Krampus Masks - Homemade - Paper and Cold Porcelain.

I've been recently experimenting with a new homemade sculpting materiel, cold porcelain. I first sculpted some Krampus masks right on my head using brown contractor paper coated with contact cement. Instead of the usual paper mache skin that we usually put on Mardi Gras props, I wanted something sturdier, and with a sculpt-able consistency. As you can see in the pictures this is working out well. The main problem was working out the right amount of ingredients. It varied from a taffy like putty to an actual clay. It also began to dry pretty quickly. I had to work fast.There was also some cracking where the varying applications met. Once they're cleaned up, painted, hair added, they'll look great.

Here's the clip from NCIS New Orleans, which aired Tuesday October 28th, in which my Big Head crew was a part of the Halloween Parade scene.

Here's the clip from Tuesday night's airing of NCIS New Orleans in which my Big Head costumes were used in the background Halloween parade. -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbDRUkwK4A0

I saw a lot of these detailed carved monster pumpkins going around on the web lately and decided to give it a shot. My son and I were carving our usual pumpkin and I thought I would try a face on the back. When seeing the others on the web I figured I could probably do it. So here's my first try.

Here's a quick Krampus Devil I sketched when bored a few months ago.

Again I used the Wacom pen and pad with Corel Painter.

My Big head costumes  are in this episode - Tuesday October 28th -

NCIS: New Orleans - Master of Horror

We're  in the first few seconds of this preview. The episode is airing now.

Forgot to add this quick preview of an episode of Storage Hunters from a few years ago. They used my big head masks as props in the show.

A variety of pretty old concept sketches of a few aliens, demons, and goons. Wow, some of these are from about ten to fifteen years ago. I know I sketched a few of these in the 90's.

Finally posting this quick color tribute sketch of Oderus Urungus, the hilarious stage persona of the late Dave Brockie. I was a huge GWAR fan in the 1990's and saw them multiple times when they came down here to New Orleans. Sad to see him go. Thanks for all the fun!

A piece I illustrated a few years ago for an RPG (roll playing game) called Land of Giants. I'm not sure if it was used or not. Never heard back from the author. It was fun to do, and of course I love the subject matter. I guess the Giant could be considered a Monster in this one.

Some photos of my hand-sculpted home-made big-head monster costumes. I sculpted them using a technique I learned here in my hometown ,New Orleans, while working for Mardi Gras float building companies years ago.  These are used somewhat in some of our larger parades, but in my research I've found they are more popular in European carnivals, mainly in Italy, Spain, France and Germany.  There they are known as Capgrossos(big heads), or Schwellkopp(also big or swoll head), in New Orleans we call them walking heads. I've made about seven or eight in the last few years, two for commissions and the rest for my personal use with friends at Halloween and Mardi Gras. I am open to commissions on these. Here we have a Troll, and Horror creature that I made for Halloween fun. Whenever we take these out we get attacked for photos, almost non-stop. It's a lot of fun. We also make tips. I also added a picture of us with John Goodman at a charity event here in New Orleans. Another picture of us with Anderson Cooper, we just happened to bump into him in the french quarter during Mardi Gras. Also a few picture of custom heads I made for a Mardi Gras parade krewe "Krewe D'Tat", and another custom skull and top hat for Spirits Bar on Bourbon.