I was going to do a pirate theme for 2007, but I just didn't have the energy or resources to revamp all my props/decor into swashbuckling seafarer stuff. So I used the wig head casts that I started for the pirate crew and made them into other things that have been on my list for a while now. First in the line up will be "Umuthi" the witch doctor. Umuthi is the Zulu word for "medicine". The goofy mask I used last year for the witch doctor will be retired. I'll be doing a duct tape double for his body as well so that I can make him look a little more like a witch doctor and less like a flea market salesman.
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I started with one wig head and made several paper mache casts of it. |
| First, I tried some dryer lint clay for building up facial features. It works fairly well, and this is my first attempt at using it. Thanks to Black Cat for the recipe -- recycle recycle recycle!! |
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I got 'a-head' of myself (hahaha) and decided to fill them with Great Stuff and a PVC neck before putting the eyes in. I did these just like I did the witches and Frankenstein's monster. |
| So I had to improvise with the eyes. I cut a ping pong ball in quarters and cut a couple of slits in the paper mache where the corners of the eyes would be and inserted the ends of the PP ball pieces which made nice tabs into them. |
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Then I spritzed the eye area with some water, and applied Gorilla Glue to the edges of the "eyes" so it would expand and hold them on there. |
| After a 3 month hiatus from working on this guy, I decided it was time to get him done. I added some color to the ping pong balls by gluing some circles of a grayish-blue paper to it. Once I got that all done, I made the eyelids, and built up the lips and cheeks, and covered some of the forehead, chin and nose with paper. |
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I drilled holes in the nose and coated the whole face in another layer of paper to smooth it out. You can really see what he is going to look like at this point. I went with the gray-blue for his eyes just to make him look a little more creepy instead of using brown. |
| A side
view.
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I went ahead and painted him with some latex paint I had on hand to get a feel of how he's going to look. He's got some paper lines showing. |
| Here he's gotten his first layer of latex. I used expired latex from Cementex since it dries clear, unlike the fresh stuff. He's still wet in this picture. |
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I gave him a coat of dark brown to start off his finishing paint job. I didn't bother with ears because his headdress will cover them anyway. |
| The picture is blurry, but you can see the general painted face. I used the medium brown that I used earlier to give him his main color. I watered down a little bit of it and used a cosmetic wedge to apply it kind of like applying a liquid foundation. I made sure to avoid the eye area and tried to make sure I didn't put too much on and make him all monochromatic again. I used a tiny artist's brush and did some fine lines around the eyes and some shadowing here and there. I also mixed some pink with the lighter brown for the lips, and lined that with some darker brown for definition. I don't think I am going to ruin him by trying to give him eyebrows. |
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| I saved some chicken bones from dinner the other night (gross yeah, I know) and boiled them, then washed them, then bleached them and baked them. I used one of the smallest ones and pierced Umuthi's nose. The rest of them will probably be made into a necklace for him. I'm not quite sure how I'll go about making his body. More than likely, I will use my son and do a Duct Tape Dummy (DTD) and use a PVC frame to build him. He'll need to have bare arms and legs and stuff, so I'll probably make him in the same fashion that I made Goliath. | |
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