Paper Mache Blog
PAPER MACHE BLOG
About me
My name is Dan (the Monster Man) Reeder. I'm a papier mache artist living in Seattle, Washington. I've been doing my own version of papier mache for over 35 years. My goal in life is to spread the word about this amazingly satisfying medium. Make art!
Member of PaperBlog
Game of Thrones- Dani's Paper Mache Babies finished
Well, I completely blew the timing between my blog posts and the video I made of these little dragons. I have been obsessively working on several art projects. When that happens I just lose track of what I have going on. Now that the video is on Youtube (link below) it seems silly to pick up where I left off on this blog. So I'm jumping to the final project.
Here are the two little dragons. I guess I ended up melding the way they looked on the TV series and the way they are described in the books. Drogon is basically black with red markings. He looks a lot like the famous photo of him sitting on Dani's shoulder right after the fire.
Viserion is cream colored with gold on the horns and spines and black
teeth. It was quite a challenge making the full dragon so that it
would fit into the egg. Here are a photos. I think he is cute.
You will just have to trust me that Rhaegal is still inside his green egg.
Here is the link to the Youtube video if you are interested.
I am in the middle of making Drogon as a juvenile dragon. I will write some posts about him and put out a video as well. Thank you for your patience!
Here are the two little dragons. I guess I ended up melding the way they looked on the TV series and the way they are described in the books. Drogon is basically black with red markings. He looks a lot like the famous photo of him sitting on Dani's shoulder right after the fire.
You will just have to trust me that Rhaegal is still inside his green egg.
Here is the link to the Youtube video if you are interested.
I am in the middle of making Drogon as a juvenile dragon. I will write some posts about him and put out a video as well. Thank you for your patience!
Dani's (or Danny's) Paper Mache Dragon Babies- wings, assembly
Hi everyone. Well, there goes my resolution to get these posts done quickly. I'm still working every day on this project. Lately it's felt like two steps forward, then one back. My problem is that sometimes I want the little dragons to look like they do in the TV series, but other times I want to hold true to the books. So I've made a number of changes to the dragons on the fly. So by the time I'm ready to publish these photos the dragons have already been altered. Oh well. That's what I get for not making my own original dragons. I'll just show you what I've got going on.
First, a quick note about the bottom of the egg. I just crumpled cloth for a rough effect. I think it looks great (although it wouldn't be too comfortable for a mother dragon to push that out)(of course having scales on the eggs would be no fun either). As I mentioned earlier, I'm making two hatched dragons. One will be standing, the other just emerging from his egg. They are similar so I'll bounce between one and the other. On the right I've made one of the little bodies by taping together two small paper mache balls. I attached a shell rolled up for the neck, then I added the upper and lower jaws. Beside the body, you see the makings of a tail and legs. No paper mache for those. I just twisted newspaper around pieces of wire clothes hangers and wrapped with masking tape.
First, a quick note about the bottom of the egg. I just crumpled cloth for a rough effect. I think it looks great (although it wouldn't be too comfortable for a mother dragon to push that out)(of course having scales on the eggs would be no fun either). As I mentioned earlier, I'm making two hatched dragons. One will be standing, the other just emerging from his egg. They are similar so I'll bounce between one and the other. On the right I've made one of the little bodies by taping together two small paper mache balls. I attached a shell rolled up for the neck, then I added the upper and lower jaws. Beside the body, you see the makings of a tail and legs. No paper mache for those. I just twisted newspaper around pieces of wire clothes hangers and wrapped with masking tape.
I used bird eyes. They had to be small. I like the way they turned out. These teeth are probably too big. But they will have to do. They would just break if I tried to make them smaller. Here is one of the little legs after I added some details. Again, I just crumpled small pieces of paper and used masking tape to fashion calves and toes.
Here is the little guy with his legs on. Looks a bit like a frog from the waist down. I added the tail and checked to see how he would fit in his egg.
Time for wings. I make the "fingers" the same way I make the legs by
twisting paper around wire. Then I tape them all together.
As always, I drape wet cloth over the fingers. After the wings dry overnight, I trim them with scissors.
I draped the wings of the little guy in the egg before I put them on the body. As you can see I rolled them up so that they look as though they are unfurling as he gets ready to leave his egg.
I added cloth mache to the faces. Then I promptly changed my mind about the shape of the head. I added a bridge between the forehead and the nose. I wanted the face to be more round. Such a change is kind of silly I suppose. It's just a matter of taste.
That's it for now. More later.
