Head Creation - Part 5 - Painting and Accessories

Painting and Accessories. I did a little reshaping of the head after the glue dried. The table saw takes out about 1/8" from the middle so it actually changes to height of the head, which in turn changes the shape. I used a little wood putty to fill in the gaps made by the saw and then did a final sanding of the head. After covering the eyes with a bit of scrap paper so they didn't receive any paint, I was ready to go.

I changed the eyes out on two of my previous heads so I needed to paint all three at once.

I started with a black base coat. More on that in a minute.

Then I added a cream colored layer.

And finally a white layer just to the face.

I did a bit of sanding to make the head look aged. The black base coat will show through making the age lines much more pronounced. 

Lastly, I added some red paint for the makeup and a pair of glasses. The glasses were made by bending a piece of wire into shape. I used a tourch to age the wire to match the rest of the head.

Coming soon... Body parts.

Head Creation - Part 4 - Assembly

Assembly. Now comes the tricky part. In order to get the eyes into the head I need to saw it in half. I made a line right through the center of the eyes horizontally. This will be my cut line.

I used a table saw to make the cut. There are two things you need to remember when using a saw like that on a project like this. First, make the cut straight. If it's not straight the first time, you may as well start over because it never will be. Second, oh shit this thing could cut my fingers off!

After the cut is made I need to make a spot for the eyes to go. For this I used my Dremel with the sanding drum and 60 grit paper. I could probably cut it out but sanding it out gives you a lot more control.

And slowly...

carve out a socket for the eyes. You have to continually make sure that the socket in the top of the head and the socket in the bottom of the head match up. Otherwise...  well you know.

I put a little piece of foam weather stripping at the back of the eye socket to make sure the eyes stays in place when animating. Finally, I glued the two halves back together with wood glue.

I think he needs glasses.

Up next.. Clean up, paint and accessories.

Head Creation - Part 3 - Eyes

Eyes. The original idea for these eyes came from Marina's Art Dolls Blog. I have changed it up some to better suit my needs. I started out with some 1" round pine balls I got from a craft store.

Using amy Dremel, I made hole on the top of the ball the size of an iris. This turned out to be a lot harder than I had imagined. The ball really wanted to fly out of my hand so I ended up with several mistakes. Anyways, I drilled a hole through the center of the iris to the back of the ball. I did this for two reasons. First, I needed to put the ball on a post in order to paint it. Second, I need there to be a hole in the center of the iris so I can move the eyes back and forth when animating. From there I painted the balls white and inserted the irises.

I did not paint the irises myself. Instead I used photoshop to create them and then printed them out. After putting the irises in, I covered the eyes in epoxy resin. This will make the eyes shiny and somewhat reflective as you can see in the above photo.

The last step is to drill a hole in the center of the iris that connects with the hole I had previously drilled.

Up Next... Head Assembly.

Wooden Head with Movable Eyes

This is a wooden marionette head I made for an upcoming project. It was my first model made out of wood and the first with actual eyes. The eyes are made of wood and are movable.