Creative Inspiration - The Talking Heads

Game Changer

Thanks to various projects for work, my skills with tools I don't often use are improving. I'll never give up being a hot glue and foam core prop maker, but biscuit joiners and routers are opening all sorts of new creative idea doors in my head.

A Winter's Horror

As a long time fan of Jonathan Winters and all things Halloween, here's an appropriate clip to remember the comic genius by.

Star Wars Geek Moment At Work

Remember this commercial?



Well, little Darth Vader himself, Max Page, was a guest on Home & Family this past month. And my professionalism went out the window being a fan of his now classic VW Super Bowl ad.

Not only did I ask Max to autograph a toy light saber we had in props ...

 

But yeah, we got a photo together too ...

 

Watch the video of his visit on the show and hear about the good causes Max was promoting HERE.

IMacQuarium

A recent project for "Home and Family" was to turn an old computer into an aquarium. After hours of trial and error, I eventually created one. No goldfish were harmed in the process. Just diving into a project head first, making hundreds of mistakes, is the best way to learn new skills.

Making a Rooftop Reindeer

Last month I mentioned the chimney reindeer idea I had for the Home & Family show house. Well, he actually did get made, but sadly, it's taken me this long to post about.

Like many of my prop projects, they start with a sketch.

The actual prop build began with a support structure. I mounted a galvanized pipe on a plywood round. On top of the pipe I glued on styrofoam balls and blocked in his basic head shape.

Next, I covered him in good 'ol spray insulation foam.

I added his antlers. They were made from bent pieces of PVC pipe with lengths of thick wire taped on the ends as his antler points.

 Once the foam set up, I carved/sculpted everything into a decent reindeer shape. I also reinforced his antlers wrapping in layers of duct tape, and added small plastic balls to the tips to round them off, plus it gave them a little fun character. Using a sharpie I sketched in where his eyes and nose would be to get a sense of how he might look as I carved.

Using a couple of yards of craft fur, I stretched, pinned, cut and glued on his brown coat first.

 

 His white underbelly was next, also using craft fur. I carved his nose out of styrofoam and glued on.

I painted his antlers a brownish grey. His eyes were two halves of a split plastic round ornament painted black. I used black shoe laces glued on to accent his mouth and muzzle. His ears are heavy card stock cut to shape and sandwiched between glued on craft fur.

Once done, I screwed him onto the house's chimney, which being a TV set is fake and made of wood. I added Santa's bag next to him with a few presents. The antlers were strong enough to simply drape a line of Christmas lights on as if tangled in.

Getting him up onto the roof was an adventure unto itself, and a tale I'll tell another time...

From Bad To Good

As easy as your first step.

Dasher

Last Christmas, niece Devin's belief in Santa Claus was wavering. In her annual letter to him, she asked for a picture of one of his reindeer. Her parents suspected she wanted proof he exists.

Well, sure enough, on Christmas morning, Devin found a framed photo of Dasher under the tree, with a letter from old St. Nick himself that read

Dear Devin

Thank you for writing. You asked me for a picture of one of my reindeer, although they are very shy and dislike being photographed, I do have one photo of old Dasher as a young buck many years ago that I can give you.

When Dasher was still learning to fly, he would "dash" off in all directions, often landing in odd places. That's how he got his name. In this picture taken by Mrs. Claus, he landed on the workshop roof one day. It's always been one of my favorites. I hope you like it.

Merry Christmas and have a wonderful New Year.
-Santa

Connecticut

Rooftop Reindeer

Home & Family producers wanted holiday decor on the roof of our house set location. I pitched this prop concept for the chimney. They liked it. Progress photos and a "making of" soon.

The Awful Blogger

I know I've been a lame blogger these past weeks. Worse though, not taking time to publish the comments many of you have been leaving lately. That's just rude on my part when you took the time to write one. I apologize.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get back to it fairly regularly. And resurrect my long dormant web comic Para-Abnormal soon.

Christmas Decorating

I'm hoping to find time and decorate the front yard tree by turning it into a toy making Elf's cottage.

Insta-Zombie-Gramed

So I decided it was time to replace my old cell phone from 2006 with this new fangeled device called the IPhone. Have you heard of it? It's pretty neat.

One of the first apps I downloaded was Instagram. I was curious to try it seeing so many friends using on Facebook. My Halloween lawn zombies were fun first photo subjects.

Halloween 2012- Haunted Hosts

Haunted portraits I created for the Home & Family Halloween show set of hosts Mark Steines and Paige Davis.

And here's how they looked on the wall (photo courtesy of prep chef Hayley)

The 2012 Halloween Yard Portfolio

Although this year's display had no new props, and far less time spent on it than any other season before, it turned out better than I expected.

One change that worked out great, and will definitely do again next year, was the longer path winding through the front yard for Trick or Treaters. Not only did it make the display more interactive, but gave it a sense of depth it never had.