(PS. For those of you who are watching the TV series, I hope you loved the scene where Drogon, as a young juvenile, took care of the slave owner.)(PSS. Yes, I'm also making juvenile Drogon. I want him.)(But mine won't shoot fire. Damn. )
Dani's (or Danny's) Paper Mache Dragon Babies- eggs and little jaws
Hey, look, another post! I've decided to try harder to get these out before the world ends. Oh wait, the world did end (according to the Mayans)(the live in Manhattan).
Dani's dragon eggs had scales. That's right down my alley. I started on the bottom and worked my way to the top. I will cut a couple of these eggs open. Since I will hollow them out, I want the shell to be strong. Adding scales like this is perfect for strength. When you fold the cloth for the scales you get about three layers of cloth and glue.
Dani's dragon eggs had scales. That's right down my alley. I started on the bottom and worked my way to the top. I will cut a couple of these eggs open. Since I will hollow them out, I want the shell to be strong. Adding scales like this is perfect for strength. When you fold the cloth for the scales you get about three layers of cloth and glue.
On to one of the babies. Everything springs from the jaws. I cut open a small paper mache ball and pulled out the wadded paper. I used the shell for the jaws. I hot glued some little baby teeth inside the shell.
I added cloth mache to the jaws. Then I made a little tongue and added cloth. Then I painted. It's always easier to paint the jaws before assembling the head.
It doesn't look like much yet. But more soon. Thank you for your patience!
Paper Mache Eggs?
Hello all,
I've spent some time wondering what to show next on this blog. I'm always making things, but I don't profile every project here. Please don't get the idea that I've decided to make paper mache eggs for Easter. I've noticed a lot of craft blogs doing this. But I am going to make a few eggs, three to be exact. Here's where I give away one of my guilty pleasures. I am a "Game of Thrones" fan (adapted from the book "A Song of Fire and Ice" by George R.R. Martin). I've read all the books and watched the series on HBO. I don't usually do this kind of thing, but I've decided to make a few of the main characters. Well, three of the characters that I think are the main ones, the three little dragons that were born with Dani in the big bonfire at the end of season 1.
I've spent some time wondering what to show next on this blog. I'm always making things, but I don't profile every project here. Please don't get the idea that I've decided to make paper mache eggs for Easter. I've noticed a lot of craft blogs doing this. But I am going to make a few eggs, three to be exact. Here's where I give away one of my guilty pleasures. I am a "Game of Thrones" fan (adapted from the book "A Song of Fire and Ice" by George R.R. Martin). I've read all the books and watched the series on HBO. I don't usually do this kind of thing, but I've decided to make a few of the main characters. Well, three of the characters that I think are the main ones, the three little dragons that were born with Dani in the big bonfire at the end of season 1.
Those of you who know me know that I hate the use of balloons with paper mache. It is too reminiscent of the tired, antiquated use of this wonderful medium. But...and here is my big but...balloons are great for one thing...yes, EGGS. I want to make three dragon eggs, so I bought a few balloons. (They have to be green.) Just making them the same size is tricky.
I added the paper mache and let them dry. It turns out that these balloons didn't quite give me the shape I wanted. They weren't quite dragon eggs.
So I sliced them down the middle and pushed on side under the other.
Then I added paper to fill in the gaps. Of course I'm obsessive with my masking tape and paper. I kept adding paper here and there until I got the egg the exact shape I wanted.
I made three of these. Again, getting them to be the same size and shape was much more challenging than I expected. I'm going to publish this now since it's Easter tomorrow. Next time...we add skin to the eggs. Did I mention that two of the eggs will be hatched? One of the dragons will be completely out and another partially out. I'll show you progress on one of the little dragons next time.
Thanks for being so patient!
Paper Mache Dragon Marionette- Finished
Hello everyone. I guess it's about time to wrap this one up. This little dragon needs to get out there and make the world a stranger place. I hope you enjoyed the video. If for some reason you missed it, then just click on the photo below and you can watch it on YouTube. By the way, it looks so much better if you watch it in HD. So when you get to YouTube, click on the gear under the video and change the playback setting to get High Definition. It's much more fun to see it clearly. Oh..and turn up the volume! I really like this piece of music, "Rum" by Alpha. That was of course the inspiration for the video.
Here are the three marionettes. I have to say too that the old man and woman look much cuter in person.
Finally, here's the happy little couple at night's end. Note that I changed the eyes to make them closed. I think it's a sweet ending.
Thanks for stopping by. I'm not sure what I'll post next. I'll think of something.
