Hello! sorry i haven't posted a bujillon years, but hopefully you'll forgive me, and help me a little.
I haven't really done any puppeting since before the summer, i decided to make one for uni a few weeks ago, i've nearly finished him, but he doesn't look cute enough for my liking. He just looks normal.
My question is, how can i make him look more cute, without making him into a girl? I need to complete an arm, get them both sewn on, then i'll take some pictures so you can see what i mean. Thanks for your time 

Ross

Ross

Sounds like a puppet in the making, if you could get a quick picture of him so we could see at what stage you are at in the building process. I'm sure others would be glad to give you feedback on how to obtain the look you want.


Billy D.

give us a picture to look at.  We're always glad to offer our two cents.

wow! thanks for the great response!! I don't really understand this forum much, but there's a picture, there is another in my album, I'm just not sure how to make him seem cuter still.

what he needs is something that defines his character. Right now he's just kind of generic nice looking puppet. Clothing and acessories can help to define the character. Hair and eye brows can help with that too. What kind of character are you trying to create? What is it's personality like?

A young silly boyish character, I tried eyebrows previously, i didn't really think they suited him.

Do you know, I think young and silly is something that can be conveyed more by the puppet's actions than by its features. A puppet that looks like an old man (ie. grey hair, wrinkled face, etc) can act young and silly depending on how he moves. Just like real people

Personally, I think you could add some more character as Jon suggests, but I don't see anything majorly 'wrong' (ie. non-boyish) with your puppet at the moment. Maybe a tuft of hair so the puppet isn't as bald looking.

young children typically do not have very heavy or thick eye brows so with puppets eye brows are optional when constructing children.  Short hair without eyebrows would be good.  Something non-typical.  Like yellow or orange. 

Children also usually have small noses so you might consider how the nose is contributing to the character you're trying to create.

But like Na said, you haven't done anything wrong.  At this point you just need to develop a clear picture of what you want your character to be like and make the little adjustment that make that happen

I'm in agreement with the statement that children usually have small noses. If you can adjust the nose, that could help. Further, the closer the eyes are to each other, and to the nose, the younger the character typically looks. I know, these are finished features already, but if adjusting them is not totally out of the question, you might try them.

I think a small tuft of hair or even a flat top would look great on this puppet as Na mentioned.  The tuft of hair might make him look more like a baby then a young boy but I think it would be really cute.

Try different types of hair, he could have a scruffy hairstyle which would give that cute, rough and tumble little boy look. Especially with the way you've made his eyes. Costuming will do a lot to cute him up.

You have the large pupils which helps make it look younger (general rule in the puppet world).  Agree by the others small nose, some hair and arms for big hugs would help him be "cute."  find some cute kids clothing at your second hand shop and you will have your boy.

Show us the end result, please.

Daryl H

The puppet is great.. add just some dishevelled hair made of a fluffy light material
Don't put to many things and leave him sort of "incomplete" and let the actor do the rest