I have blogged about Mr. Lo Pan a few times. But I have never posted about how I made him. I cannot draw so all of my pieces start in my head as concepts. I usually just start building, I don’t even make a sketch first.
He was made for a contest at Hauntforum.com
The contest was to use Monster Mud as the main component. Monster Mud is a mixture of latex paint and drywall mud. It was made famous by Terror Syndicate. The original recipe is here Monster Mud. Typically it is used on burlap. I find that burlap makes for very heavy props when used with MM and doesn’t allow for the true character of the fabric to show through so I like to use finer lightweight fabrics like muslin. I also like to dip my fabric in the MM and totally saturate it and then wring it out and squeegee all the excess MM off of it. Once I apply it to the piece I rarely add additional MM, unless it is between pieces of fabric as a glue.
I started by building a stack of crates from an old potting shelf and part of an old fence. I wanted then to look old and crooked.
Next I fashioned a body form from chicken wire and set it upon the crates. I measured my own body and subtracted a percentage from the arms and legs to make him seem dis-proportionate. I put a cast foam skull on a stick and put it in the body form. I bent it into the proper pose (or so I thought)
I then spent some time researching the proper position that flute players use when playing. I realized I was a bit off. My next task was to make an internal armature for the body form, I realize this may seem backwards but I wanted to make the body form and pose it properly first (I believe this makes for a more visually compelling body form). I marked the wire form and then unbent it. I attached a steel floor flange to the top crate and screwed an 18 inch piece of pipe into it. I then bent PVC with a heat gun and inserted it into the body form. I used wire and zip ties to attach the PVC to the steel pipe and body form.
