Evil Dead Deer

For this year's Halloween party, I wanted to make a big centre piece. I decided on the laughing deer from Evil Dead 2. I've bought a deer form (the rigid foam kind) and plan on skinning him with fake fur.



First, I'm going to need to sculpt the snout, open the mouth, and make him look a lot more deaditeified. I'm thinking of using non-crack air dry clay (I have Pebeo on hand) to bulk out (and pray this stuff really is non-crack because I've had plenty of disastrous results with the regular air dry stuff)

BUT... the deer is moulting on the snout, which means I'll have to punch the hair around the face to make it look more convincing. I'll be getting long pile fake fur, so I can trim some off the backing to use. Unfortunately I don't have the time or resources to make a silicone skin for the deer (which is what I've seen many people opt for when punching hair). Seeing as I'm not replicating a human where it's important for perfection to get out of the uncanny valley, and the fact that the original prop that was already hokey to begin with, I think I can get away with some shortcuts.

But the question is, how do I punch hair into clay? Would it have to be while it's still drying? I've heard of people punching hair into raw polymer clay and then wetting the hair when putting it in the oven to stop it singeing. But then that raises the question of how would I go about painting it afterwards when the clay has dried and the hair is set without getting paint all over the hair? Perhaps a layer of Fimo over the top in the correct colour which the hair can then be plugged into, but given the size and the foam, it wouldn't be practical to stick in the oven.

Any thoughts?

In the meantime, I've made the eyes. Clear plastic baubles trimmed to size and then I airbrushed the pinky border (since I'm going to add a slight lower eyelid out of clay, I brought the pink a little higher on the bottom of the eyes). Finally, I sprayed in the white. This was all done on the inside of the eye, meaning I had to paint everything in reverse, but it also means I get the nice shiny finish of the bauble and there's no risk of the paint running if I accidentally hit it with thinner when painting the rest. The plan is to install the eyes, then mask them off and add the clay. I'm only at the first step and it's already starting to take shape!

I'm thinking of using hair laying techniques instead of punching. I need to focus on making the sculpt perfect without also worrying about adding hair before the clay dries. I've cut open the jaw and dremelled space for the mouth. It felt wrong opening the jaw that unnaturally wide, but it's definitely caricatured in the film. Working with rigid foam made carving a doddle. I haven't glued it yet, because I want access to doing the mouth. I also got some clay the snout and mouth. The mouth is a little rough; the clay seemed to be better suited for large scale work.

I would definitely lay the hair. Looks like a fun project!

It really is. I've made a tonne of progress today even if the entire day seems to have gotten past me.


I worked on the brow and eyes. Hopefully I can just trim away the masking tape leaving shiny eyeballs in place. Looking at reference material I might go back in over the corners of the eyes with purple but we'll see how it looks once it's painted.


I also worked on the lower jaw. Again, a lot rougher due to the detail, but it's something I can keep picking at until I'm happy.


After that I padded out the back where the antlers should be. I'm going to have to be careful when it comes time to drill holes for the antlers. I also went in and added the jowls. It's always so easy to get one side done perfectly, and then it takes three times as long trying to match the symmetry on the other side.

I've spotted some cracks where it's already starting to try, despite this so-called 'no crack' clay, so I've covered it in a wet bin bag in the hopes of slowing the drying.

Cool! Watching with interest.
The possessed deer was unforgettable!

I took some large needles that I'd never used and used them as pins the hold the jaw in place. I think it could probably have done with being a little wider, but I'm not messing now it's all glued.


Then I built up the lower jaw with clay. Still needs some tweaking, but I'm happy with the progress. Also added a little to the nose since I missed some detail.

I've not done much to the main sculpt. I've bulked out the neck and chest, although I am running into really bad cracking for those bits. The back of the neck is practically peeling off.


Since these bits are going underneath the fur, it's not a massive issue when I can just bondo on some of the bulk instead, but I REALLY hope this doesn't happen for the head. There are some small cracks forming on the face. I've been filling them in with slip as they crack but it's cracking in all the same places as it dries again, so I don't think I'm making any progress there. Should I let it dry fully before repairing any cracks? I've been covering it in a wet bin bag while I haven't been working on it and letting it air out for a few hours a day to slow the drying time. Can anyone recommend anything to go over it that doesn't crack? Polymer clay needs to go in the oven so with the foam base, that's a no go. Oil based clay doesn't dry which isn't ideal (although I have heard you can paint oil based clay). Only thing I can think of is milliput, which I'd need a lot of and is a bit difficult to use, being two parts.

On better news, I've made some ears out of wire mesh and I'm covering them in fimo. The first ear looks good.

Hi
I was going to say Epoxy clay (two parts), but I think that´s the same as Milliput.
Not sure if you will be laying hair on the area you are sculpting or not
Another option I have done more than once for similar jobs could be using upholstery foam, you can carve it with scissors and others. You could glue some basic shapes on the base form and finish them there. Of course you can´t get the finish of clay, But if there is hair over it it will work as a "shape base".
But you can give an interesting finish to upholstery foam anyway. Playing around with glue can help to smooth it (you´l have to get the trick of it by testing), also the rough shapes can be covered with thin (5mm) upholstery foam or fabric to cover the roughness scissors will leave. For example felt is an interesting one, you can get it to adapt very well stetching it and working with a vapor iron.
Then you can coat it with latex for example to finish and paint it.
But if you prefer the sculpting route (which I understand, no comparison) another approach could be molding what you´ve sculpted with plaster. Then cast in slip latex (make it firm, you could even add fiberglass layer or cheesecloth with the latex to make it firm), and place that on your PU foam shape. If it doesn´t fit 100% you would just have to carve down the foam (most probably) till you get it in place.
Sounds less messy at the end to me, this would be my route I think. And you can forget about cracks and drying.

Just other approaches for the same result.

Looks very nice, and a fun one!

I'm leaning towards milliput. I tried making slip with vinegar since I heard that was a better substitute for water, but the cracks are already re-emerging. I've removed the neck and chest clay; they were peeling back severely and just popped right off.

I've screwed the ears on. Planning on building up the ear muscles with milliput since I'm unsure how fragile air dry clay would end up.

Here's a question; could I put milliput over not-so-dry clay? I'm worried that once the air dry clay is bone dry, it'll be a lot more fragile and crumbly and covering the sculpt in a layer of milliput might break it, whereas the hardened milliput over slightly wet clay might keep it together before it can break? Thoughts?

I missed you where using a polimer clay (that´s why I suggested molding it and the latex route)..
I´ve never tried to put milliput on not-so dry-clay, but instinct and common sense tells me it would we be better to have it totally dry before adding anything on it.
At the end these are chemical reactions of different kind, hard to know what will happen when you add one on top of the other.

I would think they will have different expansion/contraction rates when they dry. If you put the milliput over uncured air dry it might crack as the air dry shrinks when it dries.

So using air dry clay turned out to be a disaster. I'm swearing off it now. Never going to touch the stuff again because of this:



The clay pretty much crumbled off, so I had to start again from scratch. I've gotten up to this stage with apoxie sculpt, which I'm finding a lot tougher to use, but at least it isn't shrinking.

How cool. I actually helped create the deer head for evil dead 2 and was the puppeteer. I would have never thought at the time that anyone would make the deer head a Halloween costume.

That's a great picture. Channeling a possessed deer head tormenting Bruce Campbell sounds like the perfect day.

CessnaDriver said:

That's a great picture. Channeling a possessed deer head tormenting Bruce Campbell sounds like the perfect day.

Click to expand...

It was fun but exhausting. Hot, summer, puppets, 3 things that don't go together. Fun now, but a nightmare then.