Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them: Bowtruckle (2016)

This might be a very quick tutorial.

After seeing the movie "Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them" I decided I wanted to make my friend a figure from that movie as he wanted to come with me, but I didn't know that in time.

This isn't the perfect photo, I'll try to make a new one soon.

 To start of I looked at footage/ photo's of the actual Bowtruckle from the movie.
From that I made a wire frame from electric wire (I don't really recommend this afterwards as it proved to be way to bendy.

The tiny frame was covered with a bit of clay and some basic shapes were added.
I left 2 antennas sticking out of his head. Later on the leaves would be glued to these.

I used some expensive new clay for this project instead of the regular cheap one I use. It's a nice smooth clay but it breaks rather easily. So not that suited for this tiny project.

Wireframe

Covered with clay

Once the clay part is done I gave it a solid green layer. On this I added all the variety of brown and greens.

The leaves were made from regular (eva) foam; 1mm. I cut this in shape and with something sharp I added the lines of the leave.
With help from the heat of a lighter I was able to make the leave a bit thinner and bend it into shape (it will stay that way once cooled)
This was also painted several shaded of green.

2 coats of varnish (semi-gloss on most of it, gloss on the "wet parts" like roots, tips of his fingers)

In case you wonder: The "Pepernoot" he's holding is an inside joke. (This is also made from clay)

Witch Head (2016)

Which head? A Witch head.
At the corso works a man who always had a witch on top of his chimney. Unfortunately, the witch fell down and he wanted to make a new one. He's a fine welder so he could make the dress/ broom, but he didn't know how to make a face.

Finished face, only needs some outside varnish

I can do a face. Clay isn't a stranger to me. Yet it had to withstand the forces of nature and well, clay isn't the most trustworthy companion when it comes to rain and frost.

Therefor I had to make a mold from a clay model and use some sort of resin.

But first start with the clay model:
I use tin foil to make a base (which saves up a lot of clay)

The tin foil is covered with masking tape, this makes the clay stick on a bit better; it doesn't really want to stick to the foil.

Tin foil base

Same base, covered with masking tape

 After a bunch of carving and adding/ removing clay I ended up with this face:

Finished clay model

I used cheap air drying clay. Normally when you want to make a mold you might consider using plasticine or something similar. This type of clay stays soft and can be reused for your next project.
Anyhow, further methods remain the same.

Give the head a mohawk makeover. Because it's not possible to make a one piece mold with the nose and such you have to make a seam somewhere. I did this at the back of the head, because the hair will cover it up. The pouring hole will be in the top (a hat will fit here later on)

Witch with a mohawk

Now add layer after layer after layer of liquid latex. I added some harder to the latex to make it thicker. In the end I noticed the mold shrinks a considerable amount (at least 10%). So I'm not sure it's a good thing to use.

When the rubber is finished a two piece shell will be made from polyester (with glass fiber).
To make a two piece mold you need to make a barrier the whole seam around. For this I did use plasticine. 

Rubbermold with half a polyester mold

Other side

Now the hard part is done it's time to pour in the resin. At first I tried the regular resin (polyester) but it takes a lot of time before it solidifies. Next to that it doesn't cover everything + it is rather fragile.

I went online and found some better resin: Smooth-Cast 65D
This is a quick solidifying resin used for this type of hollow cast molding.
Mix the 2 parts, pour it in and keep swirling it around so everything inside is covered (yes, it's a messy process)

You'll be left with a nice lightweight white duplicate of your clay model. (The only sidenote is that it leaves some small bubbles at the surface; you can fill those with primer when you start to paint)

Casting process

The only thing left is to paint your new model.
I used a dark grey primer and added some light grey by dry brushing.

Front side of the witch.

Next it's making the actual witch, which probably will happen at the corso next year)

FruitCorso: De Tijd Vliegt (Time Flies) (2016)

Another year, another FruitCorso.
This year we went a bit smaller than usual. The cart has the name "Time Flies", it's in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the club.
We did a literal interpretation of "Time Flies" by having a pocket watch carried by butterflies and swallows.

The cart during the FruitCorso Parade.

I was asked to help out with the design of the birds. I had to do a drawing of one in several positions with the wing width of 1,5 meter.
I made 3 flying designs; 1 flying, 1 braking and one with its wings half folded (that last one was skipped). Next to that I also designed a sitting one.

Top view of my sketch.

From this I made a metal design together with the welder. Me and the designer decided it was easiest to do the wings out of carton with a simple metal framing inside; this makes the wing look thinner and the separate feathers are easier made.

Metal frame with a Styrofoam head.

The metal frame with a cardboard wing glued to it.

During the metal work I was trying to make 11 swallow heads. Birds aren't easy so there's a bit of difference between them. (There's one that looks more like a pigeon)
At home I used clay to improve the faces of the birds.
In all honesty I was skeptical about the size of the birds; they were the same size as the butterflies, but looked even smaller since their wings have less surface. None the less, no discussion, they were approved by the designer. The sitting ones were allowed to become a bit bigger.

After the metal work I could attach the wings. This took a lot of work so I was lucky there were some folks to help me out.
When that was done the feet/legs could be welded and attached. It was a bit unclear if we had to wait until the chain was done (making them fit better), but we got a go to just give them feet.
Now the paper team could finally add paper to them, to which we could add plaster (takes the metal framing edges away and makes sure the neck runs smoothly to it's back/chest)

"Birds falling down the rooftops..."

The bird finished with plaster.

 After all the "paperwork" it was time to draw on them. I had miscalculated how much time would go into this. There were a lot...a lot of feathers! One of the designers stepped in and helped me out with this.
When everything was drawn and painted, people could finally start gluing on all the different kinds of seeds.

