Greetings All !
Say, I've started building Jim Carrey's Grinch and I'm definitely needing advice in certain areas.
I decided up-front that this build wouldn't be as intense as some of my previous costumes, since we spent most of the summer prepping to put our house on the market (and it's up for sale right now).
So, after researching what fur material folks commonly use for such costumes (Mongolian Olive Green Fur), I bought 5 yards of it. I then bought a sewing pattern for a sort of generic animal costume (one that, again, I'd heard was commonly used... Simplicity Pattern 2853).
But the majority of the actual "work" on this build, of course, is all in the face. I decided that I would build a latex face prosthetic, but would probably end up with a partial hood covering my ears and the top of my head. I had made my first (and only) latex face prosthetic about 5 years ago (!), so I started repeating that process.
I bought some water-based modeling clay and a Styrofoam man's head... and I started sculpting.
Here are photos from after my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd sessions working on it (about 1.5 - 2 hours each time).
View attachment 2017-09-12 19.05.10.jpg
View attachment 2017-09-25 19.15.19.jpg
(Please click on the links and don't just rely on that one small image. That was the first session. My apologies for the photo quality. Must be something about selfie-mode... the same camera took all of these photos.)
So, my intent is to have maybe one good solid session where I smooth things out a bit, and carve in a few more details. Honestly, here's where I have a serious weakness: It still looks kinda crappy to me at this point. And I'm aggravated that, just when I seem to get one area smoothed out and looking nice proportionally, it seems like some other area gets chips / scratches / tiny dents in it. But I could easily see myself spending another 8-10 hours on this thing, trying to get it "perfect"... when, really, I don't think it has to be. I'm not going for that kind of perfection with this build. Just something that looks good!
After that hopefully-final session of sculpting, then, I'll put a thin layer of petroleum jelly over the clay... and then start layering in liquid latex.
I have purchased an EVA foam mat and intend to cut that into pieces in order to build some "red elf shoes" (around a pair of old sneakers). I already have some special foam spray adhesive left from a previous costume build lying around, so I'm sure I can get a strong bond onto the shoes themselves.
I intend to build the hands / gloves out of scraps of left-over green fur... complete with some foam inserts to make the fingers longer.
That just leaves the Santa suit, which I already ordered off of Ebay. The darned thing said it had a chest big enough for a 52 inch chest...and it had a zipper in the front. Sounded good. But when I tried it on, well, yes, my chest fit with plenty of room to spare. But the ARMS were a few inches short and definitely too tight, especially back near the shoulders.
BUT, I have some help on that part...and on the green suit as well: I engaged a retired lady at my church who has extensive sewing experience to help me on both. She's already had me try on the green suit (sorry, I didn't get photos yet -- she was just double-checking certain measurements). We'll have plenty of red material in the Santa pants that we won't be using in order to add material to the jacket. Hopefully, we'll have enough material left for me to cover the shoes in red as well. (Otherwise, I was gonna probably coat the shoes in Plasti-dip and red spray paint.)
OK, now, to my questions and concerns:
1) Color theory. OK, on the one hand, I look at all these reference photos of Jim Carrey and I see that his skin and the prosthetic appear to be ONE color... and it's just a shade lighter (I think) than the fur that covered his entire body (except maybe for his eyebrows and some accent hair colors on his head). So, part of me says I need to somehow magically match the color of a decent quantity of liquid latex to go on the mask... and whatever makeup goes on my skin. But another part of me says that this has gotta be the wrong approach.
2) Heat reduction. My last costume was a velociraptor that was made mostly out of foam. I boiled in it, mostly because of head heat. (I took the head off frequently. Couldn't see in it anyways. <grin!>) Now I'm going to be wearing fur all over, including around over half of my head. Any thoughts? (Thankfully, one of the events I will be attending will be outdoors at night.)
3) I'm really second-guessing this sculpting bit. I feel like I'm really winging it and don't have enough talent to make it much better than whatever I can do in the next 2 hours of work. And then the other voice in my head says "but you don't HAVE to make it better, it just has to be adequate". What do you think?
Thanks!
