"The Secret Lives of Demons" project is done.

It's finally all over and done with. About 51 photo shoots, 73 Demons and about a year and a half later.

Just ordered the prototype book today. We'll see how it turns out, then by mid-March it'll be going online for sale at blurb.com for $44.95(US). Softcover only, maybe hardcover, I'm not sure just yet.

Overall it was a pretty awesome experience. I intended to have about 100 different demons, but 73 isn't too bad. Also intended for about 100 shoots, that was just utterly unrealistic.

The makeup itself is pretty simple, I'm sure there's some folks who might criticize it for being limited in that aspect, but the point was to use generic makeup that could be sold and used by anyone online - so keeping that mind, it did turn out pretty damned well. The 2nd volume will be much more elaborate than this. Hopefully.

Until then, here's a couple unused photos from the whole project, ones that probably will never see the light of day otherwise.

Creating Cthulhu, Part Six - The Last Part

Once the sculpt was done, I just hot glued it to a plastic foam board base.

It's looking a little shiny here, that's because the first coat of DragonSkin silicone has been applied. It was brushed on to make sure it got into all the little nooks and divots and whatnot.

The 2nd coat, a little thicker. It's normally clear, but I tinted each layer to better see what was going on. The first was slightly green and this one was obviously a little more tinted and yellow.

Using Thivex I thickened the ssilicone so it wouldn't run, I was able to trowel it on, filling in all the undercuts and deeper indents.

A few more thinner and thicker coats and we're left with this after several hours. I think there were 6 coats in total, I lost count.

Then I made a two part support shell. A wall was made with regular old clay.

Here's a view of the cleaned off first half. It's a little messy because I tend to cut corners.

Both halves of the support shell. This is made from a material called Plasti-Paste II, pretty simple and quick to work with. It's a little ragged looking still, I will be cleaning it up soon though.

And here's the mould freshly freed from the shell.

And the original sculpt, totally intact freed from the silicone glove mould. It's inverted in this picture, looks kind funky.

Then using some SmoothCast ( I forget what number it was) and some Urefil 3 to extend the volume of the resin, I poured it all in. First though, I used a black version of the SmoothCast, called Onyx, to do a thin surface coat that would be solid black, the other resin was used to fill the whole thing.

And not too long after I pulled this from the mould, here it is alongside the original sculpt.

And it's finally done. I'm not sure if I'm going to do anymore with it or what. The picture is a little brightened, the actual piece is somewhat darker. Still looks pretty awesome though.

And that's done. I'm hoping to do a couple more, work out a few kinks in the process and have them online for sale by next week. They'll also be going on eBay for sale as well. Not sure of the price just yet, it's pretty expensive making something this size out of solid resin, so I'm thinking in the neighborhood of $80 and I debating doing it in a finish or even different colours, not sure yet.

And just for some additional information. The sculpt was done with Monster Makers Premium Clay, from Monster Makers. The moulding and final casting materials all came from Smooth-On, purchased here in Canada from Sculpture Supply and Sial.

The Viking Demon

Did yet another shoot for "The Secret Lives of Demons" and the whole project is slowly drawing to a close.

I might've mentioned this before, but the final deadline for shoots is Feb 29th, at least that's the plan. And then hopefully in a couple weeks I'll see a final copy of the book.

Creating Cthulhu, Part 5...and other stuff.

The sculpture has been done for awhile now. I ran out of steam updating about it specifically and now I'm just waiting on some silicone to come in to make a mould of it and off we go again.

Otherwise, I've been busy with "The Secret Lives of Demons" project, it's coming along really well. Just did my 45 photo shoot for the book today (that's a bit of an approximation, I lost track a long time ago). Just 5 more to go and this bad boy is done. As much as I've enjoyed, and still do enjoy, working on the book, I've got so many other things rattling around in my head I'd really like the time to focus on them - since there is something of a deadline looming.

