Hi everyone. I am very happy to announce that this little flurry of, whatever it was, is pretty much over. With supreme effort I have been able to answer every email, every Facebook message, and every Youtube comment. I know I didn’t have to respond to all of those inquiries, particularly the ones that started, “Hey dude….” But I’ve always prided myself in my willingness to answer questions about this medium. So I did. And here I am patting myself on the back. Thank you all for being so patient with me. Finally, finally, I’m back to doing some art. Drogon has been waiting patiently. I have other projects to tell you about, but I need to finish him first.
When you saw him last, he’d just received his horns. Time for some breastplates. I folded strips of cloth lengthwise to give them some thickness. I started at the bottom and layered the plates as I worked up the neck. I added a little crease down the middle by just pinching the cloth.
I worked my way all the way up the neck and under the chin. Next, I decided to augment the cheeks a little. I did this in order to add something a little special with this trophy.
Check this out. I folded the cloth on either side of the tongue. Then I poked holes in the cloth to simulate the place where the flammable liquid squirts from his fire-making glands. I’ve always envisioned dragons using a flame-thrower kind of mechanism. That is, they would squirt some kind of flammable liquid out of glands inside the neck area. This liquid would ignite as it came in contact with the air. I’m pretty sure that this is how it worked with fire-breathing dragons. Next, I added lips. Once again, I folded a long strip of cloth and wrapped it around the upper half of the mouth.
I added little wrinkles as I went. After that I added the cloth mache around the eyes. I folded a square piece of cloth and put it under the eyes.
I did the same on the top. I used my glue crusted knife to push the cloth into place. The nose came next. If you have an eye for detail you might notice that I added a bit more flesh to the nostrils. I wanted more of a flair. I just used crumpled paper and tape for that.
Then, using a glue encrusted pencil, I poked a large square piece of cloth into the nostril. I always like doing this. Poking a piece of cloth into a nostril or ear canal always causes wrinkles to form that look pretty close to the wrinkles you’d expect in a nose or an ear.
I’ll leave you here. I will be back again soon. I promise! I know….you’ve heard that before. But it’s different this time. Truly!
Thank you again for all of your support and patience during these last few weeks!
Dan
Gourmet Paper Mache Blog 