The Great Cover Up

This skull was an experiment in creating a prop by applying strip mache over an existing form. The skull also provided a chance to play around with different painting techniques by going beyond my typical dry brushing technique. The result is a fairly realistic skull that looks as if it has been removed from an ancient crypt. This is a great project for someone looking to try papier mache because it basically bypasses the artistic process and concentrates on the technical aspects of papier mache.



Complete instructions can be found here:

Eye of the Frog

Changed the eyeballs on my five papier mache frogs created for the Frog-O-Rama Workshops.

The original frogs featured simple black and white eyeballs created from plain white paper and a black marker.

The new eyes were designed in Photoshop, printed and attached with white glue.

Improvement?

Not really in my opinion, just different, sort of an eye for an eye.

Facebook

I’m not talking about everyone’s favorite social network but rather a concept taught to me in the early 1980’s by a theatrical make-up professor at Ferris State University. This concept is easy, cheap and best of all something you will find very useful when designing and building your Halloween props especially character/creature based props.

You will need:

A Three Ring Binder
A Three Hole Punch
Plain Paper
Scissors
Glue Sticks
Marker
Old Magazines

Working with papier mache means that pretty much nothing in our house gets thrown away, rather everything is stored until it comes time to turn it into a creepy Halloween prop. Magazines are a great resource for making props because I roll them into tubes to make armatures for bones, fingers or pumpkin stems , all very useful but before you commit them to your next prop take a moment and cut out any inspirational photos. Great inspirational photos are those that show the aging process, wrinkles, make-up schemes from movies, animals or anything else that strikes your fancy.



Once the photos are cut from the magazine I use a glue stick and mount them to the pages in a three ring binder.



To keep everything nice and tidy I created different categories within the book.

Cartoon/Caricature
Males
Females
Children/Youth
Facial Hair
Anatomy
Animals
Robotic/Cyber
Ethnic
Make-Up/Effects
Expressions



The Facebook is very handy when designing or sculpting a prop and while it’s true that you have instant access to images via an internet image search there is an advantage to having a good quality hard copy photo that you can reference any time or any place.

Ask your friends, family or coworkers to save their magazines for you and remember the best sources for good photos come from magazines such as Entertainment Weekly, People, Us and National Geographic but take a pass on the glamour magazines because most of those photos work really hard to cover up all the interesting details such as wrinkles and texture that make the pictures worthwhile.

New Name, Same Blog

I've been thinking about changing the name of this blog for months because having two sites called STOLLOWEEN was beyond confusing. Welcome to Scotty Art, new name, same blog.

The new blog name refers to my middle name which is Arthur and the fact that everyone in my family calls me Scotty Art, pretty clever eh?

Maybe not that clever but now at least this site won't get confused with www.stolloween.com.

Anyway enjoy the posts, thanks for reading and remember there are only 122 days left until Halloween!

Free Paint For Your Props!

Glidden is giving away a free quart of their Eggshell finish paint any color you want. Simply go to the website, choose your color then fill in the name/address/email info and they will mail you your paint in 3 to 4 weeks. What a great way to get a unique color for your Halloween project. The offer is good from June 25th until July 2nd or while supplies last.
Hurry up and get your free paint!

https://www.glidden.com/promotions/free-paint-giveaway.do