Transcription
[Music] What's up everybody? I'm Gio, and welcome back to Carvalo Creations, where I show you how to make awesome props and projects of your own.
In today's video, I want to show you the versatility of monster mud in creating these little candy corn creations you see sitting around me. Now, typically when people think about monster mud, they think about graveyard statues, which is a great tutorial, and I actually have one of those myself. So, if you haven't seen that video, definitely go check it out when you're done with this one. It's a great build, but those projects can seem a little daunting and overwhelming. So, I wanted to give you a tutorial that's relatively easy on a smaller scale. So, if you're new to monster mud, this is definitely going to be the video for you. So, without any further ado, why don't we get in that spooky spirit and go [Music] [Applause] wild?
All right, everyone. So today, I'm going to show you how to make a candy corn monster mud creation. Uh, and I want to go over the material list so you guys are going to know what you're going to need to get this guy going. Now, first off, you're going to need a base. So, I'm using a scrap piece of plywood. Really doesn't matter the thickness. I have 3/8 of an inch. If you guys are trying to copy it exactly. We're definitely going to be needing some chicken wire, and this is going to be the body of our character. And what I'm going to be doing is using this cone here as a mold, basically, and I'll be wrapping my chicken wire around that mold and then creating that candy corn shape. And then I'll cut out my plywood with the jigsaw. So, you're definitely going to need a jigsaw for this at the base and then wrapping that chicken wire around it, stapling it to the bottom to create that overall shape. And then we're going to wrap it with our material. So, you don't need a cone. You can do this freehand and kind of work it that way. I just figured I'd use this 'cause I want something that's relatively tall. It's still going to be a small character, like a porch character, but I want it to be big enough to where you can see it from a distance. You can see it from your street if you're putting it out for Halloween. You're going to be needing some, uh, upholstery foam. And this stuff here, I got this out of old couch cushions. So, if you guys see those on the street or whatever, you could definitely use use that. And what I'm going to be doing is wrapping it around the chicken wire to create like a barrier between the chicken wire so you can't see the the metal mesh underneath when we put our material around. And then you're going to need some kind of material. Now, let me tell you right now, if you guys have like a sheet material with no pattern on it, that's going to be the best because you don't want it to show through. This is all I happen to have on hand because I've been doing so many of these, I'm running out of material. So, I definitely need to get that. So, uh, like I said, a jigsaw, you're going to need a staple gun and some staples. Uh, they don't need to be very deep either. You can use like quarter-inch staples, that should be fine. A pair of scissors. I'm going to be using some Great Stuff, and this I'm going to be using just like I did our pumpkin. If you guys haven't seen the pumpkin video, make sure you check it out after you watch this one. But just like I did the pumpkin video, I'm going to be using the Great Stuff to create some of the features, just to make everything a little more accentuated. You're going to be needing some spray adhesive to adhere our upholstery foam to the chicken wire itself, and tin snips to cut everything around. And then to add a little bit more character, I'm going to be using some air dry clay. And very similarly to what we did with the, uh, pumpkin character, I'm going to be painting monster mud over the top of our air foam clay at the end to seal everything. And of course, you're going to be needing monster mud. Now, I'm not going to go over how I do my ratios in this video, but if you guys are curious to see that, definitely go check out our monster mud witch video, in which I show that in detail, and it's a great video, by the way, also. So, make sure you go check that out. But now, I think it's time that we go wild with it. Yeah.
All right, to start off our build today, what I'm doing is just taking this chicken wire here. I'm going to start wrapping it around my traffic cone to get that candy corn shape. Now, uh, one thing I want to not make sure you're using gloves when you're working with chicken wire. I've been doing it for a while, so my hands are kind of callous, so it's easier for me, but you're going to want to wear some gloves because this stuff really does stab the entire time you're using it. Uh, but what's great about chicken wire is you can just wrap it on itself to hold that form.
The next thing I'm going to do here is, once I have the shape complete, uh, is go ahead and grab that plywood base and I'm just going to trace around it because the shape is odd. Cut it out with my jigsaw, and then I'll go ahead and press that into the chicken wire base and then staple it down with those quarter-inch staples I was telling you guys about earlier. Now, this works as a perfect base. I didn't have to weigh it down. Uh, they're heavy enough in themselves with the monster mud, so they'll stand. You don't have to worry about the wind and things like that, but if you are worried about it, you can add a weight to the middle, uh, right here.
I'm using my Loctite spray adhesive just to spray over the chicken wire to put that upholstery foam over the top to create that barrier in between the chicken wire and my material so you can't see any any of that metal mesh underneath. And then right here, I'm just dry fitting my material over to make sure I have the right size to cover the entire candy corn. And I'm making sure to take my time here to really smooth out the surface as much as possible so you can't see so many, uh, wrinkles in the material. And I'm stapling it to the base as well so I can pull it tight. Uh, now, monster mud, it's going to take about 24 hours to dry anyway, so I take a little extra monster mud here and just spread it over to help smooth it [Music] out.
All right, everyone. So, our monster mud is good and dry. It's been about 24 hours now. One thing I want to note with these guys is that the monster mud's going to dry really well in direct sunlight. But for the undersides of your projects, or maybe where you're not getting a lot of sunlight, like these here, you might have some moisture on the bottom. So, if you do have that, you can tip these over and let that sunlight hit it so it dries completely. But, uh, our candy corns are nice and, uh, rock hard now. So, now I can go to the next step.
Now, what I'm going to do this time is I'm going to be using the Great Stuff, like I said. I'll be drawing out using just regular pencil, uh, facial features, like so. I can draw the eyebrow ridge and maybe the mouth itself. Probably not going to have a nose on these guys. Don't need a nose on this, but, uh, we'll be using the Great Stuff to go ahead and spray over those those lines I create. And then once that dries up, I'll take an X-Acto knife or maybe my Dremel and carve away the detail to get the face looking really good. And we'll probably still use the foam clay at the end, maybe for some teeth or something like that, but we're going to try to use just the Great Stuff foam first. And then I'm going to take small strips of material dipped in monster mud, and we're going to kind of skin over that foam at the end. We'll see how far we get with that. So, this is going to be a little different technique than our pumpkin video we did a few weeks ago, but I think this will be another really cool way to make some awesome characters using monster mud. So, why don't we go ahead and get to that next step? Yeah.
All right, so I'm taking a pencil here and just drawing out the facial features that I'm going for. I'll be switching to a marker here so you guys can see. Um, and really, I'm kind of going over exaggerated with the facial features. I want these to be like big characters that they're going to, you're going to see, 'cause the face is everything for them. So, you want to go big with the style of the face, with the expression on the face as well.
And now I'm taking my spray foam here and just tracing over the lines I created. I'm making sure to fill in all the areas that I'm going to need to create those features. So, I'm building up the material as I go. Now, realistically, um, this is the first set I had done. I have done a set since then and I kind of refined the style a little bit more. So, you don't really need that that much foam. Um, just one layer is completely cool. I end up going back on this one and doing more, but it's just more foam to to carve out because it does expand really well. Um, but this is a really cool way to make some really cheap and easy characters.
Now that that foam's all dry, waited about 2 hours to make sure it's was completely cured, and I'm just carving away at the foam, kind of flattening out the surface, getting the way of that bumpy texture, to create these features that I'm going for with the original design. And, uh, also to, I'm going to be going in with the Dremel in a second here and refining the shapes even more. But with the X-Acto knife, it's just a lot easier. Just take your time, kind of step back from your project, take a look at it, see what needs to be carved, and then continue on with your process. Um, this is a really super easy way to do things. So, if you guys are liking this style of character, I'll probably be doing them a lot more. Small characters. So, if you're new to monster mud, this is going to be something that's going to be really easy for you to jump into, get a really cool character with minimal amount of effort. So.
