I didn’t want levers or anything foreign that you wouldn’t find on a face, monster or otherwise. That got me thinking and within a few minutes I came up with the design for his head to become a candy dispenser. “Yea, but what does he do?” they asked a few times, in disbelief of the fact that he was just going to be a giant candy bowl. A visitor to the shop commented on my monster, and didn’t believe it was just a static prop, perhaps assuming my tendencies to keep tinkering with things until they work great or break in style. So my train of thought was to make his jaw a candy bowl that we could pass out the candy from rather than just a bag or boring bowl.Īfter a little while of putting together the basic head shape and roughing in some details. I have had this image in my head for a long time of a mask that has a square jaw look to it that is used for candy storage instead of having a bucket or bag to carry around. I have made, started rather, about 12 masks that I work on when time allows. Doing nothing is never an option, especially around Halloween time. In his infancy, he was originally going to just be a quick prop for the yard seeing that things have been crazy and for one reason or another, we didn’t get to celebrate Halloween in our usual style.
#Patterns of paper monsters series
In true Frankenstein style, His head ended up being a series of experiments. The front of the torso frame was temporally covered with thick cardboard, which I replaced with wood later on in the build. His arms were then wrapped in packing paper, in a few passes, bulking up places and giving my monster some flesh on his bones. They only come in right handed poses, so, channeling doctor Frankenstein himself, I ended up slicing off most of the fingers, re-locating a thumb and re-structuring them until I found the pose I was looking for. I usually try to grab 10 or so of them and have them on hand year round for various uses. I’m sure everyone has these laying around in the Halloween stuff (or should). I attached two plastic hands at the end of the arms. Space in the shop is a luxury these days. I attached the arms to the torso with some temporary screws, later replaced with lag bolts with washers and wing nuts for strength, durability and so that he can be disassembled for storage. Once I found the pose, I added a few more screws to lock them into place. It’s subtle but a few inches make a lot of difference. I put screws where I wanted the joint bends to be, so I could pose the arms like a skeleton until I found the right amount of character to give him that ominous touch. His arms were created from mostly scrap 1”X 3” and 1”X 2”. I tried to add as many touches of Jack Pierce’s make-up effects as I could fit without overdoing it. The pose is universal and instantly recognizable, and my way of paying homage to Karloff’s portrayal of the monster in the 1931 version of Frankenstein. I wanted to incorporate motion to help bring him to life, even as a static prop. I didn’t want just a clunky prop for the yard. I had that classic monster/zombie pose in my head as far as what I wanted his posture to be. There is nothing like following a problem down the rabbit hole and seeing where you come out on the other side. It is a very organic process, one that I enjoy very much.
#Patterns of paper monsters trial
I have learned through trial and error to leave myself as much room to play around with as I can, to give me more options when I get into the details and mechanics later on. I added some cross bracing for additional strength. I wasn’t sure exactly what he would become at this point, so the first few steps to any build are really just me eyeballing, cutting/re-cutting and tacking a frame together until I have a rough outline I’m happy with. I chose them because they gave me the strength I needed for the frame and for their light weight.
The Build:įrank’s torso began with a few scrap pieces of 1”X 6” cedar fencing boards rough cut to size to form a basic rectangle shape. My friend Frank started like many versions of the good doctor Frankenstein’s infamous experiments often do with a curiosity. Intro: I am honored that Jonni asked me to write a guest post about how I brought my Paper Mache Monster “Frank” to life and to be able to share my work with this community and be amongst this caliber of Artists.
How I made my Paper Mache Monster, Frank!
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