As I had a sudden burst of inspiration to make a cosplay of San from Mononoke Hime I decided that this years Easter eggs should be inspired by some of my favorite Studio Ghibli movies.
And I ended up with these three:
- Princess Mononoke,
- My Neighbor Totoro
- Spirited away
The Eggs
As always start with a plain egg (or three)
Princess Mononoke
I wanted to make the iconic mask San wears and started by gluing on foam using only a glued gun
After priming with wood glue I base coated it with gesso. This gives me a uniform surface to paint on to my colors will pop.
I use mostly acrylic paint for the eggs, and some colors like the red needs several layers to cover completely.
All the base colors are in place. To get more dimension of the fur I mixed white paint and wood glue. This turned into a little thicker paste that I added in to get more texture.
Detailing included weathering of all edges and gold highlights on the yellow parts and ears.
And some photos of this egg ;)
My Neighbor Totoro
I wanted to make Totoro himself and again used foam and hot glue.
The arms and feet are made with paper clay.
And I added claws to his hands with a glue gun.
Please ignore the eyes atm, they will be repainted ;) But the leaf is made from foam.
After priming with wood glue I base coated it with Gesso. This gives me a uniform surface to paint on to my colors will pop.
And with the base color it looks scary!
Uuuuh.....
Detailing include adding all the black lines, adding darker shadows to raised areas like the ^ on the stomach. And adding lines for the fur effect ;)
Pose for me Totoro :D
Über adorable angle ^_^
Spirited away
The mask of No Face was perhaps the easiest to create as it is pretty plain. Foam for the face with slits for eyes and mouth, and more foam for details on top. In this photo I have also added the wood glue and Gesso to get a smoother surface.
Painting is started, and during this stage it looks horrible, with white splotches all over the place.
All the base colors are in place, kinda of easy with this one.
Details mostly include weathering around raised areas.
Turn around mr. No Face.