But here I'm taking that Dremel, like I said, and just refining some of the areas, deepening the eye sockets in. And I'll actually carve out a little area for like a skull nose type of deal, and also carve the teeth here. Now, once this step is all complete, I'll be going in with more monster mud, um, and covering all the foam. But right here, I'm taking just a little bit of my foam clay and I'm working it over the teeth and the eyes, places that I I think need a little more detail. Uh, and typically with this foam clay, it does tend to expand as it dries and swells a little bit. Now, for most of your sculpts, that's going to be more of an issue because you're going to lose detail. But for these here, because the texture underneath was so, uh, bumpy and I wanted it to be smoother, it actually worked out 'cause it swells and it smooths itself out. At the end, you'll see in a second here. But once this foam is all dry, I'll probably let this sit for another 24 hours. Then I go back with my monster mud and cut little strips and basically doing like a papier-mâché type of deal here. I'm just coating over all that exposed foam. I don't want the foam texture being shown. I want it to all be rigid so it'll last out in the weather. And just a little tip when you're working with monster mud, too, if you know about the sizes you're going to be working with, you want to make sure you pre-cut all your material before you get started because once you jump into it, it's a mess. It's everywhere. It's going to stay in your clothes. And if you're trying to cut strips of material as you need, as you go, it's going to be a real big pain. So, just kind of lay all your stuff out in the beginning before you do it. Also, too, at the end of this, I do go in with a brush and paint over the exposed foam clay because I want everything coated and weather resistant as possible. [Music]
Okay, everyone. Now that our guys are all dried up and ready to go, we're going to go ahead and start with painting. So, I'm going to give these dudes a a base coat of orange, um, just to get everything even. And then I'm going to go back in to do the traditional candy corn colors, the white on top and the yellow on the bottom. And then we'll do some shading at the end. So, uh, if you guys are interested in how I use my airbrush and how I set up my paints, you can definitely watch my, uh, airbrush tutorial that's been out for a couple weeks now. So, definitely go check that out. It's a super cool video. But let's get to the painting.
Okay, so for the paint job itself, I'm using exterior latex paint to give my base coat for the characters. I like to start with the latex paint because I have my spray gun connected to my compressor, so it gets me a really quick and even coat to begin with. And then I'll go back in with my airbrush and do the detail paint. So, I'm starting here with just a white color now because I'm using my airbrush and it's thinned out paint, it's going to take maybe three or four coats to get a solid white over this orange, uh, to cover it completely. Um, but it's a really great way to paint. Like, if you guys have been used to painting by hand, an airbrush, when you get into the airbrush, it really is a game changer. So, I definitely recommend it. And you can watch my airbrush video as well where I discuss how to get started for beginners. Um, so definitely go check that out if you haven't already.
But here I'm just doing the eyes and the teeth just to get some color down. And then I'm going in with that traditional yellow at the base, uh, to really start to bring these candy corns to life. And then once this yellowing is done, I'll go back in with like a burgundy color and start to push in some of the darks and the details around the eyes and the nose and the mouth. Uh, so you can start to see when I do these projects for Halloween, especially things that are going to be sitting under low light, I really try to focus on high contrast, so you can see everything really pops out. Uh, and then I'll go back in with a little bit of green for the iris of the eyes and a little bit of highlighting at the end just to bring everything together.
Now, one thing I want to note as well is you're going to need to spray a clear coat over these just to protect that paint and it'll help with the longevity of the piece. But these guys are pretty much done. So, I hope you enjoyed today's video. If you did, let me know down in the comment section below. Until next time, happy haunting. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]
Thank you guys so much for sticking with me to the end of our video today, and I hope you guys enjoyed our candy corn monster mud creations. Now, it was a little bit, I, when I started this project, but they turned out so cool. I don't know what I was worried about. So, I hope you guys give this one a go at home. As always, if there's a character or creature you like to see me recreate in the future, or maybe you saw me use a technique that you'd like me to elaborate on, please write me down in the comments section below and be like, "Hey Gio, can you go ahead and, uh, describe this in a little more detail?" And I'd be like, "All right." But until next time, keep building things, stay creative, and don't forget to go out. I'm Gio from Carvalo Creations, and I'll see you next time. [Music] Oh man, my my little homies, my little homies. You're a little on the the the ugly side. It's okay. Goodbye.