Next week I'm hoping to get some new product prototypes out, such as the Cthulhu statue, the Mayan Cthulhu Totem, the Shamanistic Demon Head, a demon fetus in a jar specimen, another demonic antiquity that's just a charm of sorts (very simple looking and rushed for a photoshoot on Sunday) and I think that might be it. Otherwise I'm starting in on some Shrunken Demon Heads and a couple other minor little pieces and foam weapons.

Creating Cthulhu, Part 4

Close to finishing up. Just some little bits here and there to clean up, smooth out and add some detailing to. The spine area was just started in this first picture, got a bit of work to do to finish it up. I'm guessing I'll probably get to start moulding tomorrow or Wednesday.

Creating Cthulhu, Part 3

Had a couple hours to work on this again today. Got it mostly smoothed out to where I started doing some of the detail work. Got a long ways to go, but it's shaping up really well. There's a lot of detail already done that's not visible here. I'll probably wait until the final resin version is all done up to do more detail photos.

Creating Cthulhu, Part 2

I won't say it's been easier to do this then I thought, but it's still pretty damn tricky. I am pretty happy with how it's coming along. Most of this was done only a few hours after the first post about it, so really this is only 3, maybe 4, more hours work to get it to this state. Now comes the really hard stuff, smoothing it all out and getting the lines nice and clean.

Creating Cthulhu, part 1

Every sculptor (and I feel a little arrogant using that term) in the genre of where I'm interested, seems to have done a Cthulhu statue of some sort, at some time. The first one I came across was done by Richard Allen Poppe, who seems to have vanished from the internet. He did some really great stuff, sold mostly through eBay - but eventually his accounts (both eBay and PayPal) were shut down apparently from too much bad press. I had some minor communication with him, he seemed like a decent guy to me - but for whatever reason just wasn't able to keep up with the demand for this work and ultimately gave up. At least that's my impression of it, I could be completely wrong. While there are others who would love to bad mouth him, I won't do it here because I don't really know the truth.

This here is one of the few remaining images or mentions of him I could find online:
http://www.templeofdagon.com/artists/richard-allen-poppe/
http://in-tenebris-scriptus.blogspot.com/2007/12/richard-allen-poppe.html
http://propnomicon.blogspot.com/2010/11/cthulhu-fhtagn-poppe-edition.html
http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=4832

Of course there have been others, dozens and dozens of others, but his Cthulhu sculpture was the first one I really liked and the only I ever purchased - not to say the others sucked, but for whatever reason, his stuck out to me. Just do an image search for Cthulhu and you'll see what I mean, they range from fucking awesome, to a little crappy, from freakish to funny and everything in between.

So I felt it was about time to give it a try myself. A little while ago, just for fun, I did a Mayan inspired Cthulhu totem, very simplistic at best - but it served it purpose for what I wanted to do with it. But I still wanted to do a good attempt that would fit in with the countless others, so I started this week - with the intention of mass production (on a small scale of course) for sale online.

 

This here is a very rough blocking out of my version of Cthulhu, about 5-6 hours I guess at this point. The picture doesn't really do it justice, as seems to happen so often when I take pictures of things I've sculpted. I wanted the head to be rather massive and out of all the ones I've seen and mostly none of even tried to capture, is a bit of a sense of weight. Most of the times his tentacles just seem to float or be totally weightless, whether or not I succeed at this is another question - maybe there's a reason you don't see it, maybe it just doesn't work very well.

It's about 7 1/2 inches tall, might be slightly taller in the end. The final version will be mostly likely cast in resin, haven't decided on any sort of colouring or whatnot. I can say it won't be realistically painted, I'm making it as though it were a statue, not a real version of him.

I'm not going to do wings, most other variations have wings, the Poppe version I have doesn't have wings either and I kinda like it like that, less cluttered feeling I think.

I'm hoping to keep updating this, with less rambling, as I progress and even hope to get some pictures of the moulding and casting process. If I remember to do it.