Meanwhile, for those of you who wanted to see the final stages of construction, here it is. I left off on the last post ready to paint. On the left you can see the initial painting. Once again, I used my favorite dragon colors, yellow and red (with a green tongue). I have to say once more how hard it is for people who try my techniques to add the blackwashing. When the colors are vibrant and fresh, it just seems sacrilegious to cover it with black paint. I understand the feeling. But it looks sooo much better afterwards, if for no other reason than the details are accentuated. Just look at the scales. After putting so much time and effort adding details like scales, you want them to be noticeable.
Here is a close up of his head. I really like the little white horns. Of course scraping the paint off the eyes was my favorite part. He came alive, literally. (No he didn't! Not literally. Don't you hate it when people use that word indiscriminately! "He was literally climbing the walls." Heard that lately? Well, no he wasn't.)(Sorry for the little tirade.)(And doesn't the word "reiterate" bother you? Iterate means to repeat. So the word itself is redundant unless you are trying to say that you want to re-repeat something.) Anyway, he's got a cute little face, don't you think?
Finally, I needed places to put the strings. I used pieces of clothes hangers for this. I punched them through wrists and ankles and segments of the neck, body, and tail. I rolled the end with needle nose pliers.
Then I pushed the loop next to the appendage, bent the wire coming out the other side, and covered it with cloth. This marionette was unique. There was no model for what kind of controls to use. All of my controls were variations of the pieces of wood I show below. I put little hooks at the ends of the arms and some under the T for the body. There was really no way to know what the "action" of this marionette would be until I was finished. It tuned out that this little dragon worked perfectly for what I wanted. I learned a great deal about working puppets while making this video. What was really fun was seeing the dragon move in ways that I never intended. For example there was no control to make his head go side to side. But it happened on its own as I danced him. If you watch the video again, check out the very last scene with all three dancing. The little man developed a wiggle in his hips that I certainly didn't plan. It made his dance moves perfect for that scene.
Speaking of controls...One of the things I was most proud of was that I controlled all of the marionettes for every shot. I made sometimes very convoluted and complicated control schemes for each shot. It's hard to see, but there is one such set up on the left. This was early in the video when all three characters were sitting in their chairs moving to the music. the hardest scenes, as you might guess, were the one that involved all three dancing at the same time. On the right is the last scene of the couple in their living room. I took it apart right after. It was such an odd experience. That was in my workshop for months. It just didn't feel right to dismantle that little world.
Here are the three marionettes. I have to say too that the old man and woman look much cuter in person.
You may have noticed that I made two sets of wings for the dragon. One set was folded and pulled against his body for most of the video. I also made this outstretched pair that I used a couple times when they were all dancing. For the very last scene I made the wings moveable so that he could fly. I shot in front of a green background so that I could superimpose him on a photo of the sky. This flying sequence was much harder than it looks on the video. I guess that was true for every scene.
Finally, here's the happy little couple at night's end. Note that I changed the eyes to make them closed. I think it's a sweet ending.
Thanks for stopping by. I'm not sure what I'll post next. I'll think of something.
Paper Mache Dragon Marionette- head
Hey there,
Well, I'll try to move this along a little faster now that the video is published. As I was putting this post together I realized that the "Rum and Paper Mache" video is actually a better tool for showing how I made this marionette than these blog posts. Perhaps some of you noticed, the time-lapse (building) part of the video is a little slower than usual. That's because the video was much longer than usual. That's because I was not allowed to alter the music as part of the license agreement (totally understandable). So the build was a little slower and therefore much easier to follow. If you really do want to know how I made these puppets just watch the video closely. It's all there.
Anyway, here is what I did next. For some reason I decided to put the head on last. I don't know why. I cut open the last segment of the body and pulled out the wad of paper. I stuck the jaws into the hole and taped them.
Then I used hot glue to attach the eyes. I crumpled paper and used masking tape to build cheeks and brows and a nose. I cut holes for nostrils and ears. I added ears. These are basically little wings. I added Fimo horns along the nose and above the eyes. Again, the video shows these steps very clearly along with the addition of the "cloth mache" pictured below.
I added the cloth mache. I made two tongues, one that would stick straight out, and one that was bent (like it would be after a few drinks). They were long and I just pushed each one into the back of the neck as I needed them. I decided to add more horns on the jowls and the chin.
I finished adding the cloth mache to the rest of the head. I also put a few small scales on the nose. Likewise, I added scales over the rest of the dragon's body. Yes, this takes a lot of time. But it is worth it I think.
