Down & Dirty Dog Puppet

I took Matt Ficner's puppet building workshop in Spring of 2009. It's been well over a year since I began building my own puppet using what I learned in Matt's workshop and I have FINALLY finished it. The foam head base was built last year after I knew my 9-5 job was going to be outsourced. The puppet was one of those projects I kept putting off until the job ended. It finally came to pass this October and, slowly, the puppet muse crept back in and before you know it, fur was flying and I was slinging the hot-glue gun once more. As a graphic designer, there's nothing I like more than what we call "down and dirty tricks" - simple tricks to get a job done. Matt's method to puppet making was a great crash-course in "down and dirty" puppet making. I had a lot of fun watching this guy take shape and finally come to life. The ears are pose-able with a built-in wire armature. The nose was sculpted from light-weight sculpey clay and its wet-like sheen was created with stain glass paint. Following are a full body view, head close-up and ear span images.