Home Sweet Hell DVDs!

I've been in a slump as far as being self motivated lately, ever since Halloween actually (which was exhaustively busy for 2 months straight), but this last week has been incredibly productive.

I finally got the Home Sweet Hell DVDs all done, there's not much to them, just the episodes and some pictures. I wanted to do outtakes, but as I noticed finishing up the BZK2! DVDs, there weren't any. The folks I work with have gotten really used to the way I work and are very well prepared  - so they deserve a huge thanks from me.

These are up for sale too, but since the audio isn't awesome, I'm reducing the price a bit to $8 on these - any more and it's just not worth selling them really.

Otherwise, I've got a small pile of new prosthetics done and a few more on the way. I've got a few new photo shoots lined up and got some work done on a few other projects I have going on. So far so good, I'm hoping the trend keeps up.

Up next are the Man-Eating Hookers from Hell DVDs.

Bimbo Zombie Killers 2! Undead by Dawn - DVDs!

Finally got these bad boys all done. I got myself a printer for printing directly onto DVDs so I'll be slowly releasing all The Monkey Rodeo movies on DVD for sale on the website. For right now, we just have this one here, Bimbo Zombie Killers 2! Undead by Dawn the Grandma's Douche Edition. It was called that by request of a couple of the actors, not my first choice, but what the hell.

The plan is for all the DVD's to be $10 each. I'm really hoping the future to do a more elaborate edition of some movies, including something besides just a DVD with some extras.

Next up, Home Sweet Hell and even Man Eating Hookers from Hell, with some extras - this one might not be available for sale, we'll have to see how it turns out.

This Year in Search Engine Terms

It's so amusing to check and see what search engine terms are used by people that find their way to my site, whether the online shop or the blog. Some are a little creepy, I noticed a large amount of the females I've worked with has all been searched for - chances are it's just a similar name, but when "charlottetown" or "pei" are added to it, it's a safe bet who they're looking for. So beware ladies, because as if you didn't already know, there are some creepy folks out there on the internet looking for you. They may not all be creepy, but you really don't want to take that sort of chance.

So, some of the terms, we'll start with the top 10:

1 - how to make a fake axe (and actually dozens of variations on this)

2 - severed finger (a few variations, "how to make" "thumb" or "toe" even)

3 - zombie photoshoot ( a couple variations on this)

4 - fox Henderson (makes sense)

5 - bimbo zombie killers 2 (also the first one and others with minor variations)

6 - demon ears (makes sense - a lot of other variations, even just "ear prosthetics" in general)

7 - demon horns (quite a few variations, type and size of horns)

8 - bimbo zombie killers (the 2nd most popular variation)

9 - monkey rodeo project (makes sense)

10 - vampire nose (and a few variations as well)

These all seem pretty reasonable. A lot of movie title searches, mostly my own movies. A lot of various types of prosthetics - demon, monkey, vampire, goblins, etc. All very reasonable and understandable, yet there's a few that just seem a little off. Some I get why someone might search for them, and why they'd land on a site of mine and some are just fucking weird. Here's some of the odder ones:

fake ad for hatchets - why a "fake ad" for hatchets? Real ads aren't good enough?

hookers casting - I guess someone needs some hookers in their movie and doesn't feel up to asking random women they know?

silicone male ass - I have no idea what the hell is this all about, nor do I want to.

demon wife  - Maybe something to do with a movie, or just curious what the benefits might be?

latex hooker - Are they looking for a hooker made of latex or one that specifically wears latex?

who the actor for thork - besides the poor grammar here, I've no idea what this is about. I used the term and it just came up with "Thor" stuff.

troll feet -  I was right in assuming at least one other person out there would be interested in Troll Feet. I'll be putting them online for sale this year. I hope he comes back.

most powerful hallucinogen - ???

zombie hookers demon pei - Just looking for all the best stuff at once I guess.