Well, I'll try to move this along a little faster now that the video is published. As I was putting this post together I realized that the "Rum and Paper Mache" video is actually a better tool for showing how I made this marionette than these blog posts. Perhaps some of you noticed, the time-lapse (building) part of the video is a little slower than usual. That's because the video was much longer than usual. That's because I was not allowed to alter the music as part of the license agreement (totally understandable). So the build was a little slower and therefore much easier to follow. If you really do want to know how I made these puppets just watch the video closely. It's all there.
Anyway, here is what I did next. For some reason I decided to put the head on last. I don't know why. I cut open the last segment of the body and pulled out the wad of paper. I stuck the jaws into the hole and taped them.
Then I used hot glue to attach the eyes. I crumpled paper and used masking tape to build cheeks and brows and a nose. I cut holes for nostrils and ears. I added ears. These are basically little wings. I added Fimo horns along the nose and above the eyes. Again, the video shows these steps very clearly along with the addition of the "cloth mache" pictured below.
I added the cloth mache. I made two tongues, one that would stick straight out, and one that was bent (like it would be after a few drinks). They were long and I just pushed each one into the back of the neck as I needed them. I decided to add more horns on the jowls and the chin.
I finished adding the cloth mache to the rest of the head. I also put a few small scales on the nose. Likewise, I added scales over the rest of the dragon's body. Yes, this takes a lot of time. But it is worth it I think.
Finally, what would be a post without my assistant, Eddie. Here he is with the dragon...
...and trying out some of the furniture. He liked the couch because it was soft. He thinks I got it for him. Same with the grandfather clock although he only knows "breakfast" and "dinner" when it comes to time. This brings up something interesting. I bought this furniture online. They are for dolls. I got the one on the left because it looked really used, I mean used like you'd see at your grandmother's house. It was threadbare in places, stained, and just looked old. Now here's my question to you all. How do DOLLS wear out doll furniture? Do they spill their drinks? How does doll furniture get used enough to be threadbare? Personally, I think it's evidence that dolls party at night.
Thank you for your patience! Next I'll talk about painting. See you then.
"Rum and Paper Mache" video is done!!! Yeh!
Well, this turned out to be a horrendous effort. I started this video in June. It is a strange video to be sure. Adult themes (drinking and freak dancing), and it's a bit creepy. But it's done. It had to get made. It's been in my head for a long time. I know, I know, I have odd things in my head. If you have six minutes to spare check it out.
For those of you who are following, I'll get another post out of this little dragon being made soon. Now, on to some of the many projects that have taken a back seat to this video.
Thank you for your patience...at least to those of you that were patient.
Take care.
Dan
PS. I love the band Alpha. I really appreciate that they allowed me to use there song, "Rum" for this video.
Go to Rum and Paper Mache
For those of you who are following, I'll get another post out of this little dragon being made soon. Now, on to some of the many projects that have taken a back seat to this video.
Thank you for your patience...at least to those of you that were patient.
Take care.
Dan
PS. I love the band Alpha. I really appreciate that they allowed me to use there song, "Rum" for this video.
Go to Rum and Paper Mache
Not So Secret Paper Mache Project- more dragon marionette assembly
Hello everyone,
Some of you Lord of the Rings fans might remember the news a number of years ago that the "shooting" of the three movies was finished. It was just a matter of editing. I remember getting all excited, and then waiting two years for the first movie to finally arrive. Well, I can now say the same thing about my goofy little video. It is "in the can." I've finally finished the shooting. I've dismantled my contraptions and staging. I did that to keep my obsessive personality from re-shooting every scene, again. This has been a very difficult project for someone like me. There isn't a single thing that is exactly as I wanted it. I spent a solid week on one scene that I'm not even going to use. My biggest worry now is that the video won't be worth the months of effort I put into it. Regardless, I will have it done by New Years. I promise. I just need to edit the last parts. And then re-edit the edits, and re-re-edit those edits, etc.. Wish me luck.
Meanwhile, every other aspect of my art has been on hold, including this blog. Sorry about that. So here is the next installment of the build of the little dragon marionette, the main character of the video.
I will continue showing some of the assembly of this little dragon. I wanted to add some wings. Actually I made two pair. The small ones below, and some that will be outstretched for later in the video. I just made my tapered fingers the usual way. There is no paper mache in this process. Just pieces of wire clothes hangers, crumpled phone book paper, and masking tape.
I draped some cloth between the fingers and then added my "cloth mache" to the rest of the wing. I finally had most of the pieces to put the little guy together.
