Showing posts with label veg tan leather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label veg tan leather. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 22, 2010


I actually have accomplished some things. Not as much as I should've, but some. Sadly, I still cannot find my camera. So instead of proving that I actually can get work done on new projects, I bring you some pictures of the Yowie!



These are screen shoots taken from the actual film, so they are quite dark. I'm hoping to get a well lit photo, but no luck yet.

Can you find the Yowie in picture #3?

It took me a minute. The figure on the left is the actor walking through the forest, and on the right, the Yowie is following him!

This last photo is a picture of the mask once it was enhanced with some paint. I am pleased with the face, although I feel that in the screen shots there is too much contrast between the hands/face and the fur. I'm told this is a good thing, otherwise we would not've been able to see the Yowie at all. The fur suit served its purpose, I don't like the obvious wrinkles, but there's nothing I can do about it now.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Fail blog.

So, after my success with the yowie face, I had these grand plans of making monster gloves as well. I painstakingly hand stitched together a very basic glove - a blown up tracing of my boyfriend's had, two layers, stitch around the outside. I didn't want to do a proper glove because I wanted to minimize the seams, and theoretically make my life easier. The stitching was painful. The only leather needle I could find was in a package of "repair needles", and the one that was labeled 'leather' was not sharp enough to go through the hide. There was one labeled 'Tent/Deck Chair/Canvas' (sure, whatever) that had a sharp end in the triangle shape that I think of a leather needle, and that went pretty well for the thumb and the index finger, and then the eye broke. So I tried the 'Sacks/Packing' needle which had the same type of end, but was much larger. To big, and the eye would barely go through the holes it made. The 'Bookbinding/Sailmakers' needle bent. In an act of desperation, I went to my book of regular old hand stitching needles and found that the regular old sharp needles went through the leather just find. After a while, I developed a system of piercing holes with the broken leather needle, and then stitching through them with the sharp. I still broke 6 sharps while stitch the one glove, and my fingers were so sore I had to use pliers to pull the needle through after the middle finger. Totally lame.


So finally finish sewing the glove, looks alright, I know from a prior experiment that the leather is too stiff to turn when its dry, so I get it wet and begin the painstaking process of turning the fingers right side out. Much use of the pliers was needed to make this happen. Anyway, finally get it turned (mostly) and my boyfriend tries it on. He can get it on his hand, but all the 'loose-ness' I was hoping to have to wrinkle and texture does not exist. It fits, quite literally, like a glove. And at this point it is about 9 pm on Thursday, and I am leaving Brisbane for good early Saturday morning. I still have to do pesky things like pack. So we made the executive decision to buy some monster hands instead. Credit card to the rescue!

In this picture, the mask is still being held on by elastic bands. Its been upgraded to a proper elastic behind the head now. It is going to be enhanced with some paint, but I won't be around to do that. I'm pretty pleased with it, considering I've never done this before.


P.S. The boyfriend is much better looking withough the mask.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Mask time

Pretty, right? :p I think I'll leave it like this. Actually, this is my test drive for the actual mask. I got a hide of vegetable tanned leather, and I'm going to make the mask, and gloves, out of it. Vegetable tanned leather can be molded and shaped when it is wet, and when it dries, it keeps its shape. We had an opportunity to play with it once when I was at school. The film doesn't have a make-up artist on board yet, and they weren't sure if they would be able to get someone with special effect experience who could do a creature face. Veg tan leather is used for venetian masks, and boiled leather armor etc. I have never made a mask with it before, let alone a creature mask. But no one really knows what a yowie looks like, so no one can tell me I got it wrong.
I did some tests on a piece of the leather to figure out some techniques to add texture to the face. I'm taking my inspiration from this.


So, here is the first draft of the Yowie Mask. Not as much texture as I originally imagine, but I decided to stop for now, rather then take it to far. Once it has dried, I'm going to put it on the boyfriend's face and see how that effects it, and go from there. Looking at the Planet of the Apes picture again, I'm wishing I had done the nose more like that.