Several years ago l made a few trees. They were inspired from an image I saw from the Hallowed Haunting Grounds. And based on Canto 13 of Dante’s Inferno
It appears as a dark wood with no evident path running through it, filled with trees “not green, but of dark colour” with “branches not wholesome, but knotted and twisted” (XIII, 2-5); and in fact the trees themselves are those damned souls guilty of suicide, grown “into branches and woody plants” to be tormented by harpies as punishment (XIII, 100).
I start with a PVC T drilled into a base of plywood scrap, I then build a PVC armature, bending it with a heat gun where needed and adding a skull for a head, after that is done I build a chicken wire body around the armature securing it with zip ties. The jaw of the skull is held in a permanent scream with wire and hot glue.
One the base armature is finished I cover the chicken wire with newspaper and clear packing tape. This helps to cover the texture of the chicken wire for the next step, paper towel mache. I add real branches on the “arm” ends of the tree.
Using a mixture of White Elmer’s glue and water (1 part glue to 2 parts water) I dip the paper towel in the mixture and wring it out slightly and lay it on the tree overlapping layers slightly. after the first layer is on I let it dry for a few hours and add a second layer. The second layer is where I add detail I scrunch the paper towel mache to make what looks to me to be bark like texture.
Once I have the paper towel mache like I want it maybe 3 layers thick I let it dry for several days. Then using flat black spray paint I paint the whole thing black. Using exterior grade latex house paint in a brown tone I paint the surface with a brush.
Once everything is dry I dry brush the surface with a tan color.
Tags: How-to · Papertowel-macheNo Comments