Werewolf Creature Suit - The Head

" Costumes are the first impression that you have of the character before they open their mouth, it really does establish who they are."
Colleen Atwood

Well said. For my werewolf creature I am using a foam skull replica that I got from Wild Gasmaks.

As you can see it is a decent casting that I feel will work well with my werewolf creature.

I first cut off the back of the lower jaw. These pieces were going to get in the way of what I have planned to make the mouth move.

Originally I was going to cut out the teeth and make new ones out of resin but I want my werewolf creature to be scarry looking so I decided to use what was there. Not being all pretty makes it look more menacing.

After I had cut the pieces off, the two halves of the skull fit nice. I added in my pieces to give it free movement and now the jaw does not lock and hit where it is attached.

You cannot see it but on the lower jaw I added a foam block. This block is under my chin so when I talk the jaw moves.

To keep the skull / head secure on my head I attached the skull to a workers hardhat.
Now that the basic under structure of this werewolf creature head is assembled and being happy with how it works I started to paint the teeth and mouth area. Using acrylic paint mixed with latex the paint will bond to the foam skull.

Here is the mouth and teeth all painted up.
For the shine on the teeth I covered each tooth with clear finger nail polish.

I made a tongue out of some scrap plastic while I was waiting for the painted mouth to dry. I painted it then attached it into the mouth when ready.

Ok the mouth is looking good. I painted up the plastic tongue and glued it into the mouth.

I went ahead and glued in some plastic screen mesh into the eye sockets of the skull.

When the fur is added and then the eyes you will not see the screen so my eyes will be hidden well. I hope when finished this werewolf will have some life to it and my vision will still be decent.

This is what the skull looks like on my head. As you can see as I open and close my mouth the skull's mouth opens and closes as well. I just hope that after I get the fur onto the skull the opening mouth effect works as well as I hope.

I made a rough template and cut out some furry fabric. I am using black synthetic fur fabric and not real fur.

Once I had an idea I cut out my fabric and started to glue it onto the lower jaw of my werewolf creature.

As I glued the fur on I used stragiht pins to help hold the fur in place.

I let the glue dry overnight and trimmed up the fur so it will be where it needs to be. I then glue the edges down.

So the lower jaw of the werewolf creature head is furred up.

At this point I let the glue dry and I then added some short black felt type material into the eye sockets.
I again made a rough template and cut out a rough shape of the fur fabric I needed for the top / front of the head. I started at the snount / nose of the skull and glued up. Once dry I glue a bit more around the eye sockets, ect. I went slowly so I could stretch the fabric tight where I needed it. Slow and steady.
Once I got to the top of the faom skull area I stopped with the gluing of this piece of fabric. I then cut out a rough piece of the fur fabric and started the backside of the head. When glued into place I can join the two sections of fur fabric at the top of the skull and blend it it nicely when ready.
Ears! Between steps I made my ears. It was easier than I thought.

After I had my ears made I attached them to the top of the skull. Once dry I went ahead and joined the fur fabric from the front and backsides.

Now I need to finish furring the rest of the head.

This was the hard part. After I had all the fur fabric glued to the head I had to do some trimming of the fur to make it look a little more realistic. I trimmed up around the muzzle / snout / nose section of the werewolf creature and a little bit around the eyes.

Once all trimmed I went around all the edges and made sure they were glued down. The werewolf creature is starting to take on a life of its own.

I took a pair of hair clippers and trimmed the snout area and parts of the head to give it more shape.
I want my werewolf to look menacing so I did not make it all nice and trimmed like a dog.
Time for some detail work. I used some black rubberized weather adhesive and worked it around the edge of the jaw line. This gives it that lip trim as seen on dogs and other K9's.

I then glued in the plastic nose I got from White Wolf Creations.

I am going to go over the head some more with the clippers to see if I can blend some of the lines a little bit better now that the head is mostly complete.

I do not want him to be to clean for I want my werewolf to be mean and gritty, you know not nice he is a beast after-all.

Then the final detail piece to bring this thing to life. I put in the taxidery wolf eyes that I bought from Tohickon into place.

When looking at the head close up the eyes look like they are floating. Since you see through the eye-sockets of the werewolf head I had to make a piece to attach the eyes onto. It may not be 100% accurate but for my purpose I do believe my werewolf creature head is now complete and will work for what I need it for.


Pictures are shown without face cover.