Giant robot Halloween decoration
With just a few days left before our 1950s-themed Halloween party I decided to make this simple giant robot statue, loosely based on the robot I drew for our animated party invitation. Read more…
Halloween 2023 theme: UFO!
This is another Halloween theme that I’ve been eager to do for many years! 1950s sci-fi, flying saucers, little green men, et cetera et cetera. I drew all of this stuff in Photoshop with my tablet, and animated everything in Adobe Animate. Read more…
Cryptique Creeps custom monster drawings!
Update: The fundraiser is over; thank you to all who participated! You can check out all the Creeps in the krewe’s Gallery!
My Mardi Gras krewe, Cryptique, is announcing its first fundraiser!
I’m doing Cryptique Creeps drawings at $20 a pop, with all proceeds going to Good Trouble Network (go read about them!!). Read more…
Making a crown for my festive Creature costume
The short version: the crown is foam board with just one layer of paper maché, and it’s held on with magnets! The jewels are craft foam covered with Mod Podge and then painted.
(This is the last part of my Creature costume project: check out my articles on making the Creature mask and hands, and the scaly suit.)
Making a scaly suit for my Creature from the Black Lagoon costume
I made this shiny scaly men’s suit for Mardi Gras 2023 for my “Creature from the Black Bayou” costume!
I made the scaly suit with shiny metallic paper and hot glue, and I want to stress right away, this is not the best way of doing this! A much better way to make a suit like this would be with fabric or vinyl or some other kind of flexible plastic Read more…
Creature from the Black Lagoon hands
Making these hands was the easiest part of my whole Creature from the Black Lagoon (/Bayou) costume. Here’s how I made ’em!
I started by tracing my own hand onto foam board, and then drawing a much bigger hand over that; I wanted to be sure that when I’m wearing these hands that my real hands are totally hidden. Read more…
Creature from the Black Lagoon mask, part 2
This part 2 of my Creature from the Black Lagoon(/Bayou?) mask process. See part 1 here!
Okay, so the paper mache for the Creature head was all done, and now it’s time for painting all the other finishing touches.
Painting the Creature head
For all my big masks, I always use some kind of base coat before moving on to spray paint. This time I tried something new: I started with a coat of Mod Podge (paid link) that I brushed on; Read more…
Creature from the Black Lagoon mask, WIP part 1
For Mardi Gras 2023 I made a Creature from the Black Lagoon(/Bayou?) mask and costume! I makde this stuff for my second year marching with my Mardi Gras krewe, Cryptique. Here’s my article about making the mask!
Lifesize paper maché Nosferatu statue!
Check this thing out! For Halloween 2022 our party’s theme was the 100th anniversary of the film Nosferatu (well, the U.S. release) and I wanted to try making a lifesize paper maché statue of good ol’ Count Orlok, aka the guy that jabronis like you call Nosferatu.
Halloween 2022 theme: Nosferatu, a Century of Horror
For many years I’d been waiting for 2022 to roll around so I could do this Halloween party theme; it’s the 100th anniversary of the film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror!
Cryptique vampire bat standard!
I made this standard for my Mardi Gras krewe, Cryptique; one more fun thing for us to carry on our march. It’s based on this illustration I did; I call this design our bat-de-lis (like fleur-de-lis):
Here’s how I made the standard!
Tiger piñata sculpture!
I made this lil’ tiger piñata for one of my favorite people in the world, writer and illustrator Jon Morris; it’s for his Gordo book project, which you can read about in this thread! The tiger sculpture I made isn’t a real piñata, in that it’s not (completely) hollow and it’s not intended to be destroyed. It’s just a prop that’s meant to look like a piñata. Here’s how I made the thing!
Introducing Cryptique!
I’m excited to announce I’ve got a new Mardi Gras krewe! Cryptique, Krewe of Cemetery Shamblers is a brand new phantasmagorical walking krewe in New Orleans, put together by me and a few friends just a couple weeks before Mardi Gras 2022. Read more…
DIY wrestling championship belt props
My wife and I made these fun pro wrestling championship belt props to go with our skeleton tag team wrestler costumes. Here’s how we made ’em!
Pro wrestler skeleton costumes for Mardi Gras 2022!
Many months ago while brainstorming ideas for our new Mardi Gras skulls/costumes, my wife had the great idea for us to be skeleton pro wrestlers; we decided to be a tag team, and I came up with the name The Skull Krushers! These costumes were extremely fun to wear for our first march with Cryptique! Here’s how we made our skull masks…
Rooster Man Halloween costume!
For Halloween 2021, my wife and I went as two urban legends from her island, La Réunion: La Dame Blanche (“the white lady”; a classic vanishing hitchhiker story with a twist) and L’Homme Coq; the rooster man, who eats children for some reason! This is my favorite Halloween costume I’ve done in many years; here’s some info about how I made everything…
Easy DIY tombstone decorations for Halloween!
My wife and I made these tombstone decorations pretty last-minute for our back yard Halloween party; our first annual Halloween party that would be 100% outdoors. They were fun and quick to make!
New Halloween party invitation: Prick or Treat!
My wife and I skipped Halloween last year due to the pre-vaccine Covid situation, but this year we’ve decided to throw a small, outdoor, vaccinated party. There’s no real theme and we’re not making a ton of decorations, but I did want to get back into the rhythm of creating an animated invitation to get people (including me!) excited. Here it is!
Read more…
Huge 5-foot skull decoration for Halloween!
I made this giant 3D skull decoration for a wonderful client to display on the front of his house for Halloween 2021. Here’s how I did it!
Building the base
I started with a few sketches of the skull in different styles to get a sense of what the client wanted. When we settled on a final sketch, I re-drew it at real size onto foam board.
Pumpkin Night custom paper maché mask!
I made this custom Pumpkin Night paper maché mask for a wonderful client! Here’s how I made it! (And check out my page about custom work!)
I wasn’t aware of the Pumpkin Night manga so of course I started with lots of Google image search results. What a cool design! I’d never done anything like this before!
About Manning Krull
How to make a 4-foot paper maché alligator
My violin skull mask, Mardi Gras 2015
Three-headed paper maché dragon sculpture