A lot of you may have seen me hanging out on the puppet block of Blogtv... heh.  I'm relatively new to the puppetry scene, but I've pretty much been a lifelong fan of the art.  I'm just getting done with my first real attempt at a mouth puppet, but first a little background on me.

I was pretty much born an artist.  Always drawing... always making monsters... obsessed with art shows, puppet media, and anything creative.  In high school I quickly attacked their art program and even went so far as to be the only person to get a 5/5 on my portfolio review, mainly due to my explanation of my "morbid art" style.  This earned me college credit, not that I would need it... as I would spend the next 9 years in college taking everything from creative writing to scifi literature, not to mention every single art class they had... even the more basic ones that I should have just skipped.  At the upper university level I went into Graphic Design, thinking it would be a good way to market my artistic nature... but those classes did far more damage than good, forcing a soul crushing lack of creativity onto what was once a rather organic flow.  (Those who've studied it will understand.  Do 100 sketches, pick the best 10... ugh.  Very mechanical and in the end, stifling to one's creativity)

After college I lucked out and started work with a friend.  We spent 4 years digitising the world's largest supplier of sheet music's archive of work.  If you're holding a new piece of orchestral music, I've most likely been the person who scanned it in.  Unfortunately the hurricanes of a few years ago trashed our first office, and when my friend and boss decided to buy a condo right next to the company for convenience... this left me with either a 2 1/2 hour drive each way, or out of a job.  I'm now self employed doing computer repair, selling T-shirts and custom made hats, and pretty much anything else I can do to survive at this point. 

My first mouth puppet was made using techniques learned from my hat making.  It turned out, as I expected, rather large... heh.  Despite having made a ton of minor mistakes at every turn, it seems to be a very good learning experience.  I will post pictures once I get it done.   I had a cool character drawn up, and was going to start with him... but to be honest I knew the first one wouldn't turn out brilliantly... so shelved it for my second project.  I'm currently plotting out that one very carefully while I take breaks from my first puppet.  (I'm attaching fabric at this point... almost to the point of muppet stitching)

For those interested in seeing a small fraction of my art, check out my DA page here.

Welcome, Akitsu. I hope you will show us pictures of your puppet soon.

We always Welcome another artsy person to Puppets and Stuff. I agree with Chris pictures please.


Billy D.

Here's some pictures... I know they're a bit unimpressive, but that's all I can manage until I get my real camera back.  (These were done with my phone.... lol) 

As you can see, I learned a lot as I went... the first half didn't go down well at all, and I tried to pull it up and reposition it so much that it turned out horrible.  The other half is much better by comparison.



Here's the profile view.  Waaay too much mouth.  Kind of reminds me of the Pac-Man puppet I got right after I got my tonsils out as a kid.  You'll notice this is his "good" side... except for the jaw that is.



Here you can see the mouth closed.  I'm pretty happy with the mouth plate on this one, but as you can see... he's very wide.  A puppet diet is definitely needed. 



The main issue with the skinning I had was that I cut the mouth out without checking to see which way the fabric stretched... this made things a lot harder than they should have been, as had I realised my mistake... I wouldn't have been trying to stretch the fabric horizontally, but vertically.  The half I did this with, you'll note, went down much better.  ^_-

Welcome to the page. Hope you enjoy your time here, etc. et all.
I'm sure you've learned stuff from Stiq and Creaturiste for puppet making.
But if you need other help, I'm sure people around here will do so.

  Hey!  to P&S!

BW: So far so good!

Thanks for the good advice VampireWombat... I fully intend to use the resourcefulness of the board when I run into something I can't handle.  While I've learned a lot from people like Stiq and Creaturiste who've been kind enough to offer puppet making resources, I feel like I've been studying up on it for decades anyway.  I've always had a fascination for behind the scenes information on special effects and puppetry of all kinds.

Thanks for the encouragement miguel.  I think I'm going to set the protopuppet asside for now though and work on the foam for my second one.  The way I see it, I'd like to apply what I've learned so far before I move on to the next step... otherwise I might repeat the same mistakes.  When I catch up though, I'll go back to Mr. Proto to practice the next step before potentially ruining a better design.  ^_^