Painted bird.

The product design was also part of my "job", I made a 2:1 sketch to make it clear to other which and how the products were going to be glues on. (I made a copy which I colored and gave it a caption what it all meant). Unfortunately, time was our enemy, so we had to change the design and switch some products. All in all I'm quite happy how things turned out.

The sketch of the different types of seeds/fruits/vegetables that had to go on the bird.
Left = back, right = stomach. In the end we did some changes due to the time consuming design.

My bird, finished with the seed part.

The backside still needs a lot of work. Therefor it will go home with me.

It barely fitted in the car.

When everything was done, every seeds was glued on, every tomato was in place, every bird/ butterfly was welded where they needed to go it was finally time to go outside!

The cart during the FruitCorso Parade.

The end result of my bird.

 And here some Bonus pictures from the build.

How the clock looked during the 50th anniversary party.

Backside of the cart when it was finished and almost ready to go outside.

The framing of one of the butterflies

Pretty red butterfly.

Side of the watch.

This is my favorite bird! It's a really chubby one.

FruitCorso "Time Flies"; Swallow Model (2016)

I wasn't allowed to post this sooner as the design was still a secret.
But this years' theme is "Time Flies"; it's a clock that is carried by swallows and butterflies.
I got the task to create the heads of  the birds, but I didn't have a really good reference so I build my own model.

Finished Swallow front view

To start a project as this it's important to have  bunch of reference material. In other words: Get yourself a lot of pictures of the subject, preferable from different angles.

Before I started I made some sort of frame. I glued several sticks and stirrers together (and later even more sticks as the bird became to heavy for the first support)
On this I mounted a piece of tinfoil wrapped a bit to the shape of the bird.

Abstract tin foil art.

On this sad looking "abstract art" I added clay, I gave it a face and some details as body feathers. I didn't add the wings/tail or legs, but I gave it little stumps where they should be.

Stumpy body

The wings are made from scraps of cardboard. On paper I made a drawing of one wing. This I copied a few times to be able to cut the separate feathers. (As they overlap, you can't cut them from just 1 copy).
For the second wing you flip the paper templates.
My wings consist of 4 parts: Inner-part, big feathers, smaller feathers, outer-part. The inner and outer part have so many small feathers, it's easier to create them with a layer of clay.

The clay will also smoothen the transition from the wings/ tail to the body.

Bird with the cardboard wings.

Iron wire feet.

For it's feet I used iron wire for a frame and wrapped it with some thread. The nails are done separately and glued them on when they were dry.
When all was done I painted everything with white primer (I didn't want it to be glossy).

I also made a new frame to support it.

Right side

Left side

Back side

 

Semi-front side

Harry Potter "The Monster Book of Monsters" Replica (2015)

At first this started as a prank for a "Sinterklaas surprise", but it turned out better than I hoped, so I kept it myself.

A "Surprise" is a crafted way to wrap a gift. Most often you make something typical of the person who will get it. This person is a fan of a.o. Harry Potter and therefor I wanted to make a "Monsters Book of Monsters" from the movie. Instead of making it out of cardboard I wanted to make one of wood/ clay and fake fur.

My "Book of Monsters"

The Actual book from the movies

A comparison between the real replica and mine.

 I started off by making a wooden book, which is basically just a box with a lid (and a curved backside). These you can by in certain stores as well (Xenos)
Because it had to be made to hold a specific gift I didn't take measurements from the actual book.

With clay I've added the tentacles, eyes, teeth etc.
This is basic air drying clay. I do recommend to wet the wooden surface when you attach the tentacles. Even better is to first rub a layer of clay firmly to the (wet) wood and add the tentacles to that. If this fails, you can always use some wood glue to attach them once dry.

Opened book, unpainted

 Since the tentacles resemble those of octopuses, they need suction cups. Make a tiny ball (1 mm and press the backside of a needle in the center; repeat this step numerous of times).
These are attached with wood glue.

For the eyes I've used some stuffed animal eyes I had once bought 2nd hand.

Some Base colors

The book had some detailed carved letters. I can't carve that well out of wood, luckily clay is a lot easier. I've used a toothpick for this; the "ugly" edges can be sanded when the clay is dry.

Carved clay

Once all the clay parts are in place, the paint job starts. First of are some base colors. When those are applied the actual colors can be put on.
Mostly I used the "dry brushed" one and on the tentacles I've also splattered a bit diluted paint.
The letters are painted gold first then I added dark grey by holding the brush flat, this way it doesn't get into the letters (I might redo the gold bits, because I'm not 100% satisfied with them as they do not show that well).
After the paint I added a semi gloss clear varnish. If you like your book to look more slimey/wet I suggest you use glossy varnish.

Top view with the base coatings

When the varnish part is done it's time to add the fur. This is a tricky task. But I cut a piece that was big enough and glued it with hot glue on my book. At the places where the letters and eyes were I cut a hole. You can play around with the fur a bit to readjust it and it's okay if you cut to much; you can always put tiny patched back and comb the hairs a bit so it's not that noticeable.

I wanted to say: Then you're done, but there's one more part: Adding the pages.
I've looked on google for pictures and found one. Using Paint I copied and mirrored it, so I could align them in the middle (where the teeth are, so you can hardly see the seam).

And now you're actually done. You can always make the inside look nice with some velours/ velvet fabric or just paint it. 

 (If you might wonder what my friend got instead: I made a last minute Tardis from cardboard, so no harm is done. Lucky for my I've already had some experience making Tardisses ;))