Cut out my eyes...

This handsome chap with his classic sculptural wooden look might look solid, but little does he know that his seemingly robust solidity is about to be deconstructed and shortly after this photo taken he was to have both his eyes and lower lip cut out

OUCH!

Not so demure now

This is because this solid wooden head was carved from a block that was in fact three pieces held together with a large retaining bolt.

Here is the block being unbolted.

Here are the pieces being unhinged.

Reminds me of the ante-room scene in Resident Evil.

The reason for this three-part block of head, is that this will be an animated head, much like a ventriloquist's dummy. It needs to be hollow, so carving something that can be taken apart and hollowed out is by the easiest.

But enough shots of a deconstructed head, next up th eeyes needed hollow out. The first thing was to drill a hole.

Drill holes looking a lot like pupils. Changes the look completely.

These were enlarged with the rotary burr in the die grinder 

Giving a softer look...

The face was clamped to the bench before using a thin saw in the multi-tool to cut out the eye wood...

looking a bit creepy now...

Yep, creepy...

The holes cut roughly with the multi-tool saw were reamed out with the die grinder

Actually this isn't looking any less creepy. Oh well, time to cut off the lower lip.

The cutting line is drawn on with pencil.

Also a good excuse to muck about with glassy eyeballs

Anyway, back on the bench for lip removal surgery...

The multi-tool allows quite delicate precision as long as held carefully.

The mouth was reamed out too. Here I put the head back together so you can start to see the final look. The white eyes here are ceramic door knobs I bought a few years ago in case I needed some glassy eyeballs. I probably won't use them for this build, but they look amusing.

Next time - eyeball mechanisms for left/right glancing and blinking eyelids.

Modelling Twitr_janus face puppet mask from clay

This is the model for the face of Twitr_janus' puppet head. It will be cast in some sort of modelling material, then recreated as a latex skin. The face will need to be extended into a larger overall skin for the whole of Twitr_janus' head. Most of the rest of the head will be built up later manually over positive moulding (formers).  The face is the main focus of people's attention and needs to be moulded to ensure the design is recreated accurately. For the other parts of the head, like the throat and cranium the latex can be rough, as no-one really pays any real scrutiny to these areas

 
I have been thinking how people might react to different types of head. I had originally wanted to make the head from oak, for an automaton/ creepy old toy look. I had also been looking up various heads for ideas. (see below). 


When drawing possible ideas, I found I kept coming back to heads that would look "real". They might look odd, but they all kept coming out as looking like flesh and skin (although they all seemed to have slightly strange heads. I then decided to make the head from latex.



Of my designs, the one I liked the most (top right in the sketch above) was roughed out again in simple lines to get the feel for creating it in 3d (the sketch on the right).

To get a feel for the dimensions, I also made an initial 3d tiny model, in plasticine (below, about 3-4cm tall)


A lump of clay was slapped onto a convenient turntable. This is an old cake-decorating turntable. (The clear acrylic thing on the right with modelling tools on it.)

Twitr_janus head designs

I can't decide quite what the vibe should be for Twitr_janus.  It should be slightly unsettling or distrubing, but not too evil. More like just a tiny bit weird, than downright scary...

Puppet hand surgery

Puppet hand surgery
Originally uploaded by rosemarybeetle

Shoes being lacquered

Shoes being lacquered
Originally uploaded by rosemarybeetle

More cobbling

Some fine footwear for an otherwise austere scientist

trousers

After some efforts in tailoring, trousers are nearly completed

Puppet boots

The beginnings of some rather dandy boots for Mr Punch.

Stages 1 and 2 are modelling the positive core in plasticine, followed by laminating with brown paper and PVA papier mache

Swish shirt

Why, hello. Who's got a dandy new tailored shirt then?

Scientist's lab coat

I am not sure if this is a tiny tad too long, but has the right feel for the character. Stereotypical science geek attire, but with a slightly military/ secret police feel to the collar.

Policeman is nearly complete

'ello, 'ello, 'ello. What's all this then? 'bout bleedin' time I 'ad some clothes, matey...

shoes...

Plasticene and papier mache. I love it!

pink thing is the mould - brown thing, the shoe... policeman's shoes...

Policeman gets clothes

Jumble sale jeans are perfect for making a good navy uniform.
This is not yet fitted with trims or buttons, but starting to show the final look.

Puppet bodies getting better

This shows the Policeman puppet. The head sits freely in a central hole and is held and, in use, is manipulated by the last three fingers of the hand curled round it.
The hands are detached from the body to allow maximum freedom od movement.

The body is connected to the sleeve with a short stitched hinge joint.

Crocodile head

Crocodile with elastic jaw opening. This opposes the cable controlled jaw snap shut.
I wonder if elastic to close jaw would be better. Possibly more relaxing to use in practise, as most of the time not tension would be required in the hand to keep the jaw shut.
hmm...