This is kind of funny. I was grabbing a stack of newspaper to start these projects, and this one was in the stack. This is a very old copy of the Life section of a USA Today newspaper. It's from November 1984. You can barely see it in the left column but there is the article about my first book, The Simple Screamer. That was a very fortunate event. It helped launch my book nationally. Just had to share. I decided not to use this section. I'll file it somewhere for posterity (look how well that worked for me last time!)
No one who watches my blog needs to see me crumple the paper or add the paper mache. So I'll skip that. In this case I'll use some of the paper mache balls and pieces I have laying around my studio. I'll make the jaws by cutting open two different size balls and taping them together.
As you can see, one of them is more pointed, the other more spherical. Putting them together gives me the triangular shape of Drogon's jaws. In the TV series Drogon has many small teeth, as opposed to many dragons with large teeth. So I used a pile of small polymer clay that teeth I had. I hot glued these onto the paper mache jaws.
I think it's kind of a cool look. As you know I like to cloth mache and paint the jaws before assembling the head. This took a bit of patience. Sooo many teeth! As usual I applied small strips of cloth in a criss-cross fashion around each tooth. Folding the cloth first makes a gum line around each tooth.
After wrapping each tooth I always add a large piece of cloth in the middle. I'm always amazed by how well that works for the inside of a mouth. You get very natural looking wrinkles that way, and it adds a great deal of strength to the jaws as well. This is especially important if you are making a trophy.
That's it for now. I'll be back soon.
See you. Make art!
