Cretaceous Park – Grande Prairie 66 million years B.C.

September 28, 2014 by Shannon Fennell 1 Comment

Yesterday was the annual Wearable Art Show which is held as part of the Alberta Culture Days activities here in Grande Prairie.  I’ve entered it before in 2011 and 2013 (click on the year if you want to see what I did then!)

This year I decided to go with a dinosaur theme.  I already had built the Pachyrhinosaurus head for the Amber Ball back in August so decided to build a Tyrannosaurus Rex to go with it and build a routine for them to do at the show.

I always like to take on the big projects.  For about the first time ever I didn’t do sketches for this creation before starting – I printed a couple of photos for reference which I kept on the table while working.

I started by making the teeth – they needed to dry out before attaching.  I used Crayola Model Magic and shaped it around golf tees for reinforcement (didn’t actually stop the teeth from breaking but that’s a different story!)

The eyes were made from Model Magic as well – used the Toffifee tray to press it into to get the shape, then painted with acrylic and used Model Magic clear glaze on top.

I sized a baseball cap for Stewart’s head (he has done all my Wearable Art Show entries!) in order to build the head to fit.  Then I cut fun foam to extend the bill of the cap out, built it up with large sponges, cut panels of fun foam to shape the back of the head and then covered it all with Elmer’s Glue-All and torn up bed sheets.  Same as I did for the Pachy.

I made the top of the head first then had Stewart come over to check it, then measured how big I had to make the lower jaw and made a template from paper and checked it around his neck to make sure it aligned with the top jaw.

Here is top of the head right way up.  I used small styrofoam balls for the eye ridges.

I also made bums for both of the dinos – the T-Rex was made out of a sponge cut to shape, mounted on a piece of fun foam and covered with glue and fabric – I laced elastic through the foam before mounting the bums.  The Pachy bum was made from a sacrificed Triceratops… may he rest in peace.

I bought a pair of mechanic’s gloves at the dollar store with green rubber palms and taped on fun foam “talons” which were then wrapped with fabric and glue.  I only wrapped down to the first knuckle as Stewart was going to need to use his hands.

Once I had the head, jaw, gloves and bums made I started to primer paint – the T-Rex was hunter green base and the Pachy was bright orange.

The feet were made out of batting cut to shape then completely covered in duct tape, then mounted on crocs, and wrapped in fabric and glue.  I then attached claws on the T-Rex’s.  In the next photo you can also see the bottom jaw – made to slip over the head.  On the T-Rex I stippled two other shades of green over the hunter green base on all the part were painted.

 

On Saturday morning everyone came to my place to get started.  Kim, who was the Pachy was wearing tights and a tank top that was painted the night before, and then finished on Saturday once she put them on.  Stewart got his base coat of body paint on and a final fitting of the head to get the strap placements right to support it.

Then we headed over to the Centre for Creative Arts to finish the body painting on both models and get ready for rehearsal at 3 p.m.

Getting Stewart strapped in so that it all worked and moved the way he wanted took a lot of effort and time – Kim was essential in making that happen!  Thank you so much!

Waiting… Love this shot.  Looks like he’s in a doctor’s waiting room…

These are shots I took of some practice runs through we did while waiting for the dress rehearsal to start.  No formal shots yet – I’ll share when I get them.

The routine was great – and funny!  I had an epiphany at the required rehearsal on September 14th – the joke of the routine was dinosaurs not being to adapt to changing ways of earning their livings… while we were doing a bad run through it occurred to me that the music required narration so people would understand what was happening.  A theatre friend volunteered to do a “David Attenborough” type voice over so I did up a script and sent him my music choices with timing and he made this AMAZING three-minute documentary sound track for me!  Thank you Scott!  I would upload it, but it is an MP3 file and it won’t allow me to.

And a final shot of the T-rex – I left both costumes at the Centre as they will be putting them on display.