horned girls - Makes sense, but something tells me it was a spelling error.

auricular prosthesis product catalog - I think I might've either brightened or ruined some poor fellow's day who was actually needing something important.

zombie killers online monkey -Either there's something else out there this fucked up sounding, or someone who's only heard partial words of things I've done, and was just hedging their bet and trying them all.

really odd family pics - I like this one.

shoot boxing online shop - I don't get this at all.

casting fake guy - At first all I could think was, "So casting a real guy isn't good enough?" But then I guess it's something looking to make a fake body? I don't know otherwise, maybe looking to cast a shitty actor?

movies with x ratings - Hell yeah! I ruined some horny bastards day I hope.

the caller malcolm mcdowell ending explanation - This might seem utterly random, but I did mention this movie once and if someone seriously wanted an explanation for the ending, they really didn't get the movie. I highly recommend it for it's total lack of logic in the end.

bert palmerro prosthetics - This just seems funny, I guess somehow someone saw this video and didn't realize it was connected to an online shop. Nice to know they liked the piece enough, never got an order for it though. Asshole.

a movie called zumbie bimbos - Makes sense they found my stuff, but did they really believe there was a movie was called "Zumbie Bimbos"???

vampire photoshoot lighting - Because vampires are SO hard to light with all that pale skin...???

pretty male fingers - Uh...yeah.

fox henderson hookers - I think my favourite one this year.

el. rodeo. de. gregorrio. Chabes - Sure. I don't think they were actually searching for "Gregorio Chavez", but it's pretty odd there's even the term "rodeo" in there. I did a search and nothing immediately popped out that would explain it.

awesome paint job go kart - How the hell did this term land someone on something I did?

ass silicone mold - Again with the silicone asses. What the hell people? The worse part is, this chap wanted a mold - for what? To make an unlimited supply of silicone asses?

fast food character giving the finger - I don't really get it. Did someone want to see this that badly?

ear suck - This actually creeps me out as much as the silicone asses people.

And now for the most elaborate and yet still random seeming search term of all:

big screen-tula's father used one particular cleaning solution for everything as a cure all, even soaking his elbow - I searched it and nothing immediately came up, why am I not surprised. And relieved. 

So there you go. Some of the more entertaining search terms/phrases of this year. I am surprised at the sheer number of people wanting fake faxes and severed fingers/thumbs.toes there are out there. Next year can only get weirder once I start introducing some new items to the shop.

Holy crap...

Just realized it's been nearly 2 months since I've gone near this, guess I might as well start again. Now...where to start?

Trade Show. I'm doing a trade show in April, hopefully if I can afford the trip to Hamilton, Ont. The show itself isn't very expensive at all, it's getting there that'll be a bugger. In the meantime I'm hoping to crank out a whole pile of new products before then. Some new random foam props, resin one, demon things in jars, weapons, new prosthetics, masks and maybe other stuff. I've been so lazy in developing new products, I'm kind of using the trade show as a deadline to get this all done.

Photo shoots. I got an extension to the "Demons" project, now titled "The Secret Lives of Demons", so I will be attempting about 20 photo shoots between now and mid-March. Might be doable, don't know yet. After that I will be moving on to Volume 2 of the project and stepping up the makeup a bit - that's the plan at least.

2013 Demon Pinup Calendar. It's a while off, but it's something else in the works. Planning on doing a calendar filled with old classic pinup style looking pictures, but with demons - of course that probably goes without saying.

DVDs. Hoping to actually start selling them on the website soon.

T-shirts. Soon might be a possibility.

Bimbo Zombie Killers! the Web Series. Still haven't had time to have a meeting to create the overall plot, even though it's roughed out. A couple months behind schedule, but that's nothing new. Should still happen this year.

Year of the Dead. A new project I start this past week. It'll be a sort of supernatural detective story about detectives on the trailer of a slightly mental necromancer using the souls of the undead to appease an ancient evil Demon God in order to become one himself. Don't think it'll be a feature, but you never know at this point, just working out some background details on the characters at this point.

