Hi everyone,
Long time reader, first time poster
I decided one day to make my childhood favourite, Chamberlain Skeksis, and I'd like to share here how he was done, and how the finished project turned out.
I started it in January this year, and worked away on bits and pieces of him on weekends. All in all, I spent 6 months on the whole build.
He was completed at the start of June, and made his first public appearance at a pop culture convention in Sydney, Australia, a couple of weeks ago (photographed by the wonderful Sarah Hillier photography)
I started out by doing a WED clay sculpt of the head, over a styrofoam mannequin head:
I latex molded it, and cast it in sculptamold:
Once it was just off fully cured, I carved and scooped it all out, so that the head was a shell, rather than a solid piece, and added the wrinkles and face details with latex and tissues, then hand painted him with acrylic paint, and later added painited sculpey teeth:
I did the hands, and the little arms on his back in the same way (sculpt, latex, sculptamold):
The body was made on a base of a hiking back pack, on which I mounted shaped EVA foam mats, and added a sewn tail filled with styrofaom beads and toy stuffing:
I hand sewed the legs, and chest/belly piece out of cotton poplin, and filled them with toy stuffing:
The legs were then permanently fixed onto the body frame, by hand sewing, and I glued the chest piece into the body frame. Then I coated the whole lot in liquid neoprene from the hardware store, let it cure, undercoated it in black gesso, then hand painted the skin of the Skeksis in acrylic paint:
The arms were made from cardboard inner rolls from the fabric store, joined with plastic plumbing curves. I glued the scultamold hands into the wrists, and wrapped the entire thing in left over poplin, stuffing as I went and hand sewing the 'muscles' into position. They were treated the same as the body and legs - neoprene coated, gesso coated, then hand painted for the Skeksis skin look I wanted:
The spines were made from balsa wood, shaped with a dremel, and then coated with sculptamold, sanded back roughly, then hand painted:
Once all the separate pieces were finished, I attached the arms by fixing U bolts on to the foam body, and attaching carabina clips to the inside surface of the upper arms. The spines, head and tiny arms were fixed on with screws and wing nuts, so that he can be broken down for transport and storage:
I left the body assembled, and standing on a dressmaker's dummy inside, and built his clothing onto him. The robes are made from 20m of satin, which I hemmed at 1.5m intervals along its length, add added drawstring ribbons to give a layered effect. I then hand sewed this all onto a straight sheet of black quilt backing, and glued the quilt backing straight onto the back of Chamberlain. 10m of black cheese cloth was then hand sewn up into the gaps of the satin drapes, and onto the edge of the quilt backing, to disguise it, and give a second texture of robes that would fall out onto the floor and drag:
I sewed the sleeves from white bridal satin, hemmed down the centre line, and added a draw string ribbon along the length, to get the rouching of the sleeves, and added lace cuffs with ribbon detail. I flipped this inside out and added a second lining sleeve of striped cotton, that shows through once every thing got ripped up:
The 'collars' and lighter grey robes were made from more satins, and some white chiffon, that I hand sewed into place around the spines. I went through the folds of the robes and added scraps of embroidered jacquard fabric, and just let them hang out as tattered pieces:
Once all of that was done, I weathered all of the robes with a box cutter and a steak knife, then used watered down acrylic paints in spray bottles, to get the dirty and aged look that he needed. I started with black, then worked my way up through a few shades of grey, until I finished it off with different shades of brown :
The last few things I did were go back in, and add a thin metal 'skeleton' to the inside of the chest and main body, to support the weight of all the bits, once he was assembled. This just sits in there by pressing against the sides of the creature, and holding its own shape and the weight of the costume, and I cut a viewing window fro myself into the chest piece. I filled the hole with black tulle, and hid the edges by smoothing more neoprene onto them, and repainting that part. Then I glued two velcro leg straps to each of his legs, to hold them to my own, and hid the joins with more neoprene and paint.
And then he was done, and ready to be worn around the convention, and brought to life
Thank you for reading, every one! I hope you enjoyed seeing how I got this big guy done
Long time reader, first time poster
I decided one day to make my childhood favourite, Chamberlain Skeksis, and I'd like to share here how he was done, and how the finished project turned out.I started it in January this year, and worked away on bits and pieces of him on weekends. All in all, I spent 6 months on the whole build.
He was completed at the start of June, and made his first public appearance at a pop culture convention in Sydney, Australia, a couple of weeks ago (photographed by the wonderful Sarah Hillier photography)
I started out by doing a WED clay sculpt of the head, over a styrofoam mannequin head:
I latex molded it, and cast it in sculptamold:
Once it was just off fully cured, I carved and scooped it all out, so that the head was a shell, rather than a solid piece, and added the wrinkles and face details with latex and tissues, then hand painted him with acrylic paint, and later added painited sculpey teeth:
I did the hands, and the little arms on his back in the same way (sculpt, latex, sculptamold):
The body was made on a base of a hiking back pack, on which I mounted shaped EVA foam mats, and added a sewn tail filled with styrofaom beads and toy stuffing:
I hand sewed the legs, and chest/belly piece out of cotton poplin, and filled them with toy stuffing:
The legs were then permanently fixed onto the body frame, by hand sewing, and I glued the chest piece into the body frame. Then I coated the whole lot in liquid neoprene from the hardware store, let it cure, undercoated it in black gesso, then hand painted the skin of the Skeksis in acrylic paint:
The arms were made from cardboard inner rolls from the fabric store, joined with plastic plumbing curves. I glued the scultamold hands into the wrists, and wrapped the entire thing in left over poplin, stuffing as I went and hand sewing the 'muscles' into position. They were treated the same as the body and legs - neoprene coated, gesso coated, then hand painted for the Skeksis skin look I wanted:
The spines were made from balsa wood, shaped with a dremel, and then coated with sculptamold, sanded back roughly, then hand painted:
Once all the separate pieces were finished, I attached the arms by fixing U bolts on to the foam body, and attaching carabina clips to the inside surface of the upper arms. The spines, head and tiny arms were fixed on with screws and wing nuts, so that he can be broken down for transport and storage:
I left the body assembled, and standing on a dressmaker's dummy inside, and built his clothing onto him. The robes are made from 20m of satin, which I hemmed at 1.5m intervals along its length, add added drawstring ribbons to give a layered effect. I then hand sewed this all onto a straight sheet of black quilt backing, and glued the quilt backing straight onto the back of Chamberlain. 10m of black cheese cloth was then hand sewn up into the gaps of the satin drapes, and onto the edge of the quilt backing, to disguise it, and give a second texture of robes that would fall out onto the floor and drag:
I sewed the sleeves from white bridal satin, hemmed down the centre line, and added a draw string ribbon along the length, to get the rouching of the sleeves, and added lace cuffs with ribbon detail. I flipped this inside out and added a second lining sleeve of striped cotton, that shows through once every thing got ripped up:
The 'collars' and lighter grey robes were made from more satins, and some white chiffon, that I hand sewed into place around the spines. I went through the folds of the robes and added scraps of embroidered jacquard fabric, and just let them hang out as tattered pieces:
Once all of that was done, I weathered all of the robes with a box cutter and a steak knife, then used watered down acrylic paints in spray bottles, to get the dirty and aged look that he needed. I started with black, then worked my way up through a few shades of grey, until I finished it off with different shades of brown :
The last few things I did were go back in, and add a thin metal 'skeleton' to the inside of the chest and main body, to support the weight of all the bits, once he was assembled. This just sits in there by pressing against the sides of the creature, and holding its own shape and the weight of the costume, and I cut a viewing window fro myself into the chest piece. I filled the hole with black tulle, and hid the edges by smoothing more neoprene onto them, and repainting that part. Then I glued two velcro leg straps to each of his legs, to hold them to my own, and hid the joins with more neoprene and paint.
And then he was done, and ready to be worn around the convention, and brought to life
Thank you for reading, every one! I hope you enjoyed seeing how I got this big guy done
