Puppet making Joey

[martinpunch]

Just thought I'd share the early progress on my Joey.
Bracing myself for all comments good and bad.

[martinpunch]

Coming along nicely NB painting by scales and sculls artwork

[lesclarke]

The painting style is very 'graphic', and 'straightforward' what type of paint is being used?
The baby looks 'alive', but so far the other two are less so.

Unless you have painted the same characters many times, which very few people have the opportunity to do, or unless you plan it out with full colour sketches you are unlikely to get each face 'spot-on' the first time, and as with any art project, leaving it and looking at it later, looking at it from a distance,with your eyes squinting, or even looking at it through a mirror will reveal it's strong and its weak points.

'Someone' once said that it's about making 'characters.'

Being quite a 'graphic' style, also possibly due to the way they have been photographed, first impression is that they appear a bit 'flat'. They might benefit from a bit of shading to help bring out the shapes better, for instance Joey, a mid grey shadow above his eye, below the yellow section would add depth. Also all his lines are regular, perhaps vary them a bit.

Asymmetrical features give a face more character.

Very regular even features can result in a face with less character, the baby has much more character and this is down to his very irregular teeth. He also has eyebrows, which play a big part in giving the character, in this case they make him look surprised, the Devils perhaps should be a lot heavier, and possibly irregular. How about using fur for Joeys eyebrows? Which leads us on to the hair, and what fun you can have with that!

Have fun.

[martinpunch]

Thank for your comments - food for thought indeed. I need to get some puppet time with the proper puppets, so I think I will keep going to get the set completed and get practising with them. I could always revisit the looks later when I have a better feel for the show and put some refinement in then.
I am thinking blue sheepskin for joey in the traditional style, I have a smarties theme for his outfit so it will go with the blue smarties and some of the other colours of his face will be picked up by other smartie colours.
I think the devil is a bit flat,but I didn't want him to be too scary I asked for cunning and friendly and I think it's been achieved to a certain extent.
I really do appreciate your views and thank you for commenting