That's more or less it I think. I've had some recent production problems with the business and I'm taking some steps to slightly simplify things and make that run more smoothly. A pile of new pieces should be going online soon as well.

That's it for now I think.

Man-Eating Hooker Masks up for sale.

I'm putting these bad girls online for sale today. Starting manufacturing them this afternoon. They're made of a durable latex, typical of most Halloween type masks, rather flexible as well - although not as much as foam latex. It comes already painted up as you see it here with resin spikes and teeth.

Can be made blank with spikes and teeth not attached if desired, just let me know. The spikes and teeth are easily adhered to the mask with crazy glue, that should keep them on permanently. They come with an elastic strap sewn in to slip them on and off. To sort of blend them in, just some black makeup around your eyes and mouth should do it.

They sell for $26, so iffen you feel the need to devour men's souls, or anyone's really, you might want to snag one of these. Allow for about 3-4 days for manufacturing, these things require time to look this nasty.

If and when we get to do a full feature of "Man-Eating Hooker from Hell" the Demon Hookers most likely won't look like this, this was a simple, cheap design for the trailer only. Should we raise the money, they will look way more hideous and demonic, so these masks are only going to be seen in the fake trailer for now.

"Man-Eating Hookers from Hell" trailer is finally online.

After all this waiting, it's finally online! The only place the trailer is viewable is on the actual site:

http://www.themonkeyrodeo.com/MEHFH

I've also started up an Online Funding Campaign to turn this crap into a feature. The campaign will run for the next year, or until we reach our goal. Although in order for us to reach that goal, this site needs to get out there as much as possible - so feel free to repost the link EVERYWHERE!

I will be making another version of the video to upload to other sites, including the URL to this site to hopefully draw in more traffic. $10,000 is a pretty reasonable amount, I can do A LOT with $10,000 - it's pretty easy when you come from the Roger Corman mentality of film making.

So enjoy the trailer, it's probably not safe for work, depending where you work.

New site goes online tomorrow

So I mentioned awhile back I was asked to make a fake trailer and I did so, under the guidelines of making it the most trashy depraved thing I could. Well it's not really the most depraved thing I could think of - I decided to hold back a little since I then had the idea of turning this crap into a feature. So it's not as over the top as I'd pictured, but still pretty good.

The website I'm referring to of course is the site for the fake trailer and the Online Funding Campaign that will take place over the course of the next year. We're hoping to raise enough money to actually turn that trailer into a full blown (no pun intended) feature film, and make it look way worse. And by worse I mean, the FX will be better and more over the top (the whole reason for needing money in the first place really), the Demon Hooker will be redesigned, making these masks a bit of a nostalgic kind of thing. The "deaths" you see in the trailer are PG compared to some of the stuff I'd like to do.

The trailer and the website goes live tomorrow at 5pm. The Online Funding Campaign starts as well and will end either when we reach our goal or 5pm next Halloween.

Donations will be handled pretty simply, no money changes hands until the goal is reached. So for now there will be an email set up for pledges. So if you think you'd like to donate something, send an email to that address (there'll be a link provided obviously) and the amount you'd like to pledge and whatever email address you use for PayPal. Once we reach the goal in pledges, everyone will receive an invoice through PayPal and hopefully you'll remember and honour the pledge.

And you will be getting something for your money, all sorts of cool stuff lined up depending on the amount you donate. There's be more details once things are online tomorrow.

Cold Rath, The Electric Demon

Did another photoshoot this past weekend, hoping to ramp up the number I'm doing since the "Demons" project is ending this January - however, then I'll be starting the 2nd version of it. So not really the end, just the end of this round.

