This is a store bought mask that I repainted and airbrushed to match the D&D character. I also lengthened it's tentacles and made them posable with wire inserts.
I designed and welded a support that allows the whole head to easily lift from the floor to 9' in the air using counter weights. The head can pivot left/right and up/down using control rods.
It's basically a giant bobble head that can roll around on it's wheeled platform. Having it mounted on it's support early on made working on it much easier as it could be raised, lowered and turned for easy access.
One of the requirements for this monster is that it needs to be stabbed in the eye with a sword and then have it's eye burst open and 'guts' to spew out. I designed a mechanism that would contain two long spring snakes compressed into a tube behind the pupil. After the stabbing, a rope is pulled and the pupil doors are released. Then the spring snakes burst out and hang from the eye ball with sickening effectiveness.
I discovered how flexible sculpting with chicken wire can be. I've already covered the jaw with it's 'skin' of cloth soaked in glue and water.
I anchored coat hangers to the scalp over which we slid cloth cones that were sewn and stuffed by the costume department. I used foam exercise mat to create the teeth and the detail on around the eye and head. Its all the blue stuff. Students helped with all the stages of this build. It was a pleasure to have their help and guide them in learning new skills.
Having a uniform color over the whole shape helped show which areas looked good and which needed more work.
We painted and glued foam eyeballs to the ends of the coat hanger wires in the tentacles before pulling up the cloth around them to make creepy, posable extra eyes like the Dungeons and Dragons Beholder monster in the reference book.
The beholder was used around campus to promote the show.
Built for Woodside Priory School's production. Fit over a pvc tubular frame to be worn by the actor.
Sponge foam, foam rubber, paper maché
Built for Woodside Priory School's production. Fit over a pvc tubular frame to be worn by the actor.
Sponge foam, foam rubber, paper maché