-= Dave =-
Say, I've started building Jim Carrey's Grinch and I'm definitely needing advice in certain areas.
I decided up-front that this build wouldn't be as intense as some of my previous costumes, since we spent most of the summer prepping to put our house on the market (and it's up for sale right now).
So, after researching what fur material folks commonly use for such costumes (Mongolian Olive Green Fur), I bought 5 yards of it. I then bought a sewing pattern for a sort of generic animal costume (one that, again, I'd heard was commonly used... Simplicity Pattern 2853).
But the majority of the actual "work" on this build, of course, is all in the face. I decided that I would build a latex face prosthetic, but would probably end up with a partial hood covering my ears and the top of my head. I had made my first (and only) latex face prosthetic about 5 years ago (!), so I started repeating that process.
I bought some water-based modeling clay and a Styrofoam man's head... and I started sculpting.
Here are photos from after my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd sessions working on it (about 1.5 - 2 hours each time).
View attachment 2017-09-12 19.05.10.jpg
View attachment 2017-09-25 19.15.19.jpg
(Please click on the links and don't just rely on that one small image. That was the first session. My apologies for the photo quality. Must be something about selfie-mode... the same camera took all of these photos.)
So, my intent is to have maybe one good solid session where I smooth things out a bit, and carve in a few more details. Honestly, here's where I have a serious weakness: It still looks kinda crappy to me at this point. And I'm aggravated that, just when I seem to get one area smoothed out and looking nice proportionally, it seems like some other area gets chips / scratches / tiny dents in it. But I could easily see myself spending another 8-10 hours on this thing, trying to get it "perfect"... when, really, I don't think it has to be. I'm not going for that kind of perfection with this build. Just something that looks good!
After that hopefully-final session of sculpting, then, I'll put a thin layer of petroleum jelly over the clay... and then start layering in liquid latex.
I have purchased an EVA foam mat and intend to cut that into pieces in order to build some "red elf shoes" (around a pair of old sneakers). I already have some special foam spray adhesive left from a previous costume build lying around, so I'm sure I can get a strong bond onto the shoes themselves.
I intend to build the hands / gloves out of scraps of left-over green fur... complete with some foam inserts to make the fingers longer.
That just leaves the Santa suit, which I already ordered off of Ebay. The darned thing said it had a chest big enough for a 52 inch chest...and it had a zipper in the front. Sounded good. But when I tried it on, well, yes, my chest fit with plenty of room to spare. But the ARMS were a few inches short and definitely too tight, especially back near the shoulders.
BUT, I have some help on that part...and on the green suit as well: I engaged a retired lady at my church who has extensive sewing experience to help me on both. She's already had me try on the green suit (sorry, I didn't get photos yet -- she was just double-checking certain measurements). We'll have plenty of red material in the Santa pants that we won't be using in order to add material to the jacket. Hopefully, we'll have enough material left for me to cover the shoes in red as well. (Otherwise, I was gonna probably coat the shoes in Plasti-dip and red spray paint.)
OK, now, to my questions and concerns:
1) Color theory. OK, on the one hand, I look at all these reference photos of Jim Carrey and I see that his skin and the prosthetic appear to be ONE color... and it's just a shade lighter (I think) than the fur that covered his entire body (except maybe for his eyebrows and some accent hair colors on his head). So, part of me says I need to somehow magically match the color of a decent quantity of liquid latex to go on the mask... and whatever makeup goes on my skin. But another part of me says that this has gotta be the wrong approach.
2) Heat reduction. My last costume was a velociraptor that was made mostly out of foam. I boiled in it, mostly because of head heat. (I took the head off frequently. Couldn't see in it anyways. <grin!>) Now I'm going to be wearing fur all over, including around over half of my head. Any thoughts? (Thankfully, one of the events I will be attending will be outdoors at night.)
3) I'm really second-guessing this sculpting bit. I feel like I'm really winging it and don't have enough talent to make it much better than whatever I can do in the next 2 hours of work. And then the other voice in my head says "but you don't HAVE to make it better, it just has to be adequate". What do you think?
Thanks!
-= Dave =-