All throughout the process of building a puppet character, it’s necessary to step back and look at what you are creating, making sure all the pieces are coming together as you envisioned. We pinned the snout to the head base and added a couple of mock-up ears, and hey, this little fella is really taking shape!

It looks like our snout is a little longer and bit less exaggerated in real life than it is in the original sketch. Now would be the time to fix issues like these, especially if your are working from a client’s character design. However, for the sake of time, and since we are our own boss for this project, we are going to leave the snout as is, and move on to the next step.

Pictures are worth a thousand words. So in the next few steps, we’ll let the pictures do most of the talking. The following pictures show how we carved the snout for our character.

Notice how we started with what we knew. We carved around our definitive shapes first (the snout front and the snout base). Initially, we left plenty of foam between the two shapes, so as not to carve ourselves into a corner, so to speak. Then gradually, we carved the section in between the definitive shapes into a nice profile connecting the two.

It’s important to note at this stage, that any detail carved into the foam will more than likely be lost when it is covered with fleece. This can be a good or bad depending on the situation. The good part is that the imperfections of the carved foam will be smoothed out and will not even noticeable in the final puppet. The bad thing is that there may be some detail that you want to show through. In that case, this is where you would compensate by exaggerating any shape detail that you want to see in the final character.

With our pattern pieces complete, we are ready to carve our character’s facial features, in this case, the snout of our little piggy. Here are a few general guidelines for carving foam:

• You’ll want to start with a “square” block of foam, meaning the opposite sides of your foam block should be as parallel as possible to each other. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but the closer the better. The block should also be large enough to carve out the facial feature actual size.
• Use a four-inch razor blade to carve the foam. You can find these blades (and longer ones if needed) at your local home improvement or hardware store. They are usually located in the flooring department as they are typically used for scraping floors. No need for fancy equipment - a few dollars should provide you with a packet of blades that will last you through many projects.

Here’s how we laid out the shapes for the snout for our character…

First we drew a center line right down the middle of the foam block.

We laid out the snout front using the center line as a guide.

We laid out the snout base on the opposite side of the foam block from the snout front. Notice how the snout base is not touching the bottom edge of the foam block, whereas the snout front is. This was intentional and was done in an effort to keep with the design. We wanted the snout front to extend below the base (or upper lip of the puppet) slightly. You’ll notice we already planned for this offset when establishing the shape of the snout base (see this previous post).

We’ve had a few inquiries as to where one might purchase the new Glorified Sock Puppet Pattern on CD. We will be compiling a list of distributors in the upcoming months and eventually all Project Puppet Distributors who will be selling to the public, will be listed on the Project Puppet website. In the meantime, if you’d like to get your hands on one of the CDs, The Creative Arts Store already has The Glorified Sock Puppet Pattern on CD available in their online store!

Now that we have our base, it’s time to start on the features. In the case of our character, we’ll start with the snout. First, we need to do a little planning. The goal is to bring the facial features of the character, which at this point exist in two dimensions in the character sketch, into a three-dimensional world. Being mindful of the definitive shapes of the individual features will enable you to do this. To keep things simple, usually, you can work from two definitive shapes. For example, for our character, the definitive shapes are the front of the snout and the base of the snout (the surface where the snout meets the head). If we define these two shapes, we will be able to create the snout and stay true to our character sketch. Note that the definitive shapes of your character’s facial features may be different. For example, if you are building a human character, the definitive shapes of the nose would probably be the profile and the base.

Here are the steps we took to create the definitive shapes for the snout of our character:

• Using the head base as a visual guide, we sketched the shape in actual size for the front of the snout. (This is the sketch on the left in the picture above.)
• Referring to our character sketch, we noticed that the front of the snout needed to be wider than we originally drew. There was more space between the nostrils of the snout in our character sketch than there was in our initial drawing of the front of the snout. We refined the shape by tracing half of our original drawing, elongating it, and mirroring it with the aid of tracing paper (shown on the right of the above picture). The shape is closer to the original character sketch and will work just fine.
• We took our refined shape and made it slightly smaller by drawing inside the shape, leaving a border of 1/8 to 3/16 of an inch. Why? Because once the resulting foam shape is covered with fleece, it will be slightly larger. Sizing the shape down at this point will compensate for the thickness of the fleece. The shape of the front of the snout is final.
• We used the snout front to plan the base of the snout (the surface where the snout meets the head). We traced and mirrored the snout base just like we did with the snout front. It’s important in the planning stage to always reference your original character sketch and to keep your shapes and features as close as possible to the drawing.

