Best Of
Re: What's On Your Workbench? (Fall 2025)
On my way to becoming gray for Denethor, I had to go ultra blonde. I was warned that I shouldn't just stack all these hair processes too quickly, so, I am spending a week blonde to continue bonding and conditioning my hair.
So, having no patience and very little self control, I started in on Lucius Malfoy. Three costumes spanning multiple movies. Hat, hair, aging, de-aging, props, costumes, jewelry. You know, because, I have at least until my roots grow out brown.
Update 12-14-25: finished - full build thread link: https://forums.stanwinstonschool.com/discussion/12342/lucius-malfoy-impersonation-cosplay-costume-jason-isaacs-impersonation-cosplay-costume#latest
So, having no patience and very little self control, I started in on Lucius Malfoy. Three costumes spanning multiple movies. Hat, hair, aging, de-aging, props, costumes, jewelry. You know, because, I have at least until my roots grow out brown.
Update 12-14-25: finished - full build thread link: https://forums.stanwinstonschool.com/discussion/12342/lucius-malfoy-impersonation-cosplay-costume-jason-isaacs-impersonation-cosplay-costume#latest
Re: What's On Your Workbench? (Fall 2025)
Will be working on this a bit more but here is my first installment of my latest costume and prop build:
15ft dragon puppet for Shrek The Musical
I'm 2 years into puppet building on a large, semi-professional scale. I actually don't know when I make the leap into calling myself a professional... I was hired and paid... I won a national award for puppetry design and construction from the Kennedy Center yet it still feels like I haven't earned that title yet. Eventually.
Anyway- a friend of mine recently asked me to make their dragon for Shrek The Musical and I immediately said no because I was so intimidated by the scale, but after some thought I changed my mind and I'm so glad I did. This project pushed me as an artist and a person, and there were times I thought I would break, but I pushed through and I'm very pleased with the end result.
Shout-out to the How to Fabricate a Monster Suit course, Puppet Mechanism courses, Sculpting Basics and Foam Fabrication for holding my hand through this. 😅
I hope you enjoy her.
Her eyes have LED lights and switch from red to green via a remote off stage. Her wings *were* articulated via a pulley but they snapped during the installation and I didn't have time to repair it. Her eyes also opened and closed but that was other hiccup so I scraped it and they live open now.
Her skull is a PVC base with a standard eye blink mech. I patterned the head myself and used EVA to construct it.
Her body structure is also PVC with extra large hulahoops and plastic corset boning to make out a cage of sorts. The tail was my biggest engineering feat and took over 8 hours to get right. It was extremely important to me that the movement was just right. When she was on stage she was able to dance and fight Donkey and Shrek using her tail as a weapon.
This entire build took about 200 hours to complete.
I'm still learning and had to make a lot of compromises just because of my own limitations, but overall I'm extremely proud of her.
Anyway- a friend of mine recently asked me to make their dragon for Shrek The Musical and I immediately said no because I was so intimidated by the scale, but after some thought I changed my mind and I'm so glad I did. This project pushed me as an artist and a person, and there were times I thought I would break, but I pushed through and I'm very pleased with the end result.
Shout-out to the How to Fabricate a Monster Suit course, Puppet Mechanism courses, Sculpting Basics and Foam Fabrication for holding my hand through this. 😅
I hope you enjoy her.
Her eyes have LED lights and switch from red to green via a remote off stage. Her wings *were* articulated via a pulley but they snapped during the installation and I didn't have time to repair it. Her eyes also opened and closed but that was other hiccup so I scraped it and they live open now.
Her skull is a PVC base with a standard eye blink mech. I patterned the head myself and used EVA to construct it.
Her body structure is also PVC with extra large hulahoops and plastic corset boning to make out a cage of sorts. The tail was my biggest engineering feat and took over 8 hours to get right. It was extremely important to me that the movement was just right. When she was on stage she was able to dance and fight Donkey and Shrek using her tail as a weapon.
This entire build took about 200 hours to complete.
I'm still learning and had to make a lot of compromises just because of my own limitations, but overall I'm extremely proud of her.
What's On Your Workbench? (Fall 2025)
We love seeing current projects from our community members. Sharing your work on our forums not only gets your work seen by a large audience but also motivates and inspires other artists. We may even feature some of your projects on our social media!
You can either share images and videos below as comments on this discussion or post your own discussion with your work. So don't be shy, show us what you've got!
You can either share images and videos below as comments on this discussion or post your own discussion with your work. So don't be shy, show us what you've got!
What's On Your Workbench?
Re: Lucius Malfoy Impersonation Cosplay Costume Jason Isaacs Impersonation Cosplay Costume
And the facial comparison app results:
Re: Rubber Cement Paint Tint Alternative?
The main alternative we know and use at Imagination Workshop Studio is PAX or Prosaide + Acrylic paints, originally invented and developed by master of make-up Dick Smith in the early 1980's or was it 1970's? But, that is costly on the production budget especially for an individual working in their garage or home and not a studio that has the capital or budget to buy/purchase those supplies in bulk of gallons or oftentimes in the case of Prosaide by the 55 gallon drum on pallets for jobs that demand that volume.
Tom Luca
1
Re: Fard Cream Alternatives?
Skin Illustrator is a good option. You can also get alcohol-activated palets from EBA, Graftobian, Ben Nye, and others. You can shop around for deals and alternative brands if you like, just know that some brands may not work as well as others.
/Chris
/Chris
Traditional Matte Paintings
Hi, I’m interested in traditional matte painting. Any thoughts on doing a course on old school matte painting on glass or Masonite? I would love to see one!
Re: Traditional Matte Paintings
Here’s a background on Masonite I recently made for a short film.Re: Translucent resin
One option would be something like Crystal Clear from Smooth-On https://www.smooth-on.com/product-line/crystal-clear/
For the color separation, that could be a slow buildup of translucent airbrush paints, built up layer by layer. I'm not sure how Tom and his team did it, though. They do look awesome!
/Chris
For the color separation, that could be a slow buildup of translucent airbrush paints, built up layer by layer. I'm not sure how Tom and his team did it, though. They do look awesome!
/Chris