Patron Saint of Pavement

Sidewalk Divinity

FRED the Shark

When I was at my previous job doing internet marketing, I had these cool co-workers that I bonded with pretty early on. I met them tonight after not seeing them for while and made them these FRED the Shark watercolor paintings. FRED was our personal mascot (our champion through dark times) who happened to be a rubber toy shark. I brought him to life with a voice that was sort of raspy and southern sounding (I don't know its just something that came up naturally). I ended up making a bunch of drawings of FRED for my co-workers. They enjoyed them immensely, and I decided that I would make an extra special reunion edition for them.

Here is FRED in all his glory:

FRED based off of the 1931  classic Fritz Lang film, M.

FRED as a Roman Emperor, who could ask for a better dictatorship?

We Need A Costume Designer...

...who dresses up our action heroes in this sort of garb. I'm tired of the "bad-ass" look in films, it just breathes douchey lameness all over the screen.

But imagine a ridiculous gun fight with a man dressed in this:

Now that would be cool....

I know some of you can't visualize this sort of awesomeness, so I took the liberty of add some extra effects for you:

Yeah, way more "bad-ass."

ORIGINAL PHOTO FROM HERE

Halloween Costume Process: Papier Mache Chestburster from Alien!

This year for Halloween I decided to make my own papier mache prop inspired by the classic Ridley Scott movie, Alien.

I'm sure everyone is familiar with this iconic scene.



Still creeps me out today as it did watching it as a kid.

This project was one of those rare occasions in which I enjoyed the artistic process from start to finish.

I constructed the frame of the chestburster with cardboard from a Cheerios cereal box.

The tools I used to construct this cardboard frame were:

an Xacto Knife

a cutting board with measurements

and some masking tape

It's always good to have a picture to refer to when constructing this little bad boy.

Then I papier mache the exterior giving the general mold of the creature using Claycrete.

All you do is add water! Super simple and great quality.

This is still a really messy process, so make sure you have some disposable surface to cover your table when working with this stuff! It took about a day for it to harden and dry completely. It'll probably take longer if the weather is humid, try to keep it in a dry warm place.

I used AMACO Sculptamold after the Claycrete paper mache finished drying to give it a smoother finish.

The cool thing about Sculptamold is that once it dries and hardens you could actually sand it down. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to sand down for a smooth surface since I only thought of making my costume three days before Halloween.

Damn it Giger, stop making things that looks like a penis!

Nathalie, my wonderful costume designing girlfriend, helped me with the shirt. She's very very good with details, particularly on the logo patch and blood.

I whipped out my Iwata Eclipse air brush to give the creature it's first coat of paint.

The airbrush is very efficient in getting into all the nooks and crannies than with your typical paint brush. I mixed some fluid acrylics that were designed for airbrushes to get a fleshy color. I mixed white, red, yellow, and a drop of blue. It didn't have to be perfect, since the finishing layers were going to be with regular paint brushes and heavy body acrylic paint.

Looks like a freshly baked loaf of bread.

This is how it looked after mixing and painting with a paint brush.

I painted the teeth on a separate piece of cardboard and later installed it from the inside of the cardboard frame.

I forget the last time I've been to the dentist.

Mixing all different kinds of flesh colors helps this papier mache chestburster come to life. Looks absolutely gross!

But something is missing...

I feel like I'm missing something...

Oh yeah!
Blood. Lots and lots of blood.

This is how it looked like when assembled. It took a lot of duct tape, and a piece of string to keep that papier mache prop supported on my chest.

MY RIBS!!

It was a hit at the Halloween parade, particularly with African American and Hispanic women... there is something about large phallic symbols that just get 'em going, they're so weird...