After Vacation

We got back from California on the 28th. We went to San Diego, San Francisco, and DisneyLand. Of Course, DisneyLand inspired 2 new videos that will be out in 2011. We got up at 5:00am to get packed and go to the airport and we got home in NY at 6:00pm. We ate a lite dinner, because we ate out everyday on vacation. We were all tired and watched The Last Song. White I was watching it, I checked to make sure all my clay characters dried properly, and they did! So, while I watched the movie, I painted Cookie Monster and Grover blue. Then I watched for a little while as the paint dried. I used a hot glue gun to glue together all the parts. Cookie Monster could stand, but Grover didn't have very good balance, so I glued his feet to a base. Then I glued on Cookie Monster's eyes and used a sharpie to draw the pupils. I put wires into his arms and attached them to his body. Cookie Monster was done! Then I worked a little on Grover. I painted his nose pink and inside his mouth black. After the movie, we went to bed.

The Next Day:

I woke up and finished Grover. All I had to do was paint his eyes on, make a red line around his mouth, and glue his nose on. I used a toothpick and white paint to paint on the eyes. Once the were dry, I used a sharpie to outline them and draw the pupils. I painted the red line and hot glued his nose. 2 characters done!

The next thing I did was the Elmo's Song Set. I couldn't think of an idea for this set when I was designing in early August. In the show, he sits outside of a building, and I didn't want to make another building set, so I thought about for a while. I finally got the idea of white paper with rainbow color splatter paint. After we came back from vacation, my sister and I went outside and laid the white paper on the grass. I got Dixie cups of paint in all different colors and we used paintbrushes and just splattered the paper! The grass was multicolor when we were done, and so were my flip flops and legs! I washed my shoes and legs and waited for the paint to dry. After it was dry, we brought it in and it looked great! Another set done!

Then I started work on the "I Love Trash" set. This set is fairly simple and I got it done fast. I cut out a dumpster out of dark green paper and glued it to the side of the gray background. Then I cut out black garbage bags and glued them there too! The last things a did was cut out a rectangle out of red paper and drew bricks on it. That was a building, and I glued that on there too! Another Set done!

That was all I did that day!

On the 30th and 31st, I basically worked on the characters. I put out the clay characters Bert, Ernie and Oscar on paper towels, and got each of there paint colors needed . Then I painted each one. Ernie orange, Bert yellow, and Oscar green. I used metallic silver for Oscars trash can.

Ernie in painting stages

Oscar in painting stages

On this blog there will be lots of pictures of the making of the characters, but there will never be a picture of the finished character. You will learn all about how they are made and see un-finished pictures of them, but you will have to wait til the video is out to see them finished!

Anyways, after they all dried, I did a second coat of paint on each one. The first one I started on was Bert. I had bought fabric for him when we went shopping and I cut out the shirt and hot glued it on him. Then I painted on his eyes with a toothpick and did the pupils and outlines. I drew on his eyebrow with a sharpie and painted his mouth red. Then I painted his paints green and shoes brown. I glued him all together and put wires in his arms. The last thing I did was glue on his hair, which was a few pieces of black yarn.  Bert was done!

Then I started Oscar. I wanted him to have a textured look, so I put some white in the green paint. So the paint was a slightly lighter shade of green. I sponge painted the lighter green onto to Oscars head and arms. It looked great! So I painted on his eyes and pupils and drew his big fuzzy brown eyebrow with brown marker.
Then I glued him to his trash can. I put lines on the trash can with a sharpie to make it look more real. I painted his mouth black and his red tongue. All done with Oscar!

Last but not least, I made Ernie. The usual, painted on the eyes, painted the nose red and glued it on and painted the mouth red. The same as Bert, Ernie's hair is just black yarn. Ernie is in the bathtub for Rubber Duckie, so he isn't wearing clothes. But, for the end of the video, "Sing", he is going to have legs and wear clothes. So, for now I just painted his upper body Orange and placed him a a stand, which is the same height as the bathtub. Ernie was done for now!

That was all I did for that day!

Characters Done: Ernie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Grover, and Oscar
Sets Done: Elmo's Song, C is for Cookie, I Love Trash, Sing, Rubber Duckie