Wall mounted Pygmy Blood Troll Head.

I came up with the idea for making wall mounted beast heads years ago, of course I never got around to it and since then I've seen several others making them - that's always annoying. However, I finally got around to it, it was mostly the finer details of reproducing them consistently that stopped me from doing it right away.

The biggest stumbling block for me ended up being two relatively simple things, the plaque itself and the eyes.The biggest problem was sourcing locally and then sourcing within Canada online. Neither really panned out in a way I felt would work for me without driving the cost of the final piece up. Then I suddenly happened upon some small plaques that were very inexpensive and it went from there.

As for the eyes, I didn't want to paint them, so I wanted something I could just plop into place. I found some glass black glass beads that would give the troll that soulless look. The tricky part was designing all this to be done with just a single mould with a minimum amount of work involved to reproduce the piece.

So I took one of the stones, glued a wooden stick to it. Because that how you make eyeballs, right?

I made a mould of that and created to silicone copies.

 So I could sculpt around them to create a socket and pull them out without distressing the sculpture.

It worked perfectly. It took less than a day for the sculpt. I pretty much just made it up as I was going. I knew I wanted a fat little weird troll-like head and that was it.

I was happy with the result, and that it didn't take me days of agonizing over details to get it to turn out. From there I made a stone mould, with a flat back to it, drilled a hole in that and the mould was done in less than a day as well.

I thought the best and least expensive material would be latex filled with expanding foam, I'm used to it and I had all these supplies onhand already, so that was a pretty easy choice.

And there you have it. I had minimal cleanup around the edges, no other post-mould adjusting, cleaning or detailing to do, I just had to paint it, glue in the eyes and stain the plaque and mount the sucker. It was a lot more work than I'm making it sound, but it's fairly easy work overall, just takes a couple hours to produce one of these - unless I do them in bulk.

So yes, I am selling these. At the time of posting this I've just made the first prototype one, I'll be running off a couple more and doing a run of 5 for now and seeing how well they sell. Now that I've done the whole process and know my costs, I came up with a price of $40 for each one. Anyone interested can contact me, themonkeyrodeo@gmail.com.

So, after all that, what is a Pygmy Blood Troll? Here's some information on this ugly little critter.

The origins of this vile species is rather complicated. While most all creatures of Demonic origins are peaceful, docile beings, Pygmy Blood Trolls are quite the opposite.

It begins with the Blood Parasite, a leech-like worm that is responsible for most modern Vampire myths. They infect a living host, leaving them mostly dead in all appearances, using their bodies to then feed on blood from living victims. Normally this process simply works with the parasite taking over the internal functions of both Demons and Humans, Humans being much more susceptible because of their weaker physiology.

Demons are more resistant to the Blood Parasite on average, 27% of all Demonic species are completely immune to them. Trolls specifically are immune to Blood Parasite, however one species, Earth Trolls – who can hibernate deep in the earth for hundreds of years – actually absorb the Blood Parasite.

In most cases the parasite is simply consumed internally with no ill effect, however in pregnant Earth Trolls, the fetus is bonded with the parasite, altering its entire biological structure. One Pygmy Blood Troll (called as such since they never grow over a foot tall and most trolls range from seven feet to several hundred feet tall) is a somewhat hazardous nuisance, several are a much different matter. Pygmy Blood Trolls procreate much like modern day rabbits, within months there can be as many as one thousand.

Pygmy Blood Trolls usually feed on smaller animals, but have, on occasion, attacked larger creatures in packs. They are incredibly dangerous in high numbers since their Trolls physiology makes them strong for their size, and very tough to kill. The Blood Parasite physiology makes them very fast healers and immune to pain – it’s is believe the only true method of killing a Pygmy Blood Troll is to decapitate it and burn the body immediately. They will also, like their parentage, burrow deep into the earth where they can hibernate for hundreds of years and are near impossible to find in this state – this makes controlling Pygmy Blood Troll outbreaks a very difficult task and on that must be handled immediately before they either procreate or enter hibernation.

A new "Random Demon" shoot.

I got to do another "wandering about town" shoot with a random Demon the other day. I don't often get to do these kinds of shoots anymore since I live way outside of the city. Most of what I've been doing lately has been carefully planned out, the makeup, character and location, I used to do just this sort of makeup a lot. Just pick a piece, find a model, slap it on and make it all up as I got and we'd go for a walk around town. It's kind of nice doing that, less pressure and work.

I'm really happy with how this makeup turned out. It was a piece I made just do to a random demon shoot with this particular model. The ears I've used a couple times before as well, but the combination of the ears, the new face and the red makeup, with the contacts and fangs on this particular model - it turned out something that looks like a real solid character piece that looks easily like it could fit into any supernatural type TV show.

Demons in Ugly Christmas Sweaters.

I don't this series of photos needs much explanation, so here goes:

And that's it.

New prosthetics online

The newest featured prosthetic is Cthulhu, $130 available by special order only.

Or, if you'd rather some ears.

Fae Ears - $22.

Grishloch Ears - $22.

Or perhaps you just feel a little horny...There is honestly no "horny" joke to be made I haven't heard while applying these.

Demon Spikes - $25

 Large Spikes - $30.

Horn Cluster - $14

And finally, the newest Limited Run piece:

Grishloch Demon - $55.

 

Cthulhu Prosthetic

I finally got this bad boy finished and ready for sale, the Cthulhu Foam Latex Prosthetic Appliance, and the first in a series of what I'm calling "The Innsmouth Collection", all Lovecraft inspired pieces.

Now, this is not something I'd really recommend for beginners, it does require a little preparation work - unlike any other of my prosthetics. And, like all my other prosthetics, it comes unpainted - so be prepared for a paint job to make it work.

And the vision is limited, I wanted to make a piece that totally disregarded human features in order to make it more Cthulhu-like, so the vision comes from the small dark "spots" on the brow. While it is limited, it's not that bad depending on what you want to do with it - operating heavy machinery as Cthulhu is not recommended.

These "spots" need to be cleaned up on each piece - special instructions will be included. As well as a small area that will allow you to breath through your nose will need to be cut out - your choice though, but the area is totally hidden under the tentacles.

The piece is available for $130, which is admittedly much more expensive than my usual pieces, however this piece requires nearly 5-6 times more foam than a regular face piece and a bit more work than the typical prosthetic as well. I will point out, because it's a much thicker piece, the thinnest point is along the forehead - which is the only area you need worry about really blending - this piece is much more likely to be reusable than any other piece I make, information on that will be included in the special instruction as well.

For right now it comes with 4 tentacles as well, each are about 5 inches long, although I do have plans for much longer ones in the near future, so you'll be able to pick what size and style of tentacle you want - at least that's the plan, don't hold me to that.

The Cthulhu Prosthetic is available ONLY as special order, I don't plan on keeping them in stock, only making them as they're ordered. Allow up to two weeks for manufacturing, so if you're in a rush, you might be out of luck. And as far as wholesale goes, I will take orders for it - however, there is a limit per order (nor sure just yet, but no more than 5 per order mostly likely) and they'll be $80 each.

Occasionally rejects will be available as well since this piece does have a much higher rate of defects, most of which can be easily patch and are unnoticeable, but sometimes there's just too much or too great of a defect.

And that's pretty much it. Any questions, you can email me at foxhenderson @ themonkeyrodeo.com