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.

Demon Ash Vs Evil Dead

I've done a few cosplay style Demon shoots, turning recognizable fictional characters into Demons, and with the new Ash Vs Evil Dead show coming out on Halloween I figured it was the best time to do a Demon Ash.

The hardest part of this shoot wasn't the makeup, but the props. I originally had thought about using a real chainsaw and shotgun, I just happen to have had both lying around. But upon ripping apart the chainsaw, or trying to, I realized it just wasn't going to work as easily as I'd hoped. So I opted for a worbla chainsaw instead. I had a huge sheet of the stuff for another shoot that never happened this year, so I figured I might as well try. Then, since the chainsaw was worbla, I decided to do a fake shotgun as well.

It was a massive amount of work, both pieces, but I've really been wanting to properly tackle something with worbla, turn out a really awesome looking prop. So I spent a lot of time designing each piece and how it would all go together and whatnot.

This is the beginnings of the chainsaw body sculpted from pieces of styrofoam, glued together, seam filled with expanding Gorilla Glue. The side handle here was tossed out because it didn't look right.

The shotgun just before priming.

The worbla chainsaw before painting and adding any extra, non-worbla bits. 

And the finished piece. Weighs less than a single kilogram, fairly comfortable to wear too.

Overall I was really happy with how the pieces came out, it was a lot of work but well worth it. Not only was it used for this shoot, but another friend is going to a convention with me on Halloween weekend and she'll be doing a female Ash there.

As for the Deadites, very early on when I thought of this I decided I wouldn't use makeup on the Deadites, originally I wanted more, so I chose to with a mask instead - figuring I'd just clean up the edges in photo shop anyway.

I really wanted the crazy buggy eyes so I made a couple resin half-spheres and used them - taking into account where the wearer might be able to see and how easy it might be to hide the eye holes. Worked pretty well. While the mask seemed pretty campy and silly while sculpting and ever after painting them...

They're actually a little creepy when worn and put into context. I think even I might lose some sleep if I saw these things looking in my window at night, even during the day if I wanted expecting it.

So that was it. A decent way to spend an afternoon. And now I'll leave you with this: