THE BEST PAINTING JOB BECAUSE I WAITED ALL DAY TO START WORKING ON MY HORNS AGAIN AND IT WAS LATE AT NIGHT SO I DIDN’T REALLY TRY WHEN PAINTING! (also stay hydrated you guys)
Look at dat crappy job! Make sure to blend the colors if you like to do that. I enjoy blending the colors and I obviously didn’t do the best of jobs so whatever. Now we find the hot glue gun and headband, make sure its a tick headband that can handle the size of the bottom of the horn. Now go to a mirror and put on the headband. Then we place the horns where we want them and mark the area with chalk; I suggest you put a chalk mark on either side of the horn that is on your head so when you place it down with the glue it is in the middle of the two chalk lines. (you should get help for this, thanks mom and iwill-be-justme for helping me out with all my cosplays!)
I put glue down first and squished the horn on, letting it cool for a few seconds. Then we wrap the wire around and hot glue that!
Yes, hot glue ALL OF IT, make sure the wire is not loose so it won’t mess with your wig hair. My Kankri horns constantly mess with my wig hair and I should fix that soon. Also glue the little holes in the clay where the wire breaks through just to make sure everything is safe!
AND THERE YOU GO! The horns are done! It only took you a few hours and a little waiting time! I do not suggest using this tutorial though unless you are having a last minute issue only because they don’t look as neat as other horn tutorials out there! They are light though, but heavy enough that if you bend down they will fall off. Don’t let that happen. I haven’t had any of mine break before, but I know that clay breaks, so be careful I guess? And yeah, happy con-ing? Just have fun cosplaying!