Mom and Dad are both so wretched...

So I've been working pretty much on my puppets for the past two days. The wonderful result of that is that my mom and dad puppets are both finished, at least as far as painting goes. I still need to fill William's belly up with clay (his stomach is hallow for an effect in the film) and get their clothes finished, but aside from that.. they're looking pretty good!

(I also need to buy some colored scupley for their eye lids, but that's hardly a hassle.. unless they run out of brown and peach hues! YOU DON'T THINK THEY WILL, DO YOU???)

So, here we go.

William without hair.

William with hair.

Closeup shots of the body.

Mary with her new 'do and little kerchief hair thing...

What the body looks like.

And here are some super nice detail shots of the puppets. GOD, I LOVE THIS CAMERA! so nice, so crisp.

For anyone wondering how I did the hair, here. I shall tell you. Listen now.

I took cotton swabs/balls and mixed up a watery concoction of acrylic paint and.. water. I dunked cotton swabs in the mix, made sure color got soaked up into it, flattened the water out until the swab was as dry as could be (damp), and then once it was kind of dry (okay, I'm impatient), I hot-glued that stuff onto the head. To do that, I pull out bits at a time so that it was like wool and then I would layer it onto the head. The more you get on there, the more it looks like hair, you see.

Mary's hair actually has wire in some of the lumps, but the build up technique is the same.

I'm actually really happy with the texture of the hair because it's near exact what I wanted. Hell, it's probably just what I wanted. So, yay! Success. Anyone who's been around me this past month has had to endure me asking them "hey, do you know any good tips on how to apply hair to the puppet's head?", so if you're a curious stop-mo fabricator in training I hope this tip inspires you. I don't know what a professional would say about my technique (it's definitely going to have a chattering effect, but I actually welcome the idea for the gritty look it may grant the film. That, or it will look terrible and I will regret everything.), but for someone starting out who's confused about how to approach hair, maybe this will give you a start and you can improve your hair technique later on.

And yes, tomorrow we shall have little boy.