Some process photos of the early stages of learning how to make a silicone head. With the armature inside (made from wire and miliput) the puppet will have a head with moveable mouth, eyebrows and ears. For my design I wanted to create a goblin type of character complete with big ears and little horns on the top of the head.
I had hoped to have a puppet with legs ready for this exercise (mermaid’s don’t exactly walk..) but the goblin puppet wasn’t quite ready to walk yet! So for the walk I used one of the Sticky-Bones puppets for the character of a not so loved King.
I really find animating with puppets oddly therapeutic- this may change as I work with more of my own puppets which will inevitably fall apart mid pose- but the process has been the most enjoyable and I think successful so far.
Over Easter I plan to look at After Effects tutorials to learn how to add in backgrounds and perhaps add in some 2D effects.
I wanted to give her a witchy costume, but mostly she ended up with big Stevie Nicks vibes.
Sculpting the head seemed the most daunting as it’s not something I’ve done before and will be the focal point of the puppet so I wanted to make sure it looked sufficiently eerie.
Head is made from foam and doll eyes.
`This was probably the part I enjoyed the most. Adding hair, hands and painting the body is when the character really comes together.
She’s obviously a little rough but with practise I’m sure I’ll get better.
The skeleton and base of the mermaid body was made up of wires wrapped in foam and latex. Lots of latex for the tail!
