Still Sculpting....

Tomorrow is June 1 and I'm feeling the pressure....30 days til the StopMoShorts.com deadline....these pups should've been done weeks ago....but enough brow-bashing.......everyone muster the strength for me to finish the sculpts tonight......mold tomorrow......cast and costume by Monday......I believe.....I believe....

We interrupt this program.....

....yesterday we cleaned out our patio, which hasn't been done since the storm (yikes!).....amidst a pile of empty flower pots and hanging baskets, I came across this rotten little gem, which will be perfect to use as a skeleton for Jenny Greenteeth's sunken gazebo (dome roof)....its large, maybe 18" diameter.....I'll plaster over it in places allowing the thatchwork to show through.......I never thought I'd squeal with glee over a funky little rotten flower pot, but stop-motion changes a person :)

I love the shadow of the aloe plant in the corner (we keep transplanting this thing to larger pots and it just keeps growing, its biggest stalk is about 3 feet long and 3" wide.....we could soothe all the burns in the world with this thing I think :)

Some Parade-goers and a Champagne Cooler

I went as simple as possible with the background partyers, using doll/action figure parts and clay....the ice bucket is pre-fab, a piece from my 'bits box' of random things I find and save, thinking 'That could be used for_______'.....the champagne bottle is clay, air hardened.....to get the icy water effect, I filled the cooler halfway with hot glue, stuck the bottle in, then twisted and pumped it to make air bubbles in the glue.....the set is only about a foot from the greenscreen, I'll need to pull it further away for filming...

Suzanne Sculpted

She's done for the most part, some minor shaping left to do at the neck/shoulders, and some smoothing....I was really hoping to be filming by now, but a part of me knew at the beginning that I'd probably take 2 months to do the sets and pups...gives me 8 days or so to finish up the pups (mold, cast, costume) and a few last-minute props....I haven't done anything with a voice track yet either, forgot about that.....I think I can make the SMS deadline, but if I have to I'll pass on SMS to keep working on the film.....

I'm also thinking a lot about color again, I introduced a character specific color with 'Widow', the 'Pepper red'....with this one Ive got earthy oranges and reds contrasting with cool blues....this palette comes partially from the comic (the blues of the witch costume, swamp, and 'lights out' bedroom), but the lit bedroom is my design....I went with orangey reds to compliment the blue, which works out well b/c its the palette of one of my favorite films, "Devil's Backbone"....also, the last few panels of the comic are set against a stark red background, very dramatic, and I wanted to keep that and still have it make sense, hence the red bed curtains.....I can't wait to see the costumed Su puppet in her blue witch get-up, standing in her bedroom....I expect it to be visually pleasing, exciting to the painter in me....

More Herbie & Su

I'm still tweaking the bodies, but Herbert's big melon head is under way (I may have to chip away some of the epoxy clay on the armature, ugh) and Su is ready for her hair....For these two pups, I was thinking I would use bead eyes with a liquid latex socket, added after casting in foam, but I may just go with the hollow socket thing for simplicity's sake.....I'll know more after casting/painting/costuming......it occurs to me that generally, foam latex pups don't wear added clothes, they tend to be sculpted 'in costume', but since Herbie and Su appear in various states of undress, I wanted their base puppets to be nude....

Su's Mask

Started working on Su's witchy-masked face today...

"Only Skin Deep" - More Panels

Here are a couple of panels from the EC story, to whet your appetite.....


Originally drawn by Reed Crandall (you could say he's my co-designer), and published in Tales From the Crypt #38, 1953.

Windows, Mac

Windows are done, all thats left of the bedroom is the floor. I hot glued a scrap of plexi to the back of the spackled wall, glued the frame and cross boards on top from the front and painted them black with grey highlights....then I painted the back of the plexi with a light grey wash of acrylic and wiped it away at each window to give it an aged look. The shades are fabric glue-stick'd to paper, the shade's pull is wire...

Herbert Progress and a Wine Glass

Gettin goin on Herbie...

And this weekend, inspired by Shelley Noble's recent experiments, I tried casting with hot glue. I sculpted a tiny clay wine glass (sans base), then molded with plaster....I love the look, and better still, after pulling out of the mold, you can hit it with a lighter to smooth out seams or lumps....

How I Made My Chairs, or, Herbie Begins

I started work on Herbie. Su still needs a detailed head but Herbert was being neglected. Ive decided not to sculpt the fingers, just the palms.....I'll mold and cast in foam latex, then clip the armature wire and build up liquid latex for the fingers and knuckles.....their hands are tiny and I dont want to spend hours trying to sculpt them....I'm also realizing now, that these pups are even smaller than the 'Widow' couple (what am I thinking?!)....which means I won't be able to use pre-existing pups for the Mardi Gras crowd on the patio......time to re-think.....

I also glued up some tiny Mardi Gras beads, and built the two chairs for the patio....the pics should explain it fairly well......seems like they'll work out!

Furniture & Props

Today I made/customized a few more props. The chair and endtable came from a cheapie toy store dollhouse set. The chair had a pink pattern so I took it outside (beautiful weather!) and sprayed it with black spraypaint, giving it a leather look. The endtable, I repainted to match the bedroom. The lamp is a glass bead from my wife's supply, glued to a painted nut, with twisted armature wire coming out to hold the shade, which is painted paper. Su's witch broom is an old paintbrush, with thread tied/glued to the end and dry-brushed with gold paint to give the bristles a little more definition.

More Su

She needed a beefier ribcage, also added clay for the head....

Sculpting Suzanne S'more

"Only Skin Deep" - Sculpting Suzanne

I started fleshing out Suzanne, slapped on some clay like a rough draft and semi-detailed the shape of that one leg/hip....

Also detailed the bedroom set some more, added windowsills, attached the mirror to the wall with hot glue, added the bed's side curtains...

Only Skin Deep - Armatures

Here they are, Herbert and Suzanne's skeletons. I'll sculpt over these, then cast in foam latex....He's got a rectal tie-down for sitting in bed, and she's got tie-downs in her lower back and head for lying in bed. Both are rigged for speech with a lower-jaw wire.......Ah, speech. One of my current dilemmas. My wife and I might end up voicing the characters but I dont think we'll be very good and I'm not sure what to do about that. Any voice actors out there, or really anyone, willing to donate an hour or two in the next few weeks, contact me! Word balloons will be spoken, boxed text will be narration. I'm editing some of the story out, minor panels and unimportant dialogue, but for the most part I want to keep the 1950s era speech. Here's the first panel....

His costume will probably change, I havent decided. Im not exactly sure what he's supposed to be, the hat looks like a sombrero. He has to have a mask on, which limits possibilities. I'd like him to be dressed as someone sort of noble, b/c itll make the ending a bit ironic. Ive considered a knight, Robin Hood, Batman, Zorro...any ideas?