Once again, I used pieces of clothes hanger to make the articulated joints. I bent the wire as shown, looped it through the wire protruding from the thighs (and upper arms), and then punched the wire into the body. I added tape and then cloth over the wire.
Here he is with his hind legs attached. And then with his front legs attached. I decided to leave the head for last. Delayed gratification you know.
Time for some feet. Once again, I just used wire, crumpled paper and masking tape to make some fingers and toes, feet and hands. Then I added Fimo claws.
Here he is with his hands and feet, on the left before adding cloth, on the right, after adding cloth.
I turned him upside down and added the wings.
That's it for now. Thank you for your patience. I'll add a post when the video is done. Or just subscribe to me on Youtube and you'll see it first! My channel is called "DanMonsterMan".
Take care
Dan
Some of you Lord of the Rings fans might remember the news a number of years ago that the "shooting" of the three movies was finished. It was just a matter of editing. I remember getting all excited, and then waiting two years for the first movie to finally arrive. Well, I can now say the same thing about my goofy little video. It is "in the can." I've finally finished the shooting. I've dismantled my contraptions and staging. I did that to keep my obsessive personality from re-shooting every scene, again. This has been a very difficult project for someone like me. There isn't a single thing that is exactly as I wanted it. I spent a solid week on one scene that I'm not even going to use. My biggest worry now is that the video won't be worth the months of effort I put into it. Regardless, I will have it done by New Years. I promise. I just need to edit the last parts. And then re-edit the edits, and re-re-edit those edits, etc.. Wish me luck.
Meanwhile, every other aspect of my art has been on hold, including this blog. Sorry about that. So here is the next installment of the build of the little dragon marionette, the main character of the video.
I will continue showing some of the assembly of this little dragon. I wanted to add some wings. Actually I made two pair. The small ones below, and some that will be outstretched for later in the video. I just made my tapered fingers the usual way. There is no paper mache in this process. Just pieces of wire clothes hangers, crumpled phone book paper, and masking tape.
I draped some cloth between the fingers and then added my "cloth mache" to the rest of the wing. I finally had most of the pieces to put the little guy together.
Once again, I used pieces of clothes hanger to make the articulated joints. I bent the wire as shown, looped it through the wire protruding from the thighs (and upper arms), and then punched the wire into the body. I added tape and then cloth over the wire.
Here he is with his hind legs attached. And then with his front legs attached. I decided to leave the head for last. Delayed gratification you know.
Time for some feet. Once again, I just used wire, crumpled paper and masking tape to make some fingers and toes, feet and hands. Then I added Fimo claws.
Here he is with his hands and feet, on the left before adding cloth, on the right, after adding cloth.
I turned him upside down and added the wings.
And then cut some cardboard to make a spine. I covered the spines with small pieces of cloth.
That's it for now. Thank you for your patience. I'll add a post when the video is done. Or just subscribe to me on Youtube and you'll see it first! My channel is called "DanMonsterMan".
Take care
Dan
TV segment on my Paper Mache
Hi everyone,
I will be profiled for my paper mache art work on a Seattle TV show called "Evening Magazine." It airs tonight (Wed, Nov 28) on channel 5 at 7 PM. I know that this might only be interesting to those of you living in the Pacific Northwest. But you can watch it from anywhere using the link below once the show has been on.
I'm still working madly on my video. It's coming along. I hope to be done soon. Thank you for your patience.
Dan
I will be profiled for my paper mache art work on a Seattle TV show called "Evening Magazine." It airs tonight (Wed, Nov 28) on channel 5 at 7 PM. I know that this might only be interesting to those of you living in the Pacific Northwest. But you can watch it from anywhere using the link below once the show has been on.
I'm still working madly on my video. It's coming along. I hope to be done soon. Thank you for your patience.
Dan
http://www.king5.com/on-tv/evening-magazine
Secret Paper Mache Project- more marionette assembly
Hi everyone. Hope all is well with you. I know, it's been a while since my last post. What else is new? I'm still working very hard on my video. A few hours every day even while I'm teaching. It is perhaps the most labor intensive project I've ever done. I will say that I'm very happy with what I've accomplished so far. I just have to work smarter and try to be a little less of a perfectionist. At least that's what Julie (my wife) says after I ask her to help me select from fifteen virtually identical, three second clips. I'm climbing a steep learning curve here. I'm not a puppet maker, so I'm sure that my marionettes don't work the way most others do. And I'm not a puppeteer, so I have to teach myself how to work these home made marionettes. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy this kind of challenge. I am enjoying the process. It is just taking much longer than I'd like. Plus, the music I have chosen, which is perfect, has turned into an earworm. I can hear it in my sleep. I'd love to give you all an ETA for this video. But I haven't a clue. I think my progress is accelerating though. Because I'm getting better working the marionettes, I think it will move faster from here on out.
