Yeah, the woman opera performer put me through a lot of pain!
I conceived the clown after snapping the hair off a circus clown. He came together in one go, after some planning and spray painting the feet and hat.
But, the woman performer put me through a lot of pain! (And I'm still not 100% satisfied).
I started with an unadulterated Indian chief headdress, spray painted it, and added pom-poms to the tip of every feather.
The result--she looked like an Indian chief in funky clothes.
So, I took scissors and whittled the headdress down iteration after iteration. The reason the pom-poms look slightly spiral-patterned is because I kept adding them on after the first try looked too sparse.
I plan to experiment with long, dangling sleeves made from thin cotton. Eventually I hope to devise a technique of spraypainting / air-brushing facial paint. I once tried hand-painting and the brush-applied acrylic paint looked awful compared to the glossiness of the face plastic.
Painting klicky faces to match Beijing Opera makeup could be a hobby unto itself... I have a 200 page book about nothing except face-patterns. And, the Ming used a different style from the Qing.
On the success side, I finally have a technique for applying the hats to bare-heads that is firm but non-cemented. Poster-putty, the yellow sticky-clay you hang posters up with, works great. I can shake the figure upside-down and the hat stays in place. But the hat comes right off with no mess if I pull it.
-Tim
