Adwaith are a Welsh language Indie Rock group from Camarthen, signed to Libertino Records. They commissioned me and two other Welsh Artists Corey Bowen Davies and Gwenba to collaborate to create me for an experimental video to one of their tracks from their upcoming second album.
They approached me asking if id like to collaborate with them and fellow welsh artists to create an experimental music video for one of their upcoming tracks from their second album, based on these monster characters. The album was loosely inspired on the Mabinogion and welsh folk stories. They were keen to put a modern twist on the visual side of the album to represent their style and the modern welsh music scene in comparison to the more traditional themes in the lyrics. They settled on this modern kitsch and campy interpretation. They set me the task of designing a puppet.
Here are some behind the scenes shots from the video shoot using a green screen
“Araf Deg” in Welsh means “slowly” or “slow down” so we thought a monster going on a drive would be a great narrative for the video.
Corey Bowen-davies has worked with Adwaith many times designing album cover illustrations cover art. This time he did a monster and Cover art illustration for each EP and the Album. The band Decided Araf Deg was their favourite character so I started bringing her to life.
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Monster puppet in the making
Design
Here I redrew the monster in a more realistic fashion to get an understanding of the character, as well as a detailed design of the hand.
Fabrication
Here is a base of the paper sculpt before I started to paper mache.
I used a mixture of applique and paint to create the scales and textures on her skin.
I used a vacume former to make teeth and eyes for her.
For the body of the puppet I used a latex scrim technique to cast a shape and then carved foam for the arms. I used a simple leather joint at the shoulder.
