HOMEWORK: WEEK ONE Carving your Foam Puppets
Teresa Loera
Moderator
Hello Online Workshop students. Time to carve some puppets. Post pictures of your work here. If you have any questions don't be afraid to post work in progress photos too! The more you share the more help you can get from BJ.
-Teresa
-Teresa
1
Comments
I believe you said that in the 3rd class you were going to talk about foam coverings...my question to you is what if our character is fur covered? Or do you want us to carve a character that will showcase our carving techniques and not covered by fur or fleece? Just wondering as I am trying to narrow down options for my foam head and a couple of them have fur or some fur element to them.
Yes you you can cover the character with fur if you'd like. As with the last course these are just techniques and there should never be limitations to how you use them.i like leaving the foam bare because I think it provides a unique texture on camera and there are a lot of options for coloring or finishing it as is, but that shouldn't exclude covering it with fabric or fur. Sometimes the easiest way to attain a a certain shape or look to a character is through carving and then covering.
cutting through thick foam is always a challenge. I always keep my eyes open for electric knives with the longest blades possible. There are 2 ways I approach cutting through. The first is to do 1 pass as deep as possible and then try to spread the cut open enough to reach in and make a second pass to get all e way through.
the second is to mark the cut line on both sides of the foam and cut through on each side trying to keep the knife level enough to meet in the middle.
You can also cut outside the line a bit and give yourself a little extra. You'll have to do a little more hand carving to get to the actual line but it will save you from cutting too deep or crooked.
All the best,
BJ
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What I found really useful was to make a smaller sanding disc for the Dremel. I felt like I had more control over where the tool was sanding and unlike the 3inch disc, it rarely grabbed the foam.