New Paper Mache Dragon- Breastplates, Start of the Head

By Danmonsterman @danmonsterman
Hi everyone.  Hope you are all well. 
I love putting breast plates on my dragons.   This is easy to do with cloth mache.  But first, I didn't like the body of this dragon.  She didn't really have a waist.  This was easily fixed.   I just grabbed her in the middle and squeezed.  I love paper mache.  This is what I mean when I say that it is "forgiving."   You can adjust anything at any point.   Then I added tape.   I drew a line down the length of the body to guide me as I put on the plates.  It's easy to loose the middle if the neck or tail has a lot of movement.
 
I started at the tip of the tail.   I folded pieces of cloth and laid them on top of one another.   I pinched them in the middle to make a crease.   This time I decided to have the crease split into three segments when it got to the body.
 
Now it's time to add the head.  (This part is for you Don.)  Putting a head on a project is a matter of putting the jaws together in a position that you like.  Tape the back of the jaws to hold the mouth together in that position.   Note that I painted the jaws and tongue first...much easier than painting it once it's on the project.
 
If this were a simple Screamer or monster, I would cut a hole in the body and push the jaw assembly into the hole and tape.   This is a bit different because this dragon has a long neck.  I just cut off the neck and pulled out some of the paper.  This made a hole for me to insert the back of the jaw.   Sometimes there are gaps that need to be filled.   I use pieces of paper mache balls to fill those holes.   I put the paper mache shell over the hole and added masking tape. 
 
As I've said many times, I use smaller paper mache balls for details.  I cut off part of one and added it to the top of the dragon's head.   I used my knife to  cut a small hole for the eyes which I hot glued in place.
 
I then crumpled small amounts of paper and wrapped them with tape to add details.   In this case I wrapped the eyes  to give some depth to the eye sockets.  I also use small pieces of paper mache (remnants of the neck in this case) to fashion a nose.

Sorry, I must leave it here for the time being.  I'll be back to finish the head soon.