Arty Afternoon & BrookeLynne

For Christmas this year a dear friend of mine gave me the gift of a puppet sculpting workshop in Brooklyn with Lone Wolf Tribe in Brooklyn - it was awesome. Any artist would find this session fascinating, especially those who enjoy the Muppets as much as I do. 

The workshop started at 2pm on a Saturday in Fort Green Brooklyn. The studio is in the basement of this really cool arts co-op building. There are acting classes and photography workshops that all seem to be going on simultaneously - it's also just a stones throw from theLayfayette stop on the C line. 

I buzzed in and was kindly greeted by Kevin Augustine, and Lone Wolf Tribe Artistic Director, and his assistant - whose name I can't remember - dang! Unfortunately, I'd missed the pre-workshop instruction of coming prepared with a sketch and/or photo of my puppet design. I ended up drafting right then and there and was a bit disappointed with my overall idea. The moral of the story is - plan early and be creative! I ended up making the face of a woman, who was she? Well, she ended up evolving into BrookeLynne the Jersey Girl - after her birth place and in honor of where I live now.

Kevin expertly guided our group of 9 through the complicated process of sculpting our own puppets, which is a lot more difficult than one might think. It involves knives of all sizes, permanent markers, scissors, pastels, and some creativity. Together, we went step by step with demos from Kevin and help along the way. He was very helpful and patient with our group of beginners - though some in our group were clearly VERY artistic. We even had a few younger participants, the youngest of which had his mom there to help him. See my photos below and get an idea for the process!

First, we started with a sturdy block of foam - most of which included 2-3 pieces glued together. We drew the silhouette on one side of the foam and cut our way around the outside edge - making sure to have the mouth of our puppets open.

Next, the silhouetted puppet was laid on it's side and we sketched the front of our puppet's face onto the contoured foam.

 After sketching the face we cut along the outside edge of our puppet faces.

 Next, after much shaving down with knives, we had a few lumpy heads.

Finally, we used sandpaper to try and smooth out some of the bumps and wrinkles, then we added color with pastels. My puppet, BrookeLynne, doesn't have hair or accessories in this photo... 

But in this photo I added an old Snookie Halloween wig. Ta-Da!!

I was definitely not the only person in class and I was on the "not so skilled" end of the spectrum. Check out the other creations made by the class!

And - for something REALLY cool - check out the Artistic Director's current project. All colored using permanent markers and pastels. Too cool!

 Quite an adventure and only an hour from Hoboken using public transportation. If you like creating art and would like to try a new outlet - check out a workshop! Totally worth the $60 price tag!