Masks and Flashing

So, I know the costume work I'm doing isn't really "art" per se, but I am using all my artistic chops to get it done.  I've also sanded out a new mask for my muppet heads and it's looking mighty good.  Check it all out:

Poor man's earplugs

What took hours, now takes 15mins with a belt sander

Demolded.  I don't think I can express to you how happy I was that this came out well.  The mold gods were smiling on me yet again.

My badass cape which is probably my second proudest achievement

Here it is.  I am doing another casting to see if I can fix some of the seaming issues, but this one will work even if the next one doesn't pan out.

Next week: the toothening

I HAVE THE POWER!!!!

 I had a bit of a fun find this weekend.  I found rome old Masters of the Universe characters in a bargain bin (and a pretty sweet MOTU Classics Skeletor!)  Enough of that.  I managed to fleece my latest head.  Even with the Henson Stitch, I feel like I will need to do something extra to conceal the seams.  I was going to try flocking it and see what happens.
In an astonishing turn of events I managed to demold my Batman mask without a hitch.  It just sort of popped off.  I was feeling pretty good about myself.   More on the costumes next week.  I'm also looking to start another head and polish the latest one off.

Rough cut

Profile

All seamed up

 and ready for teeth

Demolded!

Sexy Skeletor is looking for someone to master his universe.

Return of the Mask

No, I'm not making praying mantises (manti?) I just almost stepped on this one yesterday.  Anyway, so I'm back in full force on the heads with some newfound inspiration, so hopefully I can get some more of these guys done in the next month or so.  So check it out:

Much like the Cat in the Hat I live a mess everywhere I go

Added extra jaw and some cheakbones

I thought I'd give he belt sander a try for smoothing.  Not perfect, but it cut out about 2 hours of work.  I couldn't find my earplugs so I used 2 AAA batteries.

Next week I'll be adding his skin :)

Casting a Batman Mask

So this week I started something very scary.  If you haven't guessed by now I'm casting my own latex batman mask.  It's a mix of several versions.  It most closely resembles the Batman: Dead End mask I suppose.  As we know latex is usually cast in a plaster mold.  I'm not a fan of plaster molds.  They tend to lock up and do other awful things.  I also don't really have the proper setup to be working on this, but here I go.  First I covered the mouth and eyes to remove undercuts.

Next I put up a clay wall at my parting line

Reinforced.... it fell down 3 times while I was putting plaster one.... not great.

Plaster and burlap.  Removed the wall.  Surprisingly clean for the most part, but there will be a lot of cleanup later.  The cheap water clay I used for the wall was very tacky. It also turned out to be a very wobbly parting line.

tah daaahh....

Next week I hope I will have something more interesting for you.

Dreams and Little Terrors

 

I've had quite a few little ideas running around my brain lately, so I thought I'd jot them down.  These are some sketches of little wooden figures that resemble those weird wooden mannequins (yep, I had to spell check that one)  Just a thought.

Sketch

sucker.

I actually had a dream about this drawing.  I didn't quite get it down though.  I was at an art show of my own work and I saw it from across the room.

Feet in the Clouds

This was a fun week.  I made some stencil T-shirts and finished sculpting the feet on my guy.  It was Christina's birthday, so I decided to make T-shirts for our little family.  But first, some feet:

Basic Shape

Articulating the knuckles

Upside-down toenail sculpting

Not quite done, but good enough

Attached hands and feet

Stencil cut out of acetate

Taped to a screen

Prepped shirts with cardboard underneath

Always protection

Lay the fabric ink

Gently load the screen

Do a hard pull the other direction (not shown because both hands were occupied)

Bob Ross.

And that's how you do a fast screen printed shirt.

How to Sculpt Tiny Hands (and Batman)

So I can sculpt torsos all day long, but hands and feet take forever.  So I thought I'd dedicate a post to hand sculpting.  There's also a sneak peak at my halloween costume and some rad drawings  below.  

I start by making a very basic wire armature for my hand that was proportionate to my figure.

Then I figure out the positioning of the fingers and start adding clay and roughing out wrinkles and bones.

75% of the way there, starting to add veins.

Full Detailing

Give me five

I'm sculpting the mask, not that I deserve, but the mask I needed

Maya and I go on dates at Fajitas and Ritas because they have paper table cloths.  She drew our family. Here is the picture she drew of mommy.

Self-portrait (possibly as a dinosaur)

And me... Giant head.  Tiny body.  Not bad for a 2.5yr old.

Getting a new phone next month.  Hopefully the picture quality will increase.

Next week I'll post about feet!