Proportions

I think I'm not far off in guessing that most haunters build a humanoid figure at one point or another in their haunting careers. I also think I'm not far off in guessing that most of us have problems with having an end product that looks "right." Our perception of a person's beauty is based on proportion and symmetry of both body and facial features, so it's important to design and build with this in mind.

Sometimes, it's hard to get the proportions right because some animatronics or pneumatics need to be hidden inside the prop, so we're limited by the size requirements of the mechanical bits (my stirring witch is one of those.) Sometimes, the head we use is what's available to us in the eleventh hour, and is not the right size for the body (also my stirring witch!). All that aside, let's assume we're starting from the ground up and we're not pressed for time. (Like that's ever going to happen at this time of year!)

I went hunting for some images of both male and female figures and their proper proportions. Here's the male figure:

Here's the female:

From these images, you can get a very good idea of how the body is divided up into eight head units, and you can see that the hand, from heel to fingertip, should be able to cover the face.

Now that we are aware of perfect facial proportions, we can mess around with them to make monster faces, like Dick Smith's mask of Quasimodo, here:

It goes without saying that we can alter body proportions to make it anywhere from subtly disturbing (in a "something's off about that, but I can't put my finger on it" way), to creepily deformed.

Source. 

O.K. I included that last one to see if you were paying attention. But you get the point. Elongate one arm or one finger of the hand to longer than the others, and you're sending the message that this creature is evil and your victims should be scared of it.

Then, there is something called "heroic proportions:"

Heroic proportions for both male and female are based on nine head heights.

For a more in-depth look at proportions, go here! Hope that helps!

Shop News!

Just wanted to let you all know I'm offering free shipping in my Etsy shop this weekend only, so please! Take advantage of me!

Oh, and while you're scouting around my Etsy store, take a minute to head over to the Davis Graveyard's new Etsy shop for your tombstone needs!

My Graveyard Delights Treasury on Etsy.
My Skulls and Bones Treasury on Etsy.
My Cocktails, Anyone? Treasury on Etsy.

New Sculpt

I've been working on this project at school, and finished in (for me) record time. The lash of my teacher's urgings ("I want to see this done by Thursday. Just put the head on and be done with it.") spurred me on a bit, because I know I am slow in the sculpting department, and I knew I had to speed up a bit. But the other part of me was saying, "Not my vision. Sorry."

So here was my vision:

It's about a foot high, and not fired yet. I'll be smoothing down the ridges after it dries a bit, so it will be nice and smooth.

 I always take pics, nowadays, in case of horrible kiln accidents. One of my  fellow students told me it was so delicate, I should re-do it in porcelain clay. I might do that after Halloween. Right now, I am out of time!

Life Attack!

I have officially been attacked by life today, so I can't write a decent post. Check out this Etsy Treasury I put together of cool and creepy Hallows things, instead!

Will post soon!

Great Things!

This weekend was filled with fun, which I'll likely share with you tomorrow. I will tell you that my booth space in Rancho Cordova is now up and running, so if you're local, please stop by and check it out!

I also may have booth space on Apple Hill at the Jack Russell Brewery for the next couple of months. I'm waiting to hear back from a friend to see if he wants to go in with me on that one so I can actually take bathroom breaks!

More updates tomorrow! Now, it's off to school!

Martha, I am VERY Disappointed in You!

Stewart, casting a "Look! It's Elvis" spell, and taking your money while you're distracted.

During Friday's shopping marathon for my new shop space in Rancho Cordova, I, at last, spied Martha Stewart Living's Halloween Edition. Although I am not an avid follower of Martha Stewart, I eagerly look forward to this edition every year, and have used some of the ideas to good and creepy effect in my haunt.

This year, though, I was warned. Mr. Macabre's post, aptly titled: Nooooooo! Betrayed! I've Been Betrayed! Martha Stewart Living Halloween Handbook Review revealed Stewart's dastardly plan to re-package old ideas in a new cover and call it good. So I took a moment to page through the magazine.

I could have wept, I was so disappointed.

While there were a few (very few) new (to me; they may have been from issues I haven't seen, yet) ideas, about 98% had been regurgitated from Stewart's Halloween archives. If I were to be charitable, I would say that the magazine was aimed at catching new readers who had never seen the old issues. The fact that she completely abandoned us, the Halloween aficionados and her Halloween followers, makes me feel used and abandoned. And angry. After all, we know she has minions to search the web to rip our ideas off the boards and blogs, so what gives?

Generally, when I get angry, I rant at Mr. ShellHawk for awhile, and he either offers suggestions or (wisely) makes sympathetic noises and nods in the appropriate places. This time, I've decided to take action.

I would like ALL of my readers who are familiar with past issues of Stewart's Halloween Magazine (and as someone once said to me, "All means ALL, that's all all means!") both followers and lurkers alike to go out and look at this magazine on the rack. Leaf through it, and make up your own mind.

If you agree that the bulk of this edition is recycled content from old issues, I want you to do four things:

1) Leave a comment expressing your disappointment in the Halloween issue on this post. Please, keep it classy and only about the Halloween issue! I intend to write a letter in a week or so and include the link to this post. I would like Martha's minions to see a lot of comments! Hundreds would be good. Seriously. It only takes a minute, and you can leave your comment anonymously.

2) If you have a blog of your own, please blog about your disappointment and leave a link to that post here in my comments section. Please let your readers know about this post and include a link for them to follow, so they can join in and comment, too. Make sure to tag your post with Martha Stewart and The Best of Martha Stewart Halloween Handbook, as well as any other useful tags so that if others do a search, they'll see your post and not waste their money. I'll include a list of blogs in the letter I intend to write to Martha.

3) "Digg," Tweet, Buzz up or otherwise promote this post, so it starts to create a buzz.

4) Write a letter to Martha, expressing your disappointment and letting her know that we will not have the wool pulled over our eyes. Again, keep it articulate and classy. (No, "Martha! You suck!" Okay?) Use your spellcheck and grammar check, so we all look intelligent! ;o) Here's the email page link: http://www.marthastewart.com/askmartha

Yes, I am aware there are more important issues in the world to be upset about, and I'll post about one of those very soon.

Humor me, anyway!

Running Around

Like a proverbial chicken with my head cut off, I've been doing a lot of running around the last couple of days. One of my fellow students turned me on to a place in Rancho Cordova called, "The Market Place." It's basically an artist's co-op in a big old warehouse in an industrial area of town, and they are brand new and looking for artists. I popped by to check the place out after school on Thursday, and walked out with a space of my own and some heart palpitations.

So, yesterday was spent running around, looking for shelving and whatnot to set up a booth. Since what I have now is a space marked with duct tape on the floor (read: no walls) I had to pick something up to delineate my space. I wanted to get one of those privacy screens that has photo frames on it, but, or course, what I saw millions of a few weeks ago can't be found for love nor money. I had to go to a number of different stores, looking for other shelving options that were still cheap, since I didn't want to spend loads of money when I don't know how long I'll be in this space.

I still had my camera in my purse from taking photos of my new creations at school, so I was able to snap some pics of the Halloween displays around my town.

First off, I want to complain bitterly to Target that not having all the Halloween merchandise up by September 1st is lame! There were so many huge gaps in their shelves, it looked like a dental continuing education course on the effects of meth! I say, again: LAME! I didn't even bother to snap any photos.

Here are the others, starting with Orchard Supply Hardware:

Oh, the horror of inflatables and sparkly pipe-cleaner black cats!

One for the Frog Queen!

After Osh, I headed over to Michael's.

Then it was over to Marshall's, still with no shelves or anything to show for all my hard shopping!

Then, off to Pier 1.

Spiders seem to be popular this year; another sign that our Frog Queen is a trend-setter!

Next was Cost Plus World Market.

Looks like this year's trend is towards reproduction vintage Halloween. SO much better than sparkly black cats!

I finally toddled home with some shelves and a couple of funky looking barstools that I'll make into special shelving. I'll have to get some photos of my lit jackos framed and stick them in the booth so people can see how great they look when they're lit.

An artist's work is never done!

Ghostly Pumpkin

Now available in the shop. ShellHawk's Creations on Etsy.

Corrupted Light

Large Witch Jar by Pumpkinrot. Thanks, man! I love it!

Pumpkin Progress

I think I had mentioned on my last pumpkin post how disappointed I have been with my pumpkins' ability to produce. I was very disappointed in my Wyatt's Wonder, and was pretty sure the "Wonder" part stood for "I wonder where the hell all the pumpkins are?" Well, at long last, I am happy to report I actually have one pumpkin off this vine.

I'm hoping he grows a bit larger, but I'm happy with just about anything this year! This addition will make it my third pumpkin to come to maturity. The damn slugs made off with at least two other Wyatt's Wonder babies, which is pretty amazing, considering it really hasn't been slug weather out here.

I've come to find out that pretty much everyone in the Sacramento area has had a bad time of growing vegetables this year. Since we had clouds and rain into May and June, which is very unusual for our area, everything seems to be about a month behind in its maturity. I can vouch for that, as our tomato crop this year has been pathetic, as opposed to last year's gangbuster crop.

Oh, well. Maybe next year!

I guess I'm stuck-again-buying pumpkins this year.