The Walking Onion…

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Dear god, its been a while! And that’s all I’ll say on that matter! This post isn’t about where I’ve been, but rather, what I’ve been doing. In this case, about my newest build for the latest Denver Zombie Crawl.
The last two years I had gone to the event as one of my drawings, a zombie character that I named Mort. Last year I decided to retire him, due to the impracticality of the costume not having arms, as well as the fact that the head piece was actually starting to show signs of falling apart.

mort

I decided to create a whole new zombie for this year’s Zombie Crawl.

First, like the last build, I started by doing several layers of mache’ over a large rubber kick ball. After several layers, I was able to smash it down and reshape it into more of an oval/egg shape. Then I used more newspaper to build up the chin and mouth area…

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After several layers of more mache’ over the built up area, I cut out the area for my head to fit in, and pulled out the deflated ball….

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Next, I cut out the mouth through both layers. I would later clean up all the cut out areas with a few layers of mache’ around the edges.

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The mouth itself was built out of a leftover piece of oval shaped mache’ from a previous project. The teeth and gums were sculpted onto it out of a polymer clay…

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….and glued over the mouth after the perfect placement was determined. This would be the predominant area that I would eventually see out of while wearing the head.

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First test fitting. At this point I had already cut out the eye sockets and added detail around them with more polymer clay. Also, I created a fracture at the very top of the head, detailed around the edges with polymer clay, and filled with a soft styrofoam from a craft store.
For the inside of the head, I made a place that cradled my forehead as well as a place for my chin. Not only did this help hide my face from being easily seen through the openings, but it made the head fit more stable, like a mask.

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Next, I finished up the details around the eyes and skull fracture, and added some around the open mouth. The inside of the head was painted with a black primer, and the parts wear my face and head would fit were sealed with a few layers of clear acrylic.

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I had been mulling over the idea of making hands, and finally committed to them at the last second. I made them by cutting out the back of the hands from a mailing tube and gluing on some velcro straps. The fingers were made from wooden dowels and wire; shaped, and then fixed in place with polymer knuckles. The whole hands were covered with a few layers of mache’ after baking.

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The finished sculpts, ready for painting. (stuffed the head and skull fracture with paper)

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After a few layers of white primer, all the pieces were painted in a variety of colors of acrylic. Being colorblind, I was kinda hoping for the best.

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….and finished!! Several layers of paint, glazing and dry-brushing. I also painted the styrofoam in the fracture black….

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….before adding the finishing touches of flowers.

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At the last second (the day of the Denver Zombie Crawl) I decided to make some quick business cards to give out….for promotion, yes, but mainly to ask folks who take photos with me to send me a copy via email.

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And here’s the finished look moments before the Zombie Crawl. I named this guy “Vincent”, for obvious reasons.

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Like I started this post, it HAS been a while! Thanks to those of you who have stuck with me here, and I hope to share some new stuff with you soon!

 

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