Here's some pictures of Cold Rath, The Electric Demon - very much inspired by the video game Infamous 2, but first a video

ShasshMash Demon Ears Prosthetic ShaashMash Demons were known mainly for their fighting abilities and excellent hearing. Price $22

Volrath Demon Prosthetic Large and brutish creatures, the Volrath always enjoy a good fight. Price $55

"The Barbarians" photo shoot

Got another photo shoot done today, as well as using some new pieces for the time. This one had probably the most elaborate costumes so far, although I'd have at least one future one planned that will be pretty cool.

The new pieces will be online this week, just in time for last minute Halloween costumes. The full face worn by John here is a Volrath Demon.

 The ears here, worn by Emily-Rose, Shassmash Demon Ears ,are brand new. In fact these ones just came out of the oven about 20 minutes before she arrived for makeup. The resin spikes with foam latex sockets are new as well, not sure if I'll be selling these or not.

And now onto some pictures:

And finally, a behind the scenes video:

Still busy...

I've made about 400+ prosthetics in the last 3 1/2 weeks for wholesale orders. Seemed like it was way more then that though. Got a few new pieces on the way, as well as about 5 or so more photoshoots I've been trying to get to amidst the wholesale orders.

As far as the fake trailer is concerned, only got a few shots left on that. Did a quick shoot last week that involved heading down to the park to splash some blood around. Seems like an average Saturday morning for me these days.

Hoping to get some new props on the go in the next few weeks. This time of year has been pretty busy, busier then I expected. Still got more to do as well, some consignment stuff and some retail stuff as well.

And here's a short doc a friend of mine did on me:

Holy crap I'm busy

Yes, I am busy these days. That's not a complaint, far from it. With the fake movie trailer project I'm working on and the pile of photo shoots I've planned to finally the massive orders coming in for prosthetics, I'm a little swamped these days.

The trailer is coming along, we have 2 more days scheduled, the next is pretty shot and the 2nd is going to be another huge day of blood and gore and demons in lingerie - and yes, I am aware how awesome it is that this is now pretty much my job.

The photo shoots are coming along well, I have 3 (?) lined up, maybe more, I can't even remember specifics anymore sometimes. A couple are going to be pretty awesome, some a little more understated but definitely cool.

And in shop news, I am busy, the business is doing really well. I'm almost surprised in a way - but I guess I shouldn't be since I was hoping I'd be this busy. It's been a great learning experience and I've definitely sussed out some weaknesses in my production methods and whatnot. Ones that are easily corrected for next year so I'm not rushing to fill orders as soon as they come in.

My next big plans are for an industry trade show in May in Toronto, not my favourite city but it should be a decent experience. And the Bimbo Zombie Killers! web series which starts shooting in July with a hopefully release date of Halloween Day 2012.

That's it for now, I have to go make more little resin spikes and start working on a master mould, then make more prosthetics and probably other stuff I've already forgotten about.

Father Ammon, the Villius Demon Priest.

Did another photo shoot today, got a whole pile more lined up too. This one was worked on awhile ago, had to be postponed because the prosthetic just didn't work. I had to kind of rethink it - why? The piece involved two 8" resin horns. Luckily very lightweight, 39 grams each, but still too heavy for the original prosthetic that was to hold them in place.

So in the end I opted out for a couple very small almost cuplike pieces that had a larger surface to grip both the skin and the resin horn. Worked out pretty damned well, the horns were a little floppy almost, but for stills it was more then fine. And they were on there good, we tested them after the shoot to see just how well they were attached - the prosthetic tore off the model's forehead (Will Beckett) before the horns pulled out of their foam latex sockets.

It was a success I guess. Anyway, here's some images. We'd hope it might generate a little interest from some churchgoing types, but everyone seemed to really enjoy it. Aside from the stinkeye we got from one girl leaving church as we were arriving. I think she just looked that way naturally though.

Pretty damned happy with the results. This was one of those shoots where the piece - as subtle and easy to apply as it was, really stands out dramatically. Almost every picture was perfect, that doesn't happen to often.