Grim Reaper #2

I made a Grim Reaper for my cousin. This is becoming my signature piece. It's pretty quick and easy to make. I used a wire frame for the body, pipe cleaner hands and hot glued the animal skull on. An old pair of jeans provided fabric for the robe, which I stapled together. The final picture is of him in his new home.

Sea Serpent

I designed the sea serpent to fit into my 3 billy goats gruff scene. His place is at the bottom of the waterfall where the water he is in provides closure to this scene. After all, the waterfall can't just drop off into nothing. I crafted the structure from cardboard, plastic food containers and tape. 2 coats of paper mache were applied and then I painted the whole deal. Working from dark to light in a mixture of tempera and acrylic, I painted it all black to start. I then used various degrees and techniques of dry brushing to apply color. The flat carboard of "water" curled up in some places, but I am otherwise satisfied with the result.

Rapunzel in tower and Prince on motorcycle

Stinking with the fairytale theme, I decided to make a Rapunzel scene. The story is vague about what type of prince rescues Rapunzel, so I selected the artist formerly known as. I first crafted Prince and worked on his motorcycle at the same time, him having to reach the handlebars. I use cardboard to create the structure for my paper mache items. This involved learning about tempera paint, the cheapest I could find. I also discovered/invented aluminum foil mache for the wheels. The windshield is a plastic sleeve from a record with a bass string support on top. You can't see it in the pictures (let alone in person), but the seat of Prince's motorcycle has 2 types of faux animal fur and is fit for a porno flick. Bow chicka wownt wow. Pipecleaner TAFKA Prince and paper mache motorcycle complete, I moved on to Rapunzel in her tower. The tower came together quickly and easily. After some dry-brushing work on the paint, it was done. I then strove to create a beautiful Rapunzel with shining eyes made of marbles. It was a good idea, but I think she looks ugly and creepy. She may resemble Marilyn Manson a little. The yarn hair took some time and I found out after attaching all of it that her head would not support the immense weight of a full ball of yarn. Also, she requires the aid of a stylist to cover the holes in her head. Overall, I'm relatively pleased with the finished product and can't wait to start work on something new. You can probably look forward to some plastic bag mache, little red riding hood and an Edgar Allen Poe inspired piece.

3 Billy Goats Gruff Scene

This is the largest and most complex thing that I have ever made. I did the goats first with pipecleaners, then the troll and added denim from jeans as well as hemp twine, jute twine and cotton string and some beads. The upper background is purple paper wrapped around cardboard. I then used watercolors to apply a base coat and applied some crayon. Finding this too dull and muffled, I edged with marker and brightened things up with some oil pastel. The bridge is popsicle sticks glued together. I tied them with pipecleaners. The pipecleaner waterfall is on top of a heavily sculpted carboard base section. I did paper mache on it which I painted a dark greyish brown and dry-brushed highlights on.

Three Billy Goats Gruff Part 1: Goats

So, I had the brilliant idea to make a 3 billy goats gruff scene, complete with goats, troll, bridge, water and hills. This is officially going to take forever. I am absolutely not uploading all 30 production photos of the goats.