Anyways here's what the little guy looked like before I painted him.
From my art school training I've learned the importance of thumbnails. So here's a bunch that I did to test out ideas and colors, even if I didn't exactly follow my thumbs, but whatevs. My second favorite was the turquoise and gold guy. Almost went with him.... But couldn't find turquoise pom poms. Keep reading the importance of pom poms will be revealed.
In the comp sketches you see the hat that the little guy came with. This little bowler hat just was no where near as cool as a mariachi hat. So I decide to make one. How do to that???? First I needed a hat block (ie head dress form) that I could pin into. So I put plastic over the little guy. And then wrapped duct tape tightly over the plastic. Then I carefully cut it off, removed it from the Munny, and then sealed up the cut I made on the plastic and duct tape thingy. Next I stuffed the plastic duct tape thing, sealed up the bottom and voila! I had a hat block, Munny style!
Next I played around with felt, winging it as I went to make a sombrero. It ain't perfect but I'm no milliner. Anyways how I did it, so that the felt kept its shape was to soak the felt in a mixture of 50% water and 50% water. While the gluey mixture is drying the felt needs to be pinned, or kept in the shape you want it to dry in. (This is a little trick I picked up from Tara Maginnis who is an awesome costume designer and teacher at Diablo Valley College.)
After it was dry I removed the pins and jazzed up the hat. Add some red trim and dangly pom poms (added with hand stitching, ahhhhh the torture whyyyyy did it decided to do this again?) and it looked awesome!
And now onto the actual doll....
Added some varnish that was a little finicky but I fixed it.
And here's the whole shebang. And if he doesn't like it, I'm taking it back.
Have I told you you're freakin' awesome?
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