Demon Lagertha

I'm impressed at how quickly I was able to pull this shoot together - all things considered. I think it was maybe 6-7 months from originally coming up with the idea, and really only 3 months from when I first started working on it.

I'm a fan of the show Vikings, and of the actress playing Lagertha, my favourite character on the show. It was promo shots for,  I think, season 4 that prompted me to do a Demon shoot of the character - it seemed like something that would lend itself really well to what I do.

I knew it was impossible for me to accurately copy the costume, so I decided right away that I'd  slightly simplify it to better suit my abilities, time and what I could afford. It's not intended as an accurate cosplay of the character, but my Demon interpretation.

I decided to keep the makeup somewhat simple. I didn't want a massive face piece or anything, so I ended up with a forehead with horns and a pair of ears. Since there was some blue in the costume I  went with yellow/orange for the overall colouring.

It took just as much time to get Ancelene in to the costume as it did to do the makeup I think. Once she was in, there was no easy way to get out until we were done, I literally had to cut her out of part of it.

I'm really happy with how the sword and shield turned out, they were the first pieces I worked on for this. The sword is a balsa wood sheet, with styrofoam covered in Worbla. The shield is pretty much the same material - both were really lightweight so Ancelene could wander around with them without worrying about tiring her arms out in the slightest.

We lucked out with an overcast day, so the overall lighting wasn't too high contrast. It was a little dark by times and didn't work in our favour when it came to trying some "action" shots, but that wasn't that big a deal in the end.

And that's it for the shoot.

Norse Cthulhu Effigy

I realized I really liked simple, old, worn, kind of cruddy looking artifacts. Slightly broken, chipped and just generally used looking. Not only because it lends itself to my sometimes lazy and impatient sculpting skills, but because it tends to have an air of reality about the final pieces. That's not to say I don't care for or appreciate the hard work that goes into creating something finely detailed and pristine looking, it just all depends on the look you're going for I guess - but old and cruddy tends to be more authentic feeling.

I had already done a somewhat realistic piece of Cthulhu and even a crude Mayan Totem, and I liked the idea that perhaps other cultures had encountered Cthulhu and created their own concepts of him. It's been done before, so I don't make any claims to be it being an original idea, but it's a cool concept regardless.

I knew I wanted to make a small, more affordable item - although I'll admit it's been awhile since I've had to listen to people bitching about cost when they had no interest in buying anything in the first place - and a smaller piece as well. So what I ended up with was a Norse inspired Cthulhu effigy, I spent several days searching for examples of Norse art and found most of it was pretty simple and crude - and the rest was all modern versions and way too elaborate.

The back story of the effigy is that Vikings going on long sea journeys fearing an encounter with Cthulhu would carve these effigy that were kept on the ship as a sign of respect and would supposedly allow them to sail without fear of being destroyed by Cthulhu. I wanted it to look like it was carved in bone as well.

It's about 2" wide and 3" tall, made of resin, and while this isn't a solid plan yet, once it goes online I'm looking at $20 with a limited run of 30. Not sure exactly when it'll be on the website since I'm in the midst of updating it, but anyone interested can email me at foxhenderson @ themonkeyrodeo . com.