Posts tagged "mardi gras":
Cerberus mask for Mardi Gras 2024, part 2
See part 1 of my Cerberus mask project here. As I mentioned in that first bit, I had to do a few steps of this project in a weird order, but for the sake of keeping this article neat I’ve grouped things by major sections — so for instance you might see some parts painted before I get to the whole section about painting, etc.
Cerberus mask for Mardi Gras 2024, WIP part 1
I’m working on this Cerberus mask for Mardi Gras 2024! I’ll try to explain how I did it! Unlike most of my projects, I didn’t have a detailed sketch for this one, and I had to do a lot of trial and error to figure out certain bits. It was fun working this way, and terrifying! Boring note: I had to do a few steps in a weird order, but for the sake of keeping this article neat I’ve grouped things by major sections — so for instance you might see some parts painted before I get to the whole section about painting, etc.
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!
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!
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…
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…
Mardi Gras 2021 — I made a skull mask of my own damn head!
For Mardi Gras 2021, my wife and I made skull masks of ourselves! This was all her idea, and it was super fun to plan out how to do it and then watch it all come together.
Here’s how I made my skull!
Spider skeleton costume for Mardi Gras 2020! — part 2
I made this six-armed spider skeleton costume for Mardi Gras 2020! This is part two; see part one here for how I made the mask. A lot of people have asked me: why only six arms, rather than eight? — ’cause with my legs that’s eight limbs total, duh! Anywhere, here’s how I made all this stuff!
Spider skull mask and costume for Mardi Gras 2020! — part 1
I made this spider skull mask and six-armed spider skeleton costume for Mardi Gras 2020! I know, I know, spiders don’t have bones; they got like an exoskeleton or somethin’. Deal with it, nerds. Anyway I’m really happy with how this whole thing came out, and now I’m going to bore you with every detail of how I made it!
Skull mask with dancing skeletons, part 4
This is part four of my skull mask project with rotating gears and marching skeletons. See parts one, two, and three.
Installing the hard hat
Almost all of my big paper maché masks are mounted on a hard hat. Hard hats are great because they’re cheap and they provide a lot of comfort and stability in a big mask. I usually saw off some parts of the hard hat for each mask depending on its shape, in order to reduce weight and to help the hard hat fit in the mask as well as possible. Read more…
Skull mask with dancing skeletons, part 3
This is part three of my skull mask project with rotating gears and marching skeletons. See parts one and two.
Building the skull shape
In part one I built the whole mechanism with the gears inside of a big circular wall; this would become the outer wall of the skull mask at around ear-level (not my ears, the skull’s ears — uh, wait a minute…). Read more…
Paper maché skull mask with dancing skeletons, part 2
This is part two of my skull mask project with rotating gears and marching skeletons. See part one here.
Dancing skeletons
I drew all 29 of the dancing skeletons at a larger size (about 6″ tall) on sketchbook paper, keeping the designs as simple as possible since I’d be re-painting them by hand at a much smaller size. I scanned ’em and cleaned ’em up in Photoshop, reduced them to about 2″ tall, and printed them out. Read more…
Skull mask with dancing skeletons, part 1
Welcome to the newest installment in my ongoing quest to kill myself with overly complicated art projects! For the 20th anniversary of my skeleton group I decided to make a paper maché skull mask with moving parts! Yikes! The mask has a crank and gears and 29 little skeleton figurines representing my fellow skeletons; a sort of best-of selection of our skull masks and skeleton outfits over the last two decades. Here’s how I made the thing!
Axeman skull mask! — part 2
This is part two of my Axeman paper maché skull mask for Mardi Gras 2018; see part one here.
Making the mustache
You may remember from part one I wanted to make the mustache attach to the skull with magnets so it’s removable. Here’s my convoluted process for designing the mustache, getting it to match the curvature of the skull, and getting the placement of the magnets correct.
Axe Man skull mask for Mardi Gras 2018
Here’s my Axe Man skeleton costume for Mardi Gras 2018! The Axe Man was a semi-legendary serial killer in New Orleans in 1918-1919; you can read all about him here. This year our skeleton group designed skulls and costumes based on figures from New Orleans history, to celebrate the city’s tricentennial, so of course I picked the creepiest guy I could find. Here’s how I made his skull mask, and don’t miss my other article about making the oversized paper maché axe prop.
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