Hello all!
As some of you may know, I'm currently putting together a puppet musical of "The Crayon Kingdom." I already have a pattern in the works but before I start building, I want to ask for help with character features. I'll post a picture of the character and what I need help with.
Thanks in advance for your help and support everyone!


Crayons: One of the features I like are their large eyes, but I'm wondering if I'd be able to find or make large eyes. Any suggestions? I would like them to be domed, if possible.


Father Crayon: I plan on making him a fluorescent crayon so I'll be using yellow fluorescent fleece. However, any suggestions on how I could make the "rainbow" aspects? Also, any suggestions on how I could make him the long flowing beard? I'm clueless on that!


Purple: She's a really sweet character and I want to be sure to give her those large eyelashes she sports, any ideas on how I could achieve or make those?


Red & Green: I need help with how I could make and style their hair.


Yellow & Pink: How could I make Yellow's hair? I know I probably can't get it exactly that way but any ideas on the general style? Also how could I give Pink her long pink hair?

Thanks in advance to everyone that helps! This forum is a lifesaver! I also plan on posting some pictures and clips from our Fall Festival puppets and costumes, they came out AMAZING!

I have a link to a website that I got my clear acrylic domes at. Warning : they can be a bit pricey.

But they do have alot of various sizes to choose from. Good Luck!!

http://www.kitkraft.biz/home.php?cat=229&sort=orderby&sort_direction=0&page=1

Ran

For hair you could use fake fur. It should work for any of the suggested characters. If you want to have the silhouette of the hair style then you could cut that out of foam and then cover it with the fur.  The beard may not be as flowing as you want out of fake fur since you would have to cut the shape of the beard out of the fake fur to get the length of the beard.  There is what is called mohair that you could use for the beard and it would look similar to fake fur so the puppet materials are consistent.

You could make the eyelashes out of either black fake fur or better yet I would use the thin craft foam to make the eylashes.  You might even want to make their hair out of the same thing. That would make the hair very stylized.


For the rainbow effects see if you can find fabric in those colors you can piece together and then apply to the puppet.  It would be like making a quilt of the design then stitching it to the puppet.

For the rainbow effect on father crayon check out the different patterns that are available in fleece.  You may be able to find one that will suit your needs.  You can also sculpt foam for the hair and either paint of cover it with fleece.  this can be time consuming but the look can be very cool when done well.

find or make large eyes.

have you thought about foam balls? they come in a different sizes even very big ones (I've got 12cm in diameter)

Father Crayon: I plan on making him a fluorescent crayon so I'll be using yellow fluorescent fleece. However, any suggestions on how I could make the "rainbow" aspects? Also, any suggestions on how I could make him the long flowing beard? I'm clueless on that!

hmm... color spray or colorful chalks? chalks make very nice shade on a fleece and they are very cheap as well.
as for the bread - have you thought about a long-haired wig with slightly curly hair? you can cut the strands off the base and use for the bread.

Purple: She's a really sweet character and I want to be sure to give her those large eyelashes she sports, any ideas on how I could achieve or make those?

I'd try with the copper wires - they are thin and very often go covered with black rubber layer. or you may cover them with fleece or paint/spray them.

Yellow & Pink: How could I make Yellow's hair? I know I probably can't get it exactly that way but any ideas on the general style?

do you need to get them fluffy, to get typical hair, or you would like to get just this rounded shape? if you are talking about a shape, you can achieve that with a light modelling clay colored in yellow.

hope that helps.

Exactly what size eyes do you need............. Ihave the large 650mm half domed eyes. I sell them for $1.50 a pair.
For the white beard your best results would be mohair or some type acrylic hair that you could mold and shape. You might try tie dyeing the fabric to give it a rainbow look.
Other ways of doing hair could be feathers, molded or scissored foamed, long fake fur,  synthetic hair pieces, unraveled rug yarn.
These look like some fun characters.................. I could go wild with these crayons.

Billy D.

To ADD: I also have the Female eye kits..... which have the long plastic eyelashes.

Looks like an awesome and exciting project, Gdub!

Large styrofoam balls cut in half with a hacksaw make great eyes.  We bought a character from Paul Lewis on Ebay a couple of years back which had eyes made from styrofoam egg halves.  It was surprising how close you had to get before you realized they were styrofoam.  The eye details can be layered foam sheets (eye color + black pupil + white highlight).  One of the vendors at IFEST used this technique for their eyes, but I can't recall which one...maybe you remember seeing it.

FATHER CRAYON:
The rainbow details could be created by making a "hat" from fluorescent patterned or tie-dyed material.  You could also just cut the various pieces from fluorescent material (felt or fleece) and glue them directly onto his head.

Polyfil (aka fake snow) would make a great beard, although it would be more fluffy than flowing.  You could also check costume shops now that Halloween is passed...probably pick one up pretty cheap.

PURPLE:
We purchased a puppet from Out of the Box Puppets that had great plastic fake eyelashes.  Click here http://www.outoftheboxpuppets.com and click on the puppet named Cece to see an example.

Another example is similar to the eyes of OWS Maggie Monahan puppet http://www.onewaystreet.com/fullsize/965/106

I've seen this effect used in a more exaggerated fashion (which looked better than this example) that really added a shot of character.  These are just cut from black foam sheets.

RED, GREEN, YELLOW and PINK: Halloween closeout wigs! My mom made a Richard Simmons clone for us with lots of yellow yarn curls. We bought an exercise sweatband which gave it the same look of YELLOW.  A clown wig spraypainted fluorescent would probably work just as well.  For PINK's hair, check out the toy department at WalMart.  We've purchased toy hair extensions in fluorescent pink there before (Hannah Montana marketing I think) that worked well.

Keep us posted on your progress!
Rob

@ToonAsylum Wow they are pricey! But a great option just in case, thanks!

@Shawn Woow I never thought of that, that's an excellent idea, thanks! And mohair? I'll look that up! And crat foam sounds good, I've seen that done they just wouldn't be as thin as the characters but I just want the overall idea. Thanks for your help!

@Jon I haven't had much luck finding fluorescent fleece besides the yellow one and orange one though, but I may be able to do it with spandex! Thanks!

@Tsu Foam balls? I've never thought of those, are they like the balls that kids use to play with?? Chalk sounds nice but I need it to be blacklight-reactive. And a wig! That could work! Thank you!

@Billy I'm not sure yet, I still have to build up their foam bodies. How large are 650 MM? The "standard" size most people use is around 450 right? If so, that might work so I'll be sure to keep you in mind!
Exactly what size eyes do you need............. Ihave the large 650mm half domed eyes. I sell them for $1.50 a pair. And I was considering using feathers for yellow maybe, I'm just not sure if I could pull it off >_< Thanks!

@Dubya Oh it is Dubya! The team's excited since they especially like the songs I arranged for it!.  And I tried styrofoam eyes but what I'm worried about is their durability. And oh I remember that! It ws Jim and Bonnie Scott! And that could work, I'll have to try and find pieces to piece together that'll glow! And I like the OWS idea so I'm sure I'll be using that idea! And wigs? I'll have to go hunting for some! Hopefully I can find something! Thanks Dub!

gdub - exactly. those foam balls are the plain polyfoam balls for children to play with.
look at this one:

380079250570

they're like this.
(in a variety of sizes)

You can use crape hair for the beard. It comes in i yard and one foot lengths