Steve, from Accounting (don't mention the lycanthropy, it's rude)

[fallimar]

Hey folks. Long time no post!

These last years I've been busy firstly finishing my costuming degree and then being railroaded by disabilities and then well... you know what's going on in the world. Been a big ol' creative slump BUT I have managed to work intermittently on a few things. One is Steve, from Accounting. Steve's my little nod to What We Do in the Shadows, both the movie and the series. He's essentially a horror-style werewolf but he's just this very normal and boring accountant who works in a big corporate office who just also happens to be a werewolf.

I'm actually sort of... 80% done? I started with the head, then hands and feet, made a tail and now it's just the body to go along with final airbrushing and embellishments. This post is really to spur me ahead to finally get my arse in gear and finish it all off, hopefully before halloween. Not that halloween's a big thing over here, but at least I can have fun. So - on with the weirdness. I'll do a few reply posts with process stuff I think, so it's not just one gigantic chonk of photodump.

Since I did the head first, let's start with that. I didn't really do any design work, just collected a bunch of photos of snarly wolves and werewolves from pop culture. I wanted a scary but slightly silly look with an oversized nose and pinpoint pupils in the eyes so it was creepy, but still goofy. From there I jumped straight into foam carving. Rough as guts to start, as you can see:

Bought the jawset off etsy and after a lot of faffing to get it to fit, I embeded wire into the jawline to support it and used that to allow me to do a spring closure, which is my go-to for resin base masks. I find it's more reliable than elastic and easier to swap out in case something goes wrong. I sculpted and cast the nose (monster clay, hydrocal/burlap mould, black tinted dragon skin silicone) to be really big, and thankfully the size worked well on the base. The eyes I made up in photoshop, printed on photo paper and epoxied to glass dome cabochons as I normally do. The eyelids were worbla at this stage, the lip bases are felt and the vision ports are 20/20 buckram as per usual. Ears - the above one had ears based on my normal wolf ear pattern but I wanted more backwards-pointing ears so I repatterned and did them in EVA.
So at this point, I'm here. Base ready for patterning and skin:

Then, it's patterning time. I used this mask to make a tutorial back when I had a patreon going since it's such a complex shape. Simple duct-tape patternmaking method, never fails if you make sure to do it carefully and mark it up correctly. Results:

Then we get the horrifying floppy face skin stage, which I kinda love for how awful it is:

Glue it on carefully, shave it, sculpt the lips over that seam in apoxie sculpt and you end up at the "complex but bland stuffed animal gone a bit wrong" stage, the process of which you see here:

Messy! Still, not terrible. After that, it's finishing touches - namely adding the neck piece and airbrushing. I didn't add a back neck piece since this one's going to have a raised neck piece attached to the bodysuit for that "hunched" look. Airbrushing is freaking magic though, I swear. The difference is crazy. Thankyou, magic awkward finger-hurty loud PSSH pencil.

Steve face - DONE.

I love this one. It's a nice combo of creepy and silly, and it'll go great with the dumpy office werewolf dadbod-muscle suit combo I'm going for. Aww yiss.
Next post - hands! (I promise it's shorter from hereon in, lol)

 

[fallimar]

Steve hands!
I wanted a gnarly creature-style hand shape so I went with the method I used for the space pope earlier - undergloves with the claws and foam padding attached for stability, then patterned and skinned just like the head. I used super cheap thin lycra gloves I bought a bunch of on ebay, worked like a charm since all they need to do is fit (I altered them a bit for a really snug and comfy fit) and hold the foam/claws. Here's the understructure, messy AF but heck, it's for me and it ain't visible. Meh.

Super simple foam, as you can see. Can't really get too crazy with detail when you're using faux fur because the pile hides a lot unless you shave it almost to the backing, so best to keep the shapes pretty basic. Anyway, next was patterning the skin. 18 pieces per hand, because I am insane. And it needed that many. Inside-out hand-stitched hand skin:

And turn out for... FLOOF STAGE.

Shaving hands is a horrible, horrible job and I hate it with a passion, but it really makes things look dang good:

Next, pads. Now I could have tried to find some for sale, but again I am insane so I decided I wanted to sculpt, mould and cast my own. So I did. Monster clay, shell shock backed with hydrocal for the moulds and cast in black-tinted dragonskin silicone backed with fabric for ease of sewing and gluing.

Then, sewed 'em on. Bit of touch-up gluing around the fingers and to help keep the skin down in between the knuckles and such, and they look pretty good.

Beans test:

To finish for now, I just added a wrist piece to each one and shaved a gradient into it so it'll marry well with the eventual sleeves. They'll get airbrushing later on with the rest of the pieces.

Not too shabby, I think. Tested them out last halloween. They're clunky to use as hands but I managed to use a computer mouse with them and write very, very badly. Very fun

 

[fallimar]

Feet! They're like hands, but they're feet!
Steve's feet I built on slippers because ain't nobody got time for uncomfortable feet. The foam's rough as heck like with most of this suit (again, because it's for me) but it works.

Forgot to mention them before, but I made all the claws for this build too, since I couldn't find any for sale in the shape I wanted. I made three sizes and did a giant mould that has sets of five along with a couple of bonus ones so I could cast quickly:

ANYWAY, back to feet. Covered with the fur, which I patterned similarly to the hands, and popped the claws in. Shaved after, same method as the hands and all.

Course, I also wanted pads for these, but I didn't want to fur the bottoms and have them be unwearable and gross on grass and stuff, so I... uh... sculpted entire soles with pads for the stupid things, and cast in the same silicone with a higher shore hardness. These things are DURABLE. Noice.

They're a little bouncy to wear but a lot more comfortable than they probably should be. As with the hands, they'll get airbrushing at the end to bring everything together.

 

[fallimar]

Finally for now, tail.
I wanted to use an old tail armature I'd been playing with to give it the ability to wag around so I built it on a pool noodle that I made deep cuts into in all directions and reinforced with elastic to prevent it ripping. I added foam loops for structure and skinned it simply, just adding a base plate so it can be sewn to the bodysuit later on when that... uh... exists.

^ FLEXXXXX

Needs a trim and paint, and I might shorten it for the finished suit but it's not bad. Wags well, will show that later if I remember once it looks a bit nicer.

 

[fallimar]

I finally have a week to myself! I'm hoping to make a start on the body after the weekend, gotta get the pods/padding attached to the undersuit and get that on to a body form so I can refine the shapes and start patterning the outer skin. After that it's easy at least, just the same processes as the other foamed parts except the body padding and outer skin won't be attached permanently for ease of washing. Nobody wants a stinky accountant.

 

[lululandia]

Okay this looks amazing! Absolutely wild, making anything with faux fur is a nightmare for me so I'm doubly impressed.

 

[fallimar]

Okay this looks amazing! Absolutely wild, making anything with faux fur is a nightmare for me so I'm doubly impressed.

Thankyou! Honestly I like working with it, as with anything it's all in knowing a few technique tricks. The duct tape patterning thing is a lifesaver and works for all kinds of fabric covering and on all kinds of complex shapes. Also airbrushing hides a multitude of sins