Unearthed by peasants in in 1942 somewhere near Lima, Peru. Buried sometime between 1480 and 1535 we believe. It is one of many such mummies found and a fine exhibit of mummification from the Incas. Supposedly this particular piece is said to bring bad luck so the Ringworm Brothers sideshow will be selling this cursed piece soon.
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I was commisioned to do my own take on Nosferatu.
Here it is. I decided he is a rat eating, darkness dwelling, disgusting, pale, beady eyed, filthy,blood swilling type thing that really would only attack the weak because its to afraid of anything that could harm him.
Tags: Airbrushing · Clay-macheNo Comments.
This is how I paint a foam skull. Its a rather quick process that yields decent results.
What you need:
I start with a 2 part urethane foam skull I cast.
I coat it with white glue mixed with some water so I can easily brush it on the skull. Give it a good coating and let it dry. This helps hide the foam texture and seal it.
After it is dry spray paint it with flat black spray paint.
Once the spray paint is dry use a bone colored acrylic paint and paint the high areas of the skull randomly, you dont want total coverage (one way to do this is use a sponge and if the coverage is too much blot it off with a paper towel), leave some black showing in the deep recesses. I used an airbrush on this piece.
After this drys, go back and paint in the lines and cracks with a watered down black. Then using a watered down burnt umber blot on some filth here and there to add some antiquing near the eyes, jawline and mouth.
Let it dry for an hour.
Now taking the original bone color dry brush the entire skull with it very lightly.
Almost done, Paint the teeth. Using watered down acrylics, or inks.
After the teeth are done, I usually will go back and very lightly paint (very dry brush, so dry that you can hardly detect any paint in it) the highest points of the skull with the base bone color but I add a bit of titanium white to it to make it brighter, this brings out the contrast to the piece. Finally spray the whole thing with a matte sealer to reduce the shine.
And you are done
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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-macheComments Off
Last year I made a commissioned witch for a customer. Here is the process I went through to make the piece.
The person wanted a witch. I don’t normally work from reference photos they tend to mess me up and frustrate me. I will look at Google images and books for a while and then think on it for a bit and a while later start working, making some sort of amalgamation of what I looked at I guess.
I usually work on top of a 2 part urethane foam skull cast I make. I add bulk to the foam with Celluclay, Available at any art store or online.
I then start adding more defining features as I see fit. In this case the chin and the nose. These are the main features most witches have in my mind. I placed roll-on deodorant balls in the eye sockets after I dug some of the foam out so they would fit in there (they aren’t glued in yet).
I continue defining the brow and add some mass to the forehead area. I add most of the nose at this point.
I hate the nose I added so I removed it and slimmed it down a lot. You will notice the Celluclay has shrunk a lot in the picture below, its 30-50% water and it does that. Its also fairly hard at this point. it has dried for maybe 2-3 days. I had a lot of frustration with the nose, I re sculpted it many times. Sometimes this happens with a certain feature, it can be maddening.
I then take Paperclay and start adding it over the Celluclay making a smooth topcoat. I have also added some glue to the back of the roll-on balls and glued them in place where I wanted them, I normally use Gorilla glue for this. I think I also removed the hook from the end of her nose if I remember correctly. The Paperclay topcoat is where I add in most of my detail of wrinkles, and texture.
Paperclay does dry much faster than Celluclay and has a tendency to crack sometimes, I will go back after the Paperclay is dry and fill in the cracks as needed.
Then its on to painting, I usually paint the eyes last.
And hair
Tags: Clay-mache · How-toComments Off