Trigger happy creative company approached me looking to commission a mascot head for the upcoming advert for the Urdd Eisteddfod’s Triban festival, these would then become the faces of the festival and be used for promotional purposes for future years. The festival wanted a bright and kitschy design to target their audiences of all ages but leaning towards the younger generation.
Advert filmed and edited by Trigger Happy Creative Company and the music featured on the advert is Fuzzy by Bandicoot
It was a quick turn around for the project so they asked 3 different artists to design and make each mascot head, in just one week. I was delighted to collaborate with more South Wales based artists, and was assigned the squirrel to make.
Photography by Siân Adler – https://www.triggerhappycreative.com/
Squirrel mask in the making
Designs
With such a short time frame for the project I started by sending some really basic sketches to the client to choose the style they liked. Once they they chose their favourite (design pictured on the left) I did more in depth designs to give them an idea of texture and colourings they might prefer (design pictured right)
Fabrication
Below is a before and after rendering image compare,
↓Drag arrows left and right to compare before and after shots ↓
The only specifications I was given for the make was, it needed to be comfortable to wear, weatherproof and extremely durable as they wanted them to be worn outdoors and be kept to become the official mascots of the festival and used each year.
Heres a look through at the build process for the squirrel mask:
Taking into consideration I only had 7 days to complete the mask before the shoot I chose to use card as the strong base structure, and paper mache to sculpt the shape, as I knew I could achieve this quickly and acquire materials instantly so not to delay the making process. Before the final paper mache sculpt I used a layer of duct tape all over the form to act as a water barrier for the internal structure, this also had an added benefit of strengthening the form as well.
Finally I used layers of felt to build up his fur texture
