This is Hugin. He's the first demon head I made. His concept is based on the video game the Darkness which was produced by Starbreeze Studios. He is still not really complete, because I haven't added his eyes or the lighting system inside him yet. Nor have I finished the remainder of his body. He will eventually have eyes that have light shining from them in the dark, and a body like a snake that will wind its way around behind the figure of a man named "Jackie" that I'm still working on. I can't finish Hugin's body until Jackie is done.

 

So, this is how I made Hugin:

The first thing I made was the teeth. I did this by bunching up tin foil into the shape of each tooth around a piece of lightweight, but sturdy wire, leaving about 2 to 3 inches of the wire extending out of the bottom of each tooth. When I had shaped all the teeth I wanted, I worked on the upper and lower gums/jaws.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For these, I took a good length of tin foil, I'd say maybe 2 feet long? and I taped three wires down the full length of it, extending a bit on each side. I taped the first one at the edge of the tin foil, the next one about 3 inches in, and the third I put in the middle of the other two. Once they were taped in place, I folded the tin foil near the wire furthest inside, and then folded it again and again til I reached the other side of the tin foil, keeping the wires enclosed inside. This gave the tin foil some firm reinforcement and also gave me something to use to attach the teeth to. I did this twice, so I'd have the upper and lower jaw/gums.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures as I was doing this, so I'll just have to tell you what I did. Once I had these two reinforced 3 inch wide strips of tin foil, I bent them into U shapes and wove the extra bit of wire that extended from each tooth in through the wires of the gums and taped them there. This was a bit difficult, since even with the wire it was still rather flimsy, but if I was gentle and patient, it worked out alright.

When I was happy with the placement of the teeth, I paper mache'd the whole thing. It was hard to make the teeth pointy, because even wrapping the paper around the points at an angle still made little holes and stuff, but I did the best I could do with it. I think if I did them now, I'd probably end up doing the teeth with toilet paper mache, instead of news paper, but ya live and learn, huh?

After the first layer of paper mache' they were much more rigid and easier to deal with. I think I put a total of 4 or 5 layers of paper mache' on these.

Once the teeth were dry, I took some thick wire, the kind that is commonly used in gardens here, and I ran it along the bottom front of the lower set of teeth and secured it there by poking more of the thinner wire through the gums and then twisting them around to keep the thick wire in place. When that was done, I attached a bit of chicken wire along the bottom of the whole thing, to form the bottom of the mouth and the jaw. I drew an extra line of the thick wire down the middle of the chicken wire, weaving it in and out, to add stability to the bottom of the mouth.

 

 

 

 

 

This was the very first thing like this that I'd ever done, so I was using tin foil for just about everything. I rolled up some more tin foil in the shape of a lower lip and wrapped it over the thicker wire I'd attached and then I paper mache'd the whole lower jaw together.

 

 

 

 

When this was done, I made a skeleton for the rest of him out of chicken wire and thick wire. When I was satisfied with the shape of it, I attached the teeth to it. I used the same method of attaching the upper teeth to that thick wire as I did when I attached the thick wire to the bottom teeth earlier.

 

 

 

It seems that I forgot to take pictures before I put the first layer of paper mache' on Hugin.

After the skeleton was all set, I covered him in tin foil, so that I could have a surface to work with on top of the chicken wire. Then, I formed all of his features by shaping bits of tin foil into the shapes I was looking for, and then taping them in place.

The first layer of paper mache that I did, I was only able to do on the top. I had to wait to do the underside.

I realized when I got to this point that my hopes of being able to make him so I could open and close his jaw, and position it at different amounts of opened or closed, wasn't going to work. I could probably figure out how to do it now, but at the time, I didn't know how to do it. So, I bought some metal ... I don't know what they are called. They are commonly used to keep windows (the kind that open like doors) from opening too wide in a house. I didn't take pictures of these either. Sorry! I secured those inside the sides of the jaw, and taped them into a position with really strong tape that would keep them completely firm. Without this, I would have had a really hard time with the jaws, I think.

This is what he looked like after 3 layers of paper mache.

 

 

 

 

Here he is with about 5 or 6 layers of paper mache and painted on the outside.

I couldn't wait to paint him, so I just went ahead and did it before I'd finished with the inside of his mouth. :)

For the inside, I cut a piece of cardboard to the size of his mouth and bent it directly in the middle. I squeezed it in between his teeth and secured it there with wires twisted around the chicken wire. I also poked a small hole in the center where I planned to put the tongue. It didn't take much paper mache to cover up the wires and get this all in place and looking natural.

Then, I made the tongue out of thick wire and tin foil. Paper mache'd it and painted it. I poked the wire that I'd left hanging out of the back of the tongue into the hole I'd left in the back of the mouth and secured the end of that wire to the chicken wire behind the cardboard. I paper mached around the base of the tongue to make sure it wouldn't move and then covered the tongue in plastic wrap while I spray painted the rest of the mouth.

I still need to finish up with the eyes and the rest of his body, but this is what he looks like now: