Sketch

I worked on the Reaper last night. I think that I have his skull complete, as far as sculpting goes. I may need to sand it down a little, to smooth out some rough areas, but other than that, I think I need to "cash out" so that I don't over think it.

Now I'm contemplating the wings. I'm doing a lot of research online to figure out the best construction method. I'm thinking foam and I'm thinking that I'll need to do the wings in sections to make them look real. I'm still very undecided on how to make the feathers for there are a few different avenues to take, but I think that by the weekend, I'll have a better idea of what direction to head in.

Sunday will be another fabrication day, so hopefully that will be the day that I can start on the wings :)

Until then and until I get a picture of the skull, here's a pic of my latest sketch. The wings will be shaped different and I might actually be able to get a real scythe, so the positioning of his arms may change and the hourglass may end up somewhere else... that's all yet to be seen ;)

Research For Raven Reaper

I'm finally getting back to my projects, after the busy 3 months that I've had. First thing on the agenda, my raven reaper. Remember this guy?

Being away from the project has given me a lot of time to think about the rest of his design and how I'm going to go about constructing him. Of course, as a reaper, I'll dress him in a long black cloak, but I wanted to give him more than just the ravenish skull to pull together the idea of the mix between raven and grim reaper. So, to really wrap my mind around this whole concept, I started thinking about the parallels between ravens and the grim reaper/angel of death. I'm more familure with grim reaper lore than raven lore and symbolism so, I started my research with the raven. Digging around looking for cultural stories of ravens has proven very interesting. I found that in Kwakwaka'wakw mythology, Gwaxwgwakwalanuksiwe' was a man-eating raven spirit, that was portrayed in some of their rituals...well, that's creepy. I also read that in Sweden, ravens are believed to be the ghosts of people who were murdered... wow, that's pretty creepy too! In Germany, it’s believed that ravens are souls of the damned! Yikes! Seems like I'm on the right track! I even read that some Native American groups believe that Ravens helped souls into the after-life... BINGO! In addition, Western cultures believe that Ravens are omens of ill or negative things to come, including death.
Once I realized that I'm on the right track with the concept, I started thinking about the physical attributes that could connect the two. I decided that wings would be the element to really mesh the two together. Wings can be seen on some images of reapers, such as "angels of death".
I also plan to give him the trademark sickle, which grim reapers are usually seen holding, but I'm also going to make an hourglass for him, to push forward the idea that "time is up".
The more that I develop a character in my mind, the better the concept comes through physically :)
I'm excited to really dive into this project now.

Construction pics to follow soon!

Halloween At the Beach

There aren't many things that I love as much as I love all things Halloween, but the beach is one of them :) So, when I encountered Halloweenish things during my recent vacation to Gulf Shores, I was in HEAVEN!

This was only one hole at the minigolf place, but the Count and I quickly starting dreaming up a whole Halloween themed minigolf place :) We have all of the details worked out! So, who wants to loan us the money to get this project started? lol, I had to try ;)

In anycase, now that vacation over and the new shed complete, it's time to start cranking out some new props!

I can't wait! I love prop building summers :) Pictures soon!

Happy Haunting!