Murdoch The Seaman Puppet (Part 3)

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Another quick note: We sell everything I use here. So if you see something useful, get it from Morezmore.

Continues from Part 2

Faces are done, next – hair and beard.

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Beard.
First I tried natural horse hair which I bought specifically for the stubble effect.

Hmm, maybe for another, more cartoon-like, character…
Back to my old good tibetan lamb.

Incidentally, while I was making that stubble, I made an earth-shuttering discovery (for me). All my life I was using Fabritac glue to put the hair on the head. It works pretty well so I never tried anything else. I could not use that glue for stubble (too thick, too shiny, too visible), so I used acrylic clear matte varnish to stick the tiny hair particles to the face.
I was pretty impressed: even very thin layer grabs the hair and holds it tenaciously, dries matte invisible. And you can hide the ends of the individual hairs in that layer. Let me repeat it: It is possible to bury the end of individual hairs in that layer of clear acrylic matte varnish. This is huge. Not just stubble, forget stubble. Beard! Hairline! Eyebrows! Bold spots! Chest hair! Hairy arms! Hairy Legs! Hairy everything else! Fur on animals! This is breaking news in my world.

I decided to try it not only on the facial hair but on the head hair as well. It worked. Love it.

1. Acrylic matte varnish dries quickly, so work with about 5-10 mm area at a time.
2. To imitate “hair growth”, stroke with the a bit of matte varnish on the brush towards the head to hide the ends.
3. Use needle to move hair around, you will have about 2-3 minutes before liquid matte varnish starts sticking.
4. Do not drench the hair in varnish – it will create ugly white spots. Very little on the brush, very thin layers.
5. Work with smallest bunches of hair you can handle.
3. Varnish quick clean-up: acetone.
4. Removal of the completed dried hair if you did not like it – to start again: soak in hot water, pull and scrape. Wipe the head with acetone before starting again.

Stage one: Caveman

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Stage 2: Kitchen Sink

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Stage 3: Cut and style while still wet. Human hair spray to set the final hairstyle (cover the face and the ears).

I forgot about grey hair which I meant to do.
Remembered about it half-way. But instead of stopping and redoing, I decided to add some additional wisps of grey hair later.
It worked ok, not too great.
So I stripped all hair off the head and started again. Took photos this time too.

Tools and materials:
Tibetan lamb in Ash Brown, Silver Grey and White.
Acrylic Matte Varnish
Disposable eyeliner brushes (natural pony hair)
reusable silicone paint well
scissors
x-acto knife with a new blade
tweezers
face tray
head stand

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I am happy now with these dignified greys.

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Beard.
Materials:

Tibetan lamb in Ash Brown, Silver Grey and White.
Acrylic Matte Varnish
Disposable eyeliner brushes (natural pony hair)
reusable silicone paint well
scissors
x-acto knife with a new blade
face tray
head stand

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Cut it like this – with or without paper, paper helps a little.

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Wait until complete dry (a few hours). Brush off all the loose hairs. Trim with scissors, clean up stray hairs stuck to clay with acetone on q-tip. Add another thin layer of clear acrylic matte varnish to hide the hair “roots” on the cheeks, if necessary.

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Padding.
Tools and materials
stretch foam
cotton balls
fabritac glue
acetone (to thin fabritac)
toothpicks
scissors

First layer of stretch foam – to cover the mechanics, not tight.

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Cotton balls glued to stretch foam – loose, fluffy, not packed.
Second layer of stretch foam – not tight.

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Continues on Part 4