I started with a plain paper mâché book, added some gesso to the entire thing and some black leather to the edge. The leather lends a vintage feel to the spine of this wicked creation and also adds age. Can you see the bloody hand print on the spine?
Then I started sculpting with polymer clay. Now I have never done this before so there is always room for improvement but this is the first take. I lightly drew out where the eyes, nose, and mouth would go then went at it.
I kept pushing the clay around until I was satisfied (kinda) with the results. Then it went into the oven to bake. While the grotesque face was baking I started on the back of the book. I glued down some interesting lace stuff, painted over it with gesso, and added some more polymer clay. I had to use air dry clay on the back and I am not a fan of it, I much prefer Sculpty.
Next came adding the skin color and let me tell you, skin is hard to paint. There are so many shades and hues to skin. I used DecoArt Media line colors: Red Iron Oxide, Yellow Iron Oxide, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Quinacridone Gold, Paynes Grey, Carbon Black, and Raw Umber Antiquing Cream. The flesh tone was achieved by mixing a pale pink and Americana Zinc with a dab of Adirondack Hazelnut. You just have to play with the colors and go with your gut.
The picture below is when the entire back section was done. I really am diggin the "wet" look of the exposed flesh. This wet look was achieved by using DecoArt Liquid Glass and DecoArt Media Mister-Red. I added some paint splatters to break up the skin color and give it some depth with the colors mentioned above. The "sutures" are made with rusty wire from my stash, with each one hand shaped and glued with Glossy Accents to the pulled and stretched skin!
I did work on the front and back pieces intermittently but didn't glue the front piece until it was entirely done. The teeth were a sore spot for me. I wanted it to look like the teeth had realistic gums so I added some more clay and pushed my "teeth" into the clay to create grooves. I will send something to the first person to guess what the teeth are made from.
I pulled all the teeth out and baked the clay, then added the teeth back to their spot. The teeth got a makeover (or make-under) with a wash of DecoArt Media-Yellow Iron Oxide and Quinacridone Gold. The gums, eye sockets, nose socket, and exposed flesh were painted Red with the DecoArt Media mister (love that Red! And I also love that after it is dry, none of the red seeps into my paintbrush when I layer colors over it!) The skin was painted the same way a the back of the book. The eyeball was aged with a wash of Yellow Iron Oxide and made to look gooey with Liquid Glass.
The "page" part of this book was made by applying thick and thin amounts of DecoArt Crackle Paste. Once that was dry I gave it a wash with DecoArt Paynes Grey and Old Paper DI. Then I rubbed on some DecoArt Raw Umber Antiquing Cream and wiped off the excess with a paper towel. (you may have noticed that I use the Antiquing Cream as a wash, paint, and dry brush-very versatile stuff!)
Creepy little guy! In the picture below you can see the colors from the washes I gave the "pages". Lastly I added DecoArt matte Varnish to all the edges.
The spine was distressed with texture paste and the Andy Skinner stencil-Code Breaker. I aged the texture paste with DecoArt English Red and Titanium White Antiquing Cream as well as dry brushing it with DecoArt Red Oxide and the hand print on the spine was made by painting my hand with the Red Oxide and grabbing the spine on this Book of Horror.
The face kinda has a sad look to him. I hope you don't meet this Horror out and about on Halloween night! You may be the next in line to be skinned! Mwaha ha ha! Hopefully you weren't too disgusted that you blew chunks, although if you did I would like to know. Happy Haunting and Carpe Diem! ~Niki
This delightfully grotesque book will be shared with these horrific challenges:
Then I started sculpting with polymer clay. Now I have never done this before so there is always room for improvement but this is the first take. I lightly drew out where the eyes, nose, and mouth would go then went at it.