Above are the final shapes that will define our character’s snout. Now it’s time for the foam!

We’ve added a couple of designs and a few more products to Project Puppet’s Zazzle store. Check out the recently added stuff!

Update: The “I Made A Sock Puppet And Liked It” t-shirt received a Today’s Best Award from Zazzle on March 23, 2007!

Let’s set up our base or foundation. First thing we need to do is find the center line of the mouthplate. This can be easily done by folding the Foam Mouthplate Pattern in half lengthwise, laying it on the completed mouthplate (lining up the edges) and marking the center point on the foam. You’ll notice in the picture above that we marked the center line on the edge of the foam of the mouthplate.

Now we can line up the center line of the mouthplate with the center line of the foam skull and pin the mouthplate to the foam skull as shown. Hey, it’s already looking like a puppet!

Here’s a tip on a homemade tool that will come in handy in the next few steps. Snip and bend a wire hanger to serve as a clip to keep the puppet’s mouth in a natural position, as if a puppeteer’s hand was on the mouthplate. Using the clip will make working on the puppet easier in the following steps and will also allow you to better visualize your character as you make adjustments to the features.

When building foam-based puppets (or altering a Project Puppet pattern) always work from the inside out. Think of it like building a house. You must start with a solid foundation before you can build the walls, and you must have the walls before you can have a roof or windows or doors. The same is true in puppet building. Starting with a good foundation is the key and will enable you to easily complete the subsequent steps.

The building of the foam skull is the last step in the Roly Puppet Pattern. To make alterations, however, we need to work from the inside out. As shown above, first build the foam skull and mouthplate as outlined in the Roly instructions. This will give you the foundation on which to build.

We’re always amazed to see the range of characters that can be created from one of our basic patterns, and we love it when truly creative people push the Project Puppet patterns to the limit. The zombie puppet above was created by Paul from the UK for a collaboration film. He writes:

I recently purchased some puppet patterns from you and thought I’d let you know how I got on with them. The info you provided has allowed me to extend my knowledge of puppet-making greatly. The patterns work extremely well. I’m currently working on a collaboration film whereby we will be using the puppets that I have made.The film is set in a world where humans are commodity products etc., mixed with zombies. Should make interesting viewing. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks again for your patterns, they’ve made my life a whole lot easier.

Great work, Paul! Thanks so much for sharing your creation with us!

Starting with the basic shape of the Roly Puppet Pattern, we sketched out how we want our character to look. During the process, and throughout the various rough sketches, we finally decided on this little guy. The above sketch really only tells half the story. We also decided that the character suffers from severe allergies, quite a problem when your nose…or snout…is your most prominent feature. Needless to say, he carries a tissue around at all times and is constantly sniffing, snorting and complaining about the pollen count in his deeper than expected nasal voice. Although not pictured, we might give him a scarf and maybe a hat…we’ll see.

We also considered a variety of colors for the character. His allergic disposition could lend itself very well to a non-traditional skin color. A blue pig? A green pig? Either would probably work, but we chose to go the traditional route and make this little fella pink, adding some blue or green or purple for the bags around his eyes.

As you work on a puppet, many times characteristics or subtle personality traits become more apparent. The puppet seems to take on a life of its own at certain stages, so you’ll find that the character’s personality may change slightly. In the building process, you may decide to change a physical trait which, in turn, alters the voice or attitude of the puppet. Be open to those changes; They often make the resulting character better. Nevertheless, it is important to start with a solid foundation. You should know quite a bit about the character before you start building.