Edward Gorey Halloween: How to make a paper mache hat mask

For Halloween this year I decided to be Edward Gorey's character Mr. Earbrass from the Unstrung Harp. 

Gorey has such a unique visual style that I didn't want to simply paint my face and wear fancy clothes. I decided that the best option was a paper mache mask worn as a hat over my head. Here is a sketch I did to see what that might look like.

First I cut out a scale profile of the head so I would have an idea of the size, and to make sure it would fit over a regular baseball cap which I planned to use for the interior. If you look closely at the drawing you can see the outline of the baseball hat. I used a cheap craft hat that I bought at Michael's for three bucks. 

I didn't get a picture of the hat before I started sculpting over it, but I cut out cardboard forms and taped them to the hat to use as guides for the overall shape that I wanted to end up with. I don't have a head mold (this is my first mask like this) so I used a sugar jar and taped a paper bag stuffed with plastic bags over it to get roughly the same shape as my melon. Then I just started adding newspaper and tape until I had the shape I was looking for. It's a good idea to put masking tape over the whole surface because once you're done molding over it it makes it much easier to pull out your armature. 

I started this only a couple of days before Halloween so I didn't really have enough time to use paper mache (lots of dry time involved). I've had these plaster gauze strips lying around for a while so it seemed like a good opportunity to try them out since they dry so much faster. It's the same material arm and leg casts are made from so once you have two or three layers on there your shell will be pretty strong. For the eyes I just cut a ping pong ball in half (just like Kermit the frog) and I decided not to cover them in plaster strips to keep their smooth texture. The ears I created separately and added on later. 

I was a little disappointed with how textured and uneven the final product was due to how thick the plaster strips were, but I was able to soften the edges a little bit using painters caulk. After painting on a couple of layers of gesso the only thing left to do was draw on the features to resemble the original crosshatched illustration. I also put a layer of clear gloss medium over the eyes to make them shiny, as a finishing touch. Below you can see the finished mask next to the initial armature. 

And here's the costume in full effect!

I didn't have a fur lined coat, so we pinned a strip of fake fur my wife has to the collar of my trench coat. Worked like a dream. Of course the one real downside of this costume is that hardly anyone will know what you are, but who cares! Right? Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin the Third

Yeah that's right, I carved a third pumpkin this year. If you follow my blog you probably know that for the last four years I've carved "celebrity tribute" pumpkins; i.e. pumpkins in the likeness of a celebrity who has passed within the last year. The first was Michael Jackson back in 2009. Then came Dennis Hopper, followed by Macho Man Randy Savage. Then finally last year I payed tribute to one of my favorite illustrators, Maurice Sendak.

This year I decided to go with film critic Roger Ebert, known as the partner of Gene Siskel in their television show "At the Movies with Siskel and Ebert."

The day I carved this I learned that Marcia Wallace, the voice talent behind Edna Krabappel on the Simpsons passed away. Then the next day we lost Lou Reed. Both would have been fine candidates for my celebrity pumpkin tribute, but at that point I was pumpkined OUT. Perhaps next year.

What do you say? Would you give this Pumpkin a thumbs up or thumbs down?

An Eye for a Pumpkin

Happy Halloween everyone! Once I started carving pumpkins this year I kept coming up with ideas for more. Here's a giant eyeball pumpkin I carved with wire eyelashes. 

I wanted it to look correct when it was lit up so I carved it in the negative so that the thinnest parts would be the most lit up. 

And here it is keeping watch at my house!

Spooky Scary

Halloween is nearly upon us, which means that it's time for pumpkin carving. I had a lot of fun with my pumpkin sculpture of Slimer last year and wanted to do another one to work on my skills. This year I decided to do an original character with pretty decent results I think.

During the carving stage (Dana Carving stage, that is)

I decided he needed ears, of course, because I'm a glutton for unnecessary work

To make it more Halloweeny I decided that he probably had a lobotomy at some point and needed stitches

Spooky Scary

All lit up

The mustache was probably a bad idea too. Much more work than I anticipated

And finally its home on the steps

Happy Halloween!

"And that's why, thanks to Mickey, we have cake every morning"

 Did I mention that I made a second pumpkin for Halloween?

The pumpkin, carved

For the past three years I've been carving pumpkins to commemorate a celebrity that passed away in the past twelve months. In 2009 I did Michael Jackson, in 2010 I did Dennis Hopper, and last year I did Macho Man Randy Savage. 

This year I decided to commemorate one of my favorite illustrators, Maurice Sendak. He's best remembered for Where the Wild Things Are, but when I did a google search I found plenty of WtWTA pumpkins and I wanted to do something a little more original. Another of my favorite books of his growing up was In the Night Kitchen, which has some amazing drawings and is also totally weird. I decided to depict the iconic picture of Mickey holding his jug of milk from the final page of the book. I also decided to try another new technique. This time just scratching away the skin of the pumpkin to let the candle light glow through the meat. It was a pretty tedious process. 

Fresh Air did a great retrospective show on Sendak when he passed away which included clips of Terry Gross's interviews with him throughout his career. I highly recommend listening to it, and you can do so here.

Lit up!

The best part was hearing a small child exclaim to his parent as he walked up to our house for candy, "Look, it's the boy from my book!" 

R.I.P. Maurice. 

"He slimed me, Ray"

For this year's pumpkin I wanted to try my hand at "pumpkin sculpting." I've always admired pumpkins created this way but never actually attempted it myself. After watching some youtube videos and marveling at the pumpkins of Ray Villafane, I decided I was ready.

He's an ugly little spud, isn't he?

For my subject I decided on Slimer from Ghostbusters. His body shape and exaggerated features seemed ideal for a pumpkin, plus he's an old childhood favorite of mine. (Sidenote: we just went to see Ghostbusters in the theater here in Portland and were once again blown away by how good that movie still is. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was meant to be on the big screen)

The process is incredibly time consuming, though I imagine it goes quicker the more times you do it. I think a major failing on my part was not picking a pumpkin that was already suited to the shape of his face. This would have made the important features like his cheeks come out even more.

As you can see I can coffee with Slimer this morning

I think that the pumpkin came out alright, but isn't immediately recognizable as Slimer, which is kind of a bummer for me. I really wanted to nail it my first try.

Big stupid grin

Below you can see what he looks like lit up in the stairs leading up to my attic. This is the darkest place in my house right now. 

Gotta remember to get some candles before tonight

I'm not giving up on the process though. Its too bad pumpkin carving only happens one month out of the year. Any suggestions on what else I could carve in this style?