Making a Vaudeville Comedy Prop

I have created, painted and built my productions from scratch.

One of the things that excites me about New Projects, is the need to make interesting props and backdrops that will take the audience on that extra special journey into my World of Strangeness.

I had decided to make a prop for Prof. Crookshank's Traveling Medicine Show that I had once made 20 years ago (but sadly is gone now)

I call the prop, 'The Disgruntled Customer'.

It started with a wig head...

wig head with a liddle carved out of it

 

 

I then laid down some plasticine onto the wig form to create a rudimentary face.

Face taking shape

NOW, the fun reeeeally begins!

I made up a batch of paper mache .... that's right kids... Paper Mache!

And started to apply it to the sculpt. The process was slow one, because I had to let each layer dry as I went along.

around 13 layers were applied

As day became night, I worked on.... the next step was to put the glass eyes into place, before any more detail could be added to the sculpt.

I took this photo without a flash, I like to work in muted light.

I then sculpted on top of the paper mache, a paper clay polymer. This was used to create detail and flesh out the face.

he starts to become a character

After around a day and a half, he was ready for painting.

Head dry and ready for paint

The next step was to paint the under color, always moving from darkest to lightest.

and so the painting begins...

Once the yellow ochre was dry, I added a lighter skin tone over it, keeping the wrinkles and crevices darker.

and now some light color

 Finally, I added to the face, more color to create detail and depth.

face almost done

And finally he gets put onto a fancy stand and is given clothing. Now he works for me in my show :)

NOW That's one Disgruntled Customer!

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