Hey Rootrage2:

Hows it going?  Did you talk to your art teacher today?

If you get access to Puppet Planet by John Kennedy the last project in the book is a foam head covered with fabric.  It would be a good place to start.  It has a pattern for a basic round foam head. 

There are some other free patterns that have been posted on this forum.  One of them is available on puppetbuilding.com (unfortunately the site is down for maintenance or some other reason currently).  It's a little more complicated than the one in Puppet Planet, but fairly simple as well.

Daryl is a professional puppeteer who works with schools doing puppet construction workshops.  He's going to get with you to see if he can help you along.

One other thing, I have never seen Avenue Q, so I don't know what the various characters do.  Can you describe to me what the characters roles in the musical are and why you like them?  This would be good practice since describing a character is another essential step in designing a character.  It's just as important as the sketch/physical appearance of the character.

If you get back with me in the next few minutes I'll give you some more info.  I'm taking a college math class and we have an exam tomorrow so I need to get some sleep before I get up and prepare tomorrow.

Marty

Hey Rootrage2:

I just posted a new reply on your avenue Q help thread.  Go check it out.

Marty

If you can afford it Rootage2, I would suggest that you get the The Roly Puppet Pattern  from Project Puppet.  That is the closet head shape to the puppet you want to make and would give you a good place to start.  I started at around your age and had some patterns out of a book that I could follow.  I also had some puppets I purchased from a toy store that I turned inside out to see how they where made.  It really helped me to have these guidelines to follow.. well that and the fact that mom sewed and was willing to help me with some of steps and getting the sewing machine to cooperate. 

Great advice given...

nuff said.

Jump in and experiment with your supplies.

I'm still discovering ways to create puppets and this place is such a great source of information.

thanks guys your helping me alot

yeah your the best ever

Can you see pics?

Ok the first one is Kate the second is Lucy if you haven't seen Avenue q

how do you build a puppet torso like lucy's?

Hey:

You should try a simpler torso before you attempt something as curvaceous as Lucy.  That being said, I wrote up a post on torsos the other day.  You can find it under Torso in the building forum.  The thread was started by borkbork.  Try and visualize a football.

You can also make a torso with a 2 piece pattern kind of like a T-shirt.  The head pattern I suggested you check out at the end of Puppet Planet uses such a pattern for the puppets torso.  To get something really round like Lucy the football method would probably give better results.

On her upper torso, something like the pig nose as illustrated in the projectpuppet.com tutorials times 2 would work.  You would first of all build the main torso shape and then sculpt the rest from blocks of foam.

Another point is that the Avenue Q puppets might not be made with a sheet and sculpted block technique.  It's possible that they were all sculpted in clay, then molds were made and finally the parts cast in foamed latex or another foam rubber compound.  This is how I would make them for a big tour/long run show like Ave Q.  Doing them this way would make it possible for all the spare puppets to be identical and to put out multiple units of the show.  In fact, if there is still a home company performing in NY City while the tour is in operation I'm pretty sure that this is how they were made.

Learn how to do the basics first.  The molding and casting techniques are very complicated and require specialized equipment and a dedicated shop.

Marty