Anyway, back to the making of the central character in the video, the little dragon marionette. This is a bit more of what I started last time, the assembly of the body. As I showed you last time, I used pieces of wire clothes hanger to connect the segments. I left off with the tail. As you can see below on the left, I put together two segments of the neck. I know, it doesn't look all that different than the tail. It will look more like a neck once I put a head on it. On the right you'll notice that I added some cloth mache between the segments. I wanted them to stay together as I assembled the rest of the puppet. You can see the elongated paper mache balls I will use for the legs underneath.
Next, I put together those parts of the legs. I essentially made knees. On the left you can see how I bent a piece of the clothes hanger. I pushed it over the "thigh". The sharp ends punctured the paper mache ball making the joint very sturdy. Then I added some masking tape. Well, I added a lot of masking tape. If you've watched me work you've undoubtedly noticed that I use way more tape than I really need. Sometimes I think I'm really just sculpting with masking tape.
I bent two more pieces of wire hanger and looped them through the piece on the thigh. As you can see on the right, I put one of these on either side of the calf. I found that I needed this configuration for these kinds of joints. I wanted to restrict the movement. I didn't want them flopping all over like the segments on the body. I wanted the action to be knee-like.
Note that I added knee caps. They are just pieces of paper crushed into a ball and taped on top of the thigh. Again, they restrict the movement of the joint so that the knee only bends back not forward. There will be more joints to come (sounds like I'm back in the early 70's doesn't it?). On the right you will see the early stages of the jaws I used. The dragon jaws are the long ones. I made the teeth out of Fimo, as usual. They are just hot glued onto some paper mache shells.
Here are the jaws after I added the cloth and painted. Again, the dragon's jaws are the green ones. I also made some tongues to go along with the jaws.
Okay, so that wasn't all that exciting. But life isn't always moving at a hundred miles an hour, right? Well, only in school zones for me. Back to my video. I'm teaching my marionettes to dance. The way it's going you'd think they all had two left feet. Wait a minute....did I make all left feet?
Sorry if I just offended all you left-footed people out there.
Thank you for stopping by!
Anyway, back to the making of the central character in the video, the little dragon marionette. This is a bit more of what I started last time, the assembly of the body. As I showed you last time, I used pieces of wire clothes hanger to connect the segments. I left off with the tail. As you can see below on the left, I put together two segments of the neck. I know, it doesn't look all that different than the tail. It will look more like a neck once I put a head on it. On the right you'll notice that I added some cloth mache between the segments. I wanted them to stay together as I assembled the rest of the puppet. You can see the elongated paper mache balls I will use for the legs underneath.
Next, I put together those parts of the legs. I essentially made knees. On the left you can see how I bent a piece of the clothes hanger. I pushed it over the "thigh". The sharp ends punctured the paper mache ball making the joint very sturdy. Then I added some masking tape. Well, I added a lot of masking tape. If you've watched me work you've undoubtedly noticed that I use way more tape than I really need. Sometimes I think I'm really just sculpting with masking tape.
I bent two more pieces of wire hanger and looped them through the piece on the thigh. As you can see on the right, I put one of these on either side of the calf. I found that I needed this configuration for these kinds of joints. I wanted to restrict the movement. I didn't want them flopping all over like the segments on the body. I wanted the action to be knee-like.
Note that I added knee caps. They are just pieces of paper crushed into a ball and taped on top of the thigh. Again, they restrict the movement of the joint so that the knee only bends back not forward. There will be more joints to come (sounds like I'm back in the early 70's doesn't it?). On the right you will see the early stages of the jaws I used. The dragon jaws are the long ones. I made the teeth out of Fimo, as usual. They are just hot glued onto some paper mache shells.
Here are the jaws after I added the cloth and painted. Again, the dragon's jaws are the green ones. I also made some tongues to go along with the jaws.
Okay, so that wasn't all that exciting. But life isn't always moving at a hundred miles an hour, right? Well, only in school zones for me. Back to my video. I'm teaching my marionettes to dance. The way it's going you'd think they all had two left feet. Wait a minute....did I make all left feet?
Sorry if I just offended all you left-footed people out there.
Thank you for stopping by!