Sunday, November 24, 2013

Wobble Head Hannah Hart (2013)

One of the things I wanted to try once in my life to make is a Wobble head, or head knocker or head wobbler.

Final product on my crowded shelf.
I didn't really know of what or who to make one off. But I follow some people on Youtube and decided to make one in honor of Hannah Hart.
Hannah Hart is a Youtube celebrity famous for her comedy sketch "My Drunk Kitchen", which is basically her, drinking and trying to cook.
But that's not all she is. She's also a great comedian, motivational speaker and a supporter of food banks across the country (America).

I started by getting a picture to work with:
Hannah Hart with tin foil hat in My Drunk Chicken.

This one was taken from her My Drunk Chicken episode which is one of my favorites.
From this I made a sketch.
A Sketch drawn with pencil.
Wobble heads are never 100% accurate, they're meant to be more of a caricature of someone. Also I didn't want to get messed up with too many hair, therefor I drawn her with a beanie; a much worn item in her older videos.

To create a 3D version of the drawing I made a simple frame.
Ping Pong ball head with a cardboard/ iron wire frame.

It's bent Iron wire glued to a cardboard figurine.
The head is made from a ping pong ball where a piece of PVC is glued inside. This makes the head lighter once you shape it with clay.

I then used some painting tape to shape the basics of the face.

Packed head with painting tape.

As clay I wanted to try paper clay. This type of clay is lighter than normal clay. But you need to make it yourself. I used a recipe of wood dust mixed with wood clay and wallpaper paste. This isn't the ideal mixture, for me it's still in an experimental fase.
None the less I managed to shape the face:

1st try at her face.

I added the beanie and hair:

Side of her face where her bang comes from underneath her beanie.

Then it was time to get it painted. I gave it a white primer and used acrylics to paint the rest.

Not the best face even made.
As you might see the face is far from perfect. I never made that much faces in my life, so you can imagine the difficulty making it accurate.
At that time I didn't know what to do with it, so it got on the pile of unfinished projects.

With FruitCorso I learned a bit more about the shapes of a face. I noticed one of the mistakes of the facial structure were the eye sockets. They need to be deeper.
When I had some spare time I picked up the project and tried to reshape the face.

A very awry and eerie picture; Sorry Hannah!


Fixed face.

When I finally was happy with the way it looked now, I gave it a new layer of primer.

The face with a white base.
I also started to work at the body.

Rough paper clay attempt.
With pencil I tried to fill in some detail of her face.

Because the paper clay wasn't ideal to work with I used normal air dried clay to do details on the body like the chicken, hand and feet. The body didn't have to be really light, so it wasn't a problem to do this.

There was still a problem with the face, I redid some details one more time and gave it a final paint job.
Then it was time to connect the head. I used thin iron wire which I spun around a tooth pick. The spring is glued into the PVC and in a hole in the neck and measures about 1,5 cm.

Finished Front side
Finished back side

Finished 3/4 view.
 I mounted the wobble head onto an empty candy container which I painted black. I also added Hannah's name and a famous quote of her "No one is wired wrong, because there is no wrong or right in the way we are."

Some references:
The Chicken is from the episode, but unlike the video I placed it on her hand instead of on her beer.
The beer is in her other hand.
The Tin foil cap is also from that same episode.
The glasses are a slight reference to friends. But Hannah does own a pair of pink glasses.
The shirt contains the logo of her show.
On the back is the logo of herself.
Her pants are taken from the "Oh, Internet" video
And the towel in her back pocket is taken from "My Hangover Kitchen: Breakfast Burrito"

I made an animated gif of the video I made to show it wobbles just fine.
Wobble, wobble, wobble.

Is I one day make another wobble head I shall cast it in resin, this way it's less fragile and easier to make hollow/ lighter.

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