Halloween craft time with Kirk

I survived another Halloween. 

I wanted to show you how my Halloween project turned out for Halloween 2013!  

Previously in my blogs titled "I Love Halloween part 1, 2, and 3" I had constructed an old western toe-pincher coffin. I then acquired a heavy skeleton meant to teach an anatomy class about the human skeletal structure and planned to decorate it to look like a rotting corpse and live forever in my toe-pincher coffin. Here’s how it was completed.

First the eyes

I gorilla glued some real glass eyes into the ocular cavities of the skull. 

Then the face

After that I melted hot wax and molded it around the face to give it more of a fleshy texture.

Now color

Then I spray painted it all with a tan color with green undertones.

Final facial details

I tried to open the jaw to show the mouth open but I broke the springs holding it in place so I had to wire the jaw shut and settled for a closed mouth expression.

I blackened the teeth with acrylic paint

Mounting the corpse

close up: moss and cobwebs

Finally I bolted an “L” bracket at the head of the coffin, and wired the skull to it. That way I can either lay the coffin down, or stand it up and the body won’t slide around and fall out.

I stapled moss and cobwebs around the interior to add to the aged looking effect.

Now that's curb appeal

Final project on display

I got very few trick-or-treaters this year to admire my handy work. Hopefully that changes in the future. 

Any advice on where I can store this heavy Halloween decoration until next year? Please leave your comments below!

Inspiring T-shirts #2

In tribute to another family reunion, I dictated my idea to my wife who helped stenciled out this beauty of a t-shirt. We picked the bright colors to help encourage positive feelings in all who see it. This shirt was such a big hit that I had many other family members who wanted one of their own. Maybe I’ll patent this design. What do you think?

Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!

We decided to have a gingerbread man contest last winter, and I think mine won. Here’s the recipe:

1.      Buy one precooked gingerbread man from the seasonal aisle at the your local Walmart.

2.      Buy pre-made icing of all various colors of the rainbow from your local Walmart.

3.      Decorate your gingerbread man with as many colors as you can fit on the cookie.

4.      Smash a doughnut with icing and sprinkles upside down on his head, creating an instant sombrero.

This makes a great date night activity. Do you think desserts that are made from scratch are better than ones that are 3/4ths already completed (store bought) for you?

My Podcast "Nostalgic Radio"

My Podcast Cover

Nostalgic Radio

[We Put the Fun in Funeral]

While I was in college I took a class called "Authoring for Digital Devices." It was pretty much a class to teach us about podcasts and how to make them. I learned as long as you have recording equipment, you too can create podcasts that can be downloaded by the mainstream media.

Our instructor wanted us to not only create 6 episodes, thirty minutes long, he also wanted us to document everything onto a long drawn-out paper.

Here is the synopsis of what my podcast was all about:

The podcasts were made to educate the millennial generation in an entertaining way by introducing a different radio comedian each episode, like Jack Benny, Red Skelton, and more. Each episode included a brief introduction and a life overview and then I would play a 30-45 minute sample of the artist's show.The podcasts hopefully persuaded an older crowd to get interested and more involved in podcasting through this familiar atmosphere. The podcasts were strictly audio: no videos or visuals, with exception of the podcover.

 

Tagline- We Put the Fun in Funeral

Slogan- We’ll take you back in time to when radio dominated the mainstream media

This link will allow you to listen to my pilot episode. I know it may be too long for some of you with ADD, so if you just want to skip to 16:58 on the track you might find my commercial I had to make somewhat amusing.
https://www.box.com/s/2f4fhig0wm0gbmw6ta67

Did you like it? I may set up a link for the other five episodes or not depending on your feedback. I want your honest opinion.

I Love Halloween Part 3

This was the most expensive part of my budget this year for Halloween: finding a skeleton. After searching for skeletons at all the stores and online this was the most decent one I could find. I realized that I just needed to splurge a bit and get my own Budget Bucky Anatomical Skeleton (4th Quality) built for educational purposes. It's meant for anatomy classes but since it's 4th quality there are some flaws so he can't be used in school. They still charge a hefty price for a 4th quality skeleton.

 

 

 

After I purchased Bucky I was automatically signed up for a subscription to "The Anatomical Chart Company" magazine, just in case I wanted to buy charts and other plastic body parts.

My long term plan for Bucky is to decorate him to look like a rotting corpse in the coffin. Unfortunately, I am running out of time this year so Bucky may just be a simple skeleton resting on display for trick-or-treaters this year. I will continue to update you on this project. 

Do you also have big plans for projects but not enough time to complete them? 

I Love Halloween Part 2

After my coffin was constructed I had to paint it.

We had some leftover wood stain finish that was originally used for our garden box to help prevent termites and decay, so I used that to give it a more rustic look.

 

The odor turned out to be very strong and it still stinks up my basement

 

 

 

 

 

After I had finished staining the wood, I wanted to add rope handles to the coffin to give it more of a distressed look.

 

 

 

 

After my coffin was constructed, stained, and 'handled' there was only one thing left to do to complete this coffin.

 

 

 

I added lining to the inside of the box by stapling old cheap fabric I bought from Savers. This completes my coffin. Now the next question I have to work on is: What will go inside the coffin?

 

Originally I wanted to lie in it and jump out to scare trick-or-treaters. Unfortunately I am a little to big to fit in it. My wife fits perfectly inside of it but that just a coincidence and I digress.

 

My next option was to create my own rotting corpse to lie in it. Stay tuned for the next blog which will show you the step in completing my corpse. 



 

How are you going to celebrate Halloween this year?

I Love Halloween Part 1

I love Halloween! As a boy I would always save my lawn mowing money to buy Halloween decorations to spice up my home for the upcoming all Hallows Eve festivities.

My new hobby is to make my own Halloween decorations because, let’s face it, all retail stores and the seasonal Halloween stores are a money pit. This year I have decided to do a graveyard scene out in front of my condo with things I built from the local hardware store.

 

You can buy an animated corpse in a cheaply built coffin that, if you sneeze on it wrong you will tear it in half from a Halloween store, or you can build one yourself for half the price.

After studying other blogs and websites I decided to try to build my own wooden old west toe pincher style coffin with rope handles.

I bought 16 wooden pickets 6’ long and then I followed the following diagram kindly provided by scarefx.com.



I used this diagram generously provided by
http://www.scarefx.com

The following photos show me constructing the life-sized wooden coffin:



Screwing in the base boards

 



Adding the finishing touches in construction

 



Finished box ready to decorate

 Do you think Halloween decorations are too expensive too?
 

Kirk’s Family Feel-Good Merchandise

 

We all know about Covenant Communications Inc. which happens to be the primary provider and publisher for Deseret Book, and Seagull Book and Tapes merchandise. 
Every now and then I get a brilliant business idea that I want to pitch to them in hopes that they will mass produce it and put it on their shelves. I usually don’t reveal my brilliant ideas to the public until after I have created it but I want your feedback on it. Take a look at the diagrams below and please tell me what you think. I did this while I was in my daughter’s playroom.

You may or may not have seen these dopey pieces of wood that has inspiring faith building words stenciled on them. Words like Faith and Families are Forever... yeah, you know, kitchy feel-good stuff like that. Imagine this hanging up over your mantel. Your house is definitely the home of a celestial family now. I think I’m going to bypass Covenant Communications all together and sell these myself. Who wants one? 

More Tribute to Porter Rockwell

While I was attending Salt Lake Community College I had to take an introduction to drawing class as an elective. We had to pick a final project that would take us a few weeks to finish. Since I seem to like drawing pictures of ugly hairy men I chose to sketch a photograph of Porter Rockwell. I learned one of the big secrets to drawing hair is to never just do lines.

I got an A on this project and in the class. I am debating on whether or not to enter this into next year's Springville art show. What do you think? Is this showcase worthy? 

Seven Deadly Sins 7 of 7

Pride is considered the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and the source of the others. It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self.
I had two images come to mind while I was contemplating this design for Pride: one was gay pride, the other was sports. I was a little hesitant to try yo find images for gay pride so I stuck with plan B and of poking fun of the predominant football team here in the valley. This can be manipulated to fit what ever sports team you would want to tease. I really do love my friends that love BYU and hope that they can take a joke.

So after reviewing my final project for Photoshop what do you think of my ability? Beginner? Intermediate? or Expert?

Seven Deadly Sins 6 of 7

Envy is characterized by an insatiable desire. Envy is similar to jealousy in that they both feel discontent towards someones traits, status, abilities, or rewards. The difference is the envious also desire that entity and covet it.
I wanted a picture of an ordinary man looking enviously up at Donald Trump. Do you think the green tones of this collage are too cliche?

Seven Deadly Sins 5 of 7

Wrath also known as rage, may be described as inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger. Wrath may persist long after the person who did another a grievous wrong is dead. Feelings of anger can manifest in different ways, including impatience, and revenge.
For this collage I was trying to find a series of explosions but this was the best I could do. If you were doing this project what images would you use to depict wrath?

Seven Deadly Sins 4 of 7

Sloth is sometimes defined as physical laziness, spiritual laziness is emphasized. Sloth has also been defined as a failure to do things that one should do. By this definition, evil exists when good men fail to act.
I was trying to stick with cold tones, but now when I look back on it I am wondering if is too clieche. What images come to your mind when you think of sloth?

Seven Deadly Sins 3 of 7

Greed, is applied to a very excessive desire and pursuit of material possessions. As defined outside of Christian writings, greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs, especially with respect to material wealth.
For this collage, I was trying to collect images of a lot of very rare dollar bills. I myself have never physically seen or touched any dollar bill worth more then 100 bucks. How about you?

Seven Deadly Sins 2 of 7

The next collage is on gluttony derived from the Latin gluttire, meaning to gulp down or swallow, gluttony is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste.

I wanted a candy land background with as many fast food symbols I could cram in here, and still make it aesthetically pleasing. Does this make you want to hurl or by ice cream?

Seven Deadly Sins 1 of 7

In college I had to take an Adobe Photoshop class to learn more about design. For my final I had to do a project that would take at least ten hours to accomplish so I decided to do seven different collages interpreting the seven deadly sins

My first one was trying to find images that had to do with the sin lust.

Lust or lechery is an intense desire. It is usually thought of as excessive sexual wants, however the word was originally a general term for desire. Therefore lust could involve the intense desire of money, fame, or power as well.

I did my best to show what the sin lust looks like. I did my best to not make it pornographic. I figured the dilated eyes would help with the tone of the collage.

What do you think is it too sexy?

In the name of Art (part 6 of 6)

Our final was supposed to be an illustration of a costumed figure in a similar setting to the character prior to the 1900’s. I decided on three different choices: Rasputin, Stonewall Jackson, or Porter Rockwell. What can I say...I love drawing pictures of hairy men. 

My indecisiveness was wasting time so I defaulted to Porter Rockwell. Porter has been in most of my artwork for other art and drawing classes I took before this one.

The background is actually traced from a photograph Laura took in Copperton, Utah. I used tones of blue in every color on this picture to help add to the midnight feel of it. My teacher loved the uniqueness of my project. She said “Everyone else picked beautiful people in elegant settings and you picked a butt ugly guy in a graveyard. There is definitely a story here, what is it?” I was short for words because there was no story. I just randomly put images and colors together.

The funny joke to this painting is this headstone was actually traced from Porter’s headstone in the Salt Lake cemetery.

I am debating on whether or not to enter one or more of these into the next Springville art show. What do you think?  Are these showroom worthy?

In the name of Art (part 5 of 6)

In any art class you take in college they sooner or later make you do a self-portrait. We were required to film ourselves with light hitting our face in an obscure way and to only draw the negative space to it. Instead of getting a current photo of myself I got an old sketch a friend drew of me back in high school. My teacher made me alter it because she said “it doesn’t look like you.” My hair was significantly longer from when I was in high school so I put longer hair on the sketch. This was all done on Adobe Illustrator.

In the name of Art (part 4 of 6)

We had to do an animal for our next project. Picasso did a bull once so I decided to do my own spin off on a cubist bull. We were supposed to get the entire animal in the picture (no cropping) so I broke his horn and gave him big testicles. I hated how the color turned out for this one but my teacher loved it. Oh well, at least I got an A in the class. After this, a fellow classmate and I vowed to always hide male genitalia in every one of our pictures for the rest of the semester. See if you can spot them in future pictures.

In the name of Art (part 3 of 6)

The room painting was assigned next. This one was supposed to be all in cubism. We were supposed to pick a room in our house and paint it like Picasso. Picasso once said, "Good artists borrow, great artists steal." You may notice that the fireplace looks like it could’ve come out of a Tim Burton movie. I think Tim Burton is an artist as well and I might have gathered inspiration from him.