Not many process shots of me sculpting this time, but these are some shots of how I painted this puppet. I am moving away from flat colors and experimenting with brush strokes and color mixing techniques.
My little guy all ready for his big shoot!!!
and this is me...... looking good??
Final image, first place in Laika's creative monthly challenge for March; theme is Unlucky Leprechaun
An Unlucky Leprechaun
by: Kristin Musser
And old man
observes his wiry hair in the dirty bathroom mirror. He chuckles as he
observes the little hairs weaving in and out of each other going any
which way they desire. Combing it a little more than usual today, he
smiles. Today is Saint Patrick’s Day, and since the old man is Irish to
the bone, this is one of his favorite holidays. He always wears this
silly Leprechaun costume his wife had crafted for him many years ago.
She passed away, but even though he has put on some weight and out grown
the costume quite a bit he enjoys the way it feels against his skin, it
feels like the first time he tried it on. He recalls seeing his wife’s
thrilled expression and her proud grin as she admired the ghastly
costume hanging on his once slender figure. He saw how happy she was and
didn’t have the heart to express his true feelings about the costume.
But year after year, in her memory, he wears that costume on March 17th;
from the green now-faded top hat all the way down to those leather
shoes with now-tarnished buckles. Fixing himself as best he can, he
walks out into the day light to watch the parade and enjoy the smiling
faces of the children who are always so excited to see a real
Leprechaun. As he walks along the side walk, in his bitter-sweet day
dream, he tries his best to have his foggy memory relive those days when
his wife would be walking beside him. His reverie is suddenly
interrupted as a stranger yanks his fragile bones into an alley. The
stranger is a tall, thin man with the thick scent of alcohol hanging on
his breath. Bewildered by this sudden event, all the old man can do is
stare, frozen in fear. The stranger, slurring, demands a pot of gold.
The old man, now laughing, clearly, thinking to himself, this must be a
joke. The laughter further agitates the drunken man, and once again he
demands that the old man lead him to his gold. He went on to explain
that once you catch a Leprechaun the captor becomes extremely lucky and
the Leprechaun must then lead them to his gold. The old man panics and
begins to lead the drunken man down the alley way playing along in order
to buy himself time to plan an escape. As he begins to run, the age in
his bones hinders his once agile abilities. Struggling to escape his
pursuer, he sees a fence in sight and decides to jump it like he did
when he was a mischievous teenager. As soon as his opportunity arose to
jump, his wrinkled fingertips barely brushed the cold metal of the chain
link fence before he felt a firm hand on his shoulder that swiped him
out of the air, slamming him down to the ground. Warm blood pooling
beside him, he looks up into the tall man’s crazed eyes and knows what
was coming next.
The old man died because someone’s obscure view
of obtaining wealth and luck. The word luck in itself is an ambiguous
concept, luck is neither tangible or measurable, yet it is something
everyone desires. In order to obtain wealth and in order to obtain this
imagined concept of luck, this crazed man, over come with greed, killed
an innocent man because he did not receive the riches and luck he had
demanded. To this old man his costume gave him a sense of nostalgia and
helped him to remember his beautiful wife, but to the crazed drunken
murderer this costume was a representation of a get rich quick scheme.
The drunken man desired luck and wealth, and was so angry when he wasn’t
simply handed these things that he was mad enough to chase down an
elderly man and kill him in cold blood.
