I've got until April to make a dozen hand puppets. We're going to New York to set up Missy's show for a week in late January, so I'm starting to feel a little pressed for time (That's more than one a week Math Wizards).

With all luck, they'll sell, so I can't really do famous characters or people. So it's all gotta be straight outta my head. They're turning out to be more abstract than usual which is a really good thing.

Carving teeth is easier than it looks. You shove a bunch of plastic-clay in the mouth-hole and then remove everything that is not puppet teeth.



Once all the carving and sculpting is done, I start dry-brushing the most absurdly thin layers of paint over the whole surface. The slowness is not just a means to achieve a certain texture. It's a method of energy transference. It's a way of trapping life and movement and attention within the head.



After about an hour of barely painting, the skin tone is set and the teeth are washed over with white and the eyes are set.





Lastly, he gets a gold tooth.



One head down, eleven to go. I'm gonna do all the bodies and sewing last.
These some sketches for the next one.