Figure 1: Image of Koffing and what final design should resemble.
Link: http://tetsubo.deviantart.com/art/Pokemon-109-Koffing-150789826
I have decided to try and make a life size pokemon out of old used paper, flour, water, a volleyball, curved plastic, paint, and duck tape. I picked Koffing as seen in figure 1.
Need: To make a Koffing.
Problem: A full size version is very large (2ft dia) and it has semi complex shapes (the extrusions from its body).
Design iteration 1: Take old used paper and constantly wrap it up until it reaches a decent size. Then soak the next few layers in a flour/water mix, add them to the ball, let them dry. Use a knife to cut out a mouth hole and remove the old paper stuffing. Cut clear see-through plastic in shape of the eyes and mouth (cut out the eyes with a knife). Paint the eyes and mouth and tape them in. On the side use old paper to create a ring shape and apply more soaked paper to make extrusions similar to the ones on Koffing. One the extrusions have dried, tape them onto Koffing and apply another layer of soaked paper. Next cover the eyes and mouth, begin to paint the body and wait for it to dry. Remove the covers for they eyes and mouth.
Prototype 1: Quickly discovered that the paper could not reach a diameter of 2 ft without forcing me to tape the paper together, as seen in figure 2. This development would require lots of tape and would make extracting the excess paper stuffing difficult.
Figure 2: Prototype 1, it reached slightly less than 1ft before it became too large for more paper to completely envelope it.
Design iteration 2: Same idea as design iteration 1, but use a volleyball instead of paper to fill out the frame and immediately start applying soaked paper. Probably add a few extra layers of paper since the volleyball must be popped before extraction.
Prototype 2: Will be created by Sunday.
Hopefully I can find a volleyball before the weekend begins and use that as a base. Once I can get the general frame in order, the rest should be easy and just require time.
6 Comments. Leave new
Really cool that your going big with it. Will be really neat to see a life size pokemon. I know you mentioned to me in class about trying to put in smoke somehow with black dry ice. If you can’t find black dry ice apparently there are fake smoke machines for train models that might work. I don’t know if you necessarily have to get it black I think even the just the vapor from normal dry ice or no smoke at all would still look really nice. Hope this is rounding out well I’m really excited to see it!
I do not know if you are still planning on using the hollow method to make the Koffing, but if so and you don’t want to use a volleyball, when I was younger we used balloons to paper-mache off of and they were really easy to pop when you were done with it! I really hope this turns out well because it sounds like such a fun and artistic project!
Oh I did not read Ethan’s comment before writing my comment. But now you know the balloon idea is very common. Can’t wait to see your presentation!
My art teacher friend taught me that a great substrate for papier mache is lightly crumpled aluminum foil. A styrofoam ball from Michael’s might work too. You might investigate papier mache recipes too; I think laundry starch is a common ingredient.
Good to see iteration! Keep It up!
Now that I read this again, I’m not sure why you want it hollow. Is something going to go inside?
This is a really cool idea and I like how you dove into it head first, even if that first approach didn’t turn out quite how you wanted. One thing I have seen as the center of round paper mache is a balloon which can then be popped leaving just the shell of paper. However you go about it I can’t wait to see the final product!