Remember The Frog Prince From This Post? I Decided To Clean Him Up And Give Him As A Gift To The Boy

Remember the frog prince from this post? I decided to clean him up and give him as a gift to the boy who inspired him, so I popped him in the oven a la Rhonda's R2D2. Unfortunately, unlike Artoo, he came out a little burnt:

So I painted him. But rather than go to the store for some new acrylic paint, I used some hand-me-down tubes of paint from my grandmother, who bought them for an art class maybe 40 years ago. I can't find a date on the box anywhere, but it looks like it's from the 70s at the absolute latest. When I tried to twist the cap off the tube of white paint, the tube itself split down the side.

This is my way of explaining that the paint came out a little...funny.

But after the first, somewhat chunky coat, I started thinning the paint with water (I was also using those rainbow-colored dollar-store brushes with the black nylon bristles; classy) and the texture improved. Anyway, here he is in all his whitewashed glory. Enjoy!

World, meet Mina.

Or some semblance of Mina, anyway. Those aren't her glasses (hers will have eyes on them). And she needs a haircut. But still--!

As of 3:03am, I am officially considering myself done with these puppets. Am I actually done? Technically, no. But the remaining work is all non-essential touch-ups and about ten minutes of construction that I couldn't do tonight. So, for all intents and purposes, done.

Phew.

This weekend was ROUGH, you guys. Dayna (my new PA) and I were at the studio until one in the morning last night, so you have my apologies for not posting anything until today. I'm about to head over there again right now, but here are a few highlights from yesterday.

We managed to finish making all the latex bodies (yay!!!), so now it's just a matter of trimming off all the excess, patching the holes, painting the bodies, and sculpting the heads. It's a lot of work, but fortunately most of it can be done in my living room.

Thanks to Dayna for all these pictures!

The anatomy of a puppet.

Mixing the foam latex.

Pouring the latex into the mold.

Trimming the excess latex.

Lots o' puppets, in various states of completion.

Can I just tell you how good it feels to finally have something in color? I swear, the last few weeks have just been shades of gray: gray clay, white latex, beige Sculpey, and so on and so forth. SO WHAT if she only has one eye and it's lazy. WHO CARES if I haven't finished painting anything but her skin and some eyelashes. There's some green in her eye! Highlights in her hair! It makes a big difference.

Because Mina (the main character)'s eyes will be painted on to her glasses, this lucky prototype is going to play one of Mina's classmates. I named her Marion, after my grandmother.*

Tomorrow: With any luck, finally pouring the latex into the finished Monster #1 and Boy Body molds. I'll also start the molds for Monster #2 and the Girl Body, which would finally wrap up all the mold-making. Oh man I hope so. A girl can dream.

*I thought about naming her after my great-grandmother, who actually did only have one eye, but seeing as her little depth-perception problem is a temporary state I thought I'd go with something a little less flippant.

This little droid is a Christmas present for my friend Rhonda, AKA Rhonda2D2. Ever since Star Wars: Uncut, Artoo has made me think of her, so I hope she gets a kick out of it.

It's funny how the different colors mold differently. The white clay was much softer and more pliable--to the point where it was impossible to get my fingerprints out of it--than, say, the black, which crumbled in my hands no matter how much I kneaded it first.

This is the first sculpture I've baked since the puppet heads from the film shoot, so I was a little worried it would crack, but it came out beautifully. Working in color is much more time consuming, but the finished product looks so much nicer, wouldn't you say?

Sculpey III (white, black, and denim), ~3 hours

Just FYI, she does have a head.

I've been up late sculpting every night, so forgive the lazy photo. I'm halfway through a couple of monsters, some other heads, and assorted other puppets, but they're not cool, "wow, the process is so interesting" works-in-progress...more like "wow, someone should teach Cari how to sculpt." So I'll refine a little more before I